1904 Summer Olympics
From WikiRun
| 1904 Summer Olympics | |
| Olympiad | III |
|---|---|
| Host City | St. Louis, MO |
| # Nations | 13 |
| Events | 96 |
| Sports | 14 |
| Males | 681 |
| Females | 6 |
| Total Athletes | 687 |
| Stadium | Francis Field |
The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was 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.[1] The city of Chicago had won the original bid to host the 1904 Summer Olympics, but the organizers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis would not accept another international event in the same time frame.
The St. Louis Exposition began to plan for its own sports activities, informing the Chicago OCOG that its own international sports events intended to eclipse the Olympic Games unless they were moved to St. Louis. Pierre de Coubertin, then head of the IOC, gave in and awarded the games to St. Louis. As with Paris in 1900, competitions were reduced to a side-show of the World's Fair and were lost in the chaos of other, more popular cultural exhibits. David Francis, the President of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, declined to invite anybody else to open the Games and, on July 1 did so himself in a scaled-down short and humdrum "ceremony".
Officially, the games lasted for four and a half months; in fact, James E. Sullivan, Secretary of the AAU, tried to hold an event every day for the duration of the fair. The Olympic caliber events were again mixed with other sporting events, but where as Paris hardly ever mentioned them, Sullivan called all his sports events "Olympic." The IOC later declared that 94 of these events were Olympic. The participants totaled 651 athletes - 645 men and 6 women representing 12 countries. However, only 42 events (less than half) actually included athletes who were not from the United States. The actual athletics events that formed the bulk of the recognized Olympic sports were held from Monday, August 29 to Saturday, September 3rd.
Great Britain
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland did not send a team to the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.[1] Numerous events were contested, of which only some were later recognized by the IOC as official Olympic events. Within these, two athletes representing Ireland participated, winning one gold and one silver medal.[2][3] Because Ireland was then part of the United Kingdom, the IOC classifies these athletes as British.[4] Great Britain attempted to recruit the Irish athletes, but they insisted on competing for Ireland.
Medal summary
References
- ↑ Lucas, p.15: "England [sic] and France did not send a single competitor to America"
- ↑ Lucas, p.34: "John J. Daly, of Ireland, was the attraction"; p.40: "At the conclusion of the first day’s sport, a summing up of the points scored by the different countries competing showed that America led with a total of 80 points; Ireland was second with 4 points; Germany third with 3 points, and Hungary fourth with 2 points."
- ↑ Spalding, p.205: "T. F. Keily [sic], Ireland, 6036 points"
- ↑ IOC database: Great Britain medallists at 1904 Olympics
- ↑ Some sources show Coray as of French nationality, but the IOC medal database shows him as representing the United States.
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