Dimetrios Vikelas was born in Ermoupolis, Syros on February 1, 1835, the son of two important Greek families of the 19th century.

At the age of 17, Vikelas settled in London and worked in his uncles’ business. At the age of 41, he decided to leave the business and turn exclusively to letters and social action.

In 1877 he settled in Paris, where he developed a wide circle of acquaintances. In the summer of 1894, the International Sports Conference was held in the French capital and Dimitrios monitors his work as a representative of the Panhellenic Gymnastics Association. On June 23, the closing date of the Conference, it was decided to revive the Olympic Games. Baron de Coubertin’s original idea was the first Olympic Games to take place in Paris, but Vikelas’ inspirational speech turned the situation around:

“… In Athens, we certainly not be able to organize majestic celebrations, but our many shortcomings will be filled by the cordiality of our reception. We will not offer our guests entertainment worthy of the occasion, but we have to show the monuments and the ruins of antiquity and lead them to the places where the ancient Greeks performed their games…”

Vikelas’s bold initiative aroused enthousiasm of the public and the press in Greece and was the reason that contributed to the unexpected great success of the revival of the Olympic Games in Athens, but also the consolidation of the institution in the coming years. In 1894 he was elected the first president of the International Olympic Committee until 1896 when he was succeeded by Baron de Coubertin.

He died in Athens on July 20, 1908 suffering from cancer.

Dimetrios Vikelas is considered, together with Georgios Vizyinos, the introducer of the ethnographic narrative in Greece. “Loukis Laras” is his most famous work, and has a special place in the history of Greek literature.

Dimetrios Vikelas developed an important public benefit project. He Founded the “House of the Blind”, the “Sevastopoulio School” and in 1899, the “Association for the Distribution of Useful Bools” for the publication of books at a cheap price. After his death, he bequeathed his rich library in the Municipality of Herakleio, Crete, the well-known today “Vikelaia Municipal Library.