Alexandros, Count Merkati

Alexandros, Count Merkati was an important figure in the early history of the Olympic Games. He was a friend of Pierre de Coubertin and introduced de Coubertin to Crown Prince Konstantine, who provided Royal support for the 1896 Athina Olympics. Merkati himself served as Secretary-General of the 1896 Organizing Committee. He was a founding member and President of the Athina Tennis Club and was a member of the Compiègne Club near Paris. In 1900 an Olympic golf tournament was held at the Compiègne Club and Merkati competed, finishing 11th among 12 entrants.

Merkati was Court Chamberlain to several Kings of Greece, was Grand Marshall to the Royal Court of Greece, and was secretary to the Empress of Austria. When Sophokles Venizelos led the Greek socialist revolution, Merkati was at risk of persecution for his royal connections but escaped and lived in exile for 10 years on the isle of Zante, where he had been born. During his exile, the Greeks tried to appoint new IOC Members but de Coubertin fully supported Merkati and never allowed the new members. Merkati fully supported the 1906 Intercalated Olympics and informed the IOC that the Greeks had full intention of holding such Games every four years between scheduled Olympic Games, but the 1910 Intercalated Olympics, and subsequent ones, never occurred.

Merkati was prominent in IOC Sessions and at the 1921 Lausanne Session he proposed that host cities should place the names of the winners of all events on inscribed plaques at the main Olympic Stadia. It was expected that Stockholm (1912) and Antwerpen (1920) would also do this, but Stockholm did not add the winners’ names until 1966 and Antwerpen never inscribed the names at the Beerschot Stadium.

Merkati was definitely a Greek citizen in 1900 and always represented Hellas on the IOC from 1897-1925, but in 1900 he entered the Olympic golf competition out of the Compiègne Club in France.