The , officially known as the '''Games of the III Olympiad''', were held in
St. Louis, Missouri in the
United States from
July 1 ,
1904 to
November 23 ,
1904 , at what is now known as
Francis Field on the campus of
Washington University In St. Louis . The fellow American city of
Chicago had won the original bid to host the games, but the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition would not accept another international event in the same time frame. The organization began to plan for its own sports activities, informing the Chicago OCOG that the Exposition intended to eclipse the Olympic Games unless the games would be moved to St. Louis.
Pierre De Coubertin , the founder of the modern Olympic movement, gave in.
Considered the lesser of two evils by de Coubertin, St. Louis repeated the mistakes made at the
1900 Summer Olympics in
Paris . Competitions were reduced to a side-show of the World's Fair and were lost in the chaos of other, more popular cultural exhibits. The sheer bombastic arrogance of David Francis, the President of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, was engraved in history for all the world to see when he declined to invite anybody else to open the Games and, on 01 July 1904, did so himself in a scaled-down short and humdrum 'ceremony'.
Officially the games lasted for months; in fact,
James Edward Sullivan tried to hold an event every day for the duration of the fair. But the Olympic events were again mixed with other sporting events, but where Paris hardly ever mentioned the Olympics, Sullivan called all his sports events "Olympic". From all such events, the
IOC is taken to have declared 94 events Olympic. The participants totaled 651 athletes - 645 men and 6 women, representing 12 countries. However, only 42 events actually included athletes who were ''not'' from the United States. The actual athletics events that formed the bulk of the recognised Olympic sports were held from Monday, 29 August to Saturday, 03 September 1904.
- '''First games at which gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded for first, second and third place.
- European tension caused by the Russo-Japanese War and the difficulty of getting to St. Louis kept many of the world's top athletes away.
- In a number of sports, the U.S. national championship was combined with the Olympic championship, because there were no competitors from other nations.'''
- Boxing , Dumbbells , Freestyle Wrestling , and Decathlon made their debuts.
- One of the most remarkable athletes was the American gymnast George Eyser , who won six medals even though his left leg was made of wood.
- Chicago runner Jim Lightbody won the steeplechase and the 800 m and then set a world record in the 1500 m.
- Harry Hillman won both the 200 m and 400 m hurdles and also 400 m dash.
- Sprinter Archie Hahn was champion in the 60 m, 100 m and 200 m. In this last race, he set a new Olympic record in 21.6, a record broken finally 28 years later.
- In the Discus , after American Martin Sheridan had thrown exactly the same distance as his compatriot, Ralph Rose (39.28 m), the judges gave them both an extra throw to decide the winner. Sheridan won the decider and claimed the gold medal.
- Ray Ewry again won all three standing jumps.
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- The Marathon was the most bizarre event of the Games.
- --- It was run in brutally hot weather, over dusty roads, with horses and automobiles clearing the way and creating dust clouds.
- --- The first to arrive was Frederick Lorz , who actually was just trotting back to the finish line to retrieve his clothes, after dropping out after nine miles. When the officials thought he had won the race, Lorz played along until he was found out shortly after the medal ceremony. Banned for life by the AAU for this stunt, Lorz was reinstated a year later and won the 1905 Boston Marathon .
- --- The Briton Thomas Hicks , running for the United States, was the next to cross the finish-line, after having received several doses of strychnine sulfate, and of brandy, from his trainers. He was supported by his trainers when he crossed the finish, but is still considered the winner. Hicks had to be carried off the track, and possibly would have died in the stadium, had he not been treated by several doctors.
- --- The marathon included the first two black Africans to compete in the Olympics; two ). But they weren't there to compete in the Olympics, they were actually the sideshow. They had been brought over by the exposition as part of the Boer War exhibit (both were really students at Orange Free State in South Africa , but no one wanted to believe that these tribesmen could actually be educated, that would have ruined the whole image). Len Tau finished ninth and Yamasani came in twelfth. This was a disappointment, as many observers were sure Len Tau could have done better, if he had not been chased nearly a mile off course by a large, aggressive canine.
- --- Another entrant was a Cuba n Postman named Felix Carvajal . He raised the funds to get to St. Louis by running around the central square in Havana , appealing for funds between laps. But he lost his money on the way in a crap game in New Orleans . Lacking any proper equipment he ran the race in lightweight street shoes. A very amiable competitor, he often stopped to chat with members of the crowd. But during the race he felt peckish and stole some peaches from a race official. He then took a detour into an orchard to munch on some green apples. He developed stomach cramps and had to temporarily drop out of the marathon. Eventually, Felix got back in the race and managed to come in fourth place after many others that finished ahead of him had been excluded.
- ---Two of the patrolling officials driving in a brand-new automobile were forced to swerve to avoid hitting one of the runners. They ended up going down an embankment and were unfortunately severely injured.
- The top foreign athlete was Emil Rausch of Germany , who won three swimming events.
- Zoltan Halmay of Hungary and Charles Daniels of the United States each won two swimming gold medals.
- In one of the more embarrassing moments in Olympic history, the organizers of the games held "Anthropology Days" on August 12-13. Various indigenous men from around the world, who were at the World's Fair as part of the exhibits competed in various events more for anthropologists to see how they stacked up to the white man than for the sake of sport.
competition at the 1904 Summer Olympics.]]
18 disciplines, comprising 16 sports, were part of the Olympic program in 1904.
Basketball was also featured as a
Demonstration Sport .
Athletes from only 12 nations competed in St. Louis.
See Also: 1904 Summer Olympics medal count
