The1904 Summer Olympics (officially theGames of the III Olympiad and also known asSt. Louis 1904) were an internationalmulti-sport event held inSt. Louis,Missouri, United States, from 1 July to 23 November 1904. Many events were conducted at what is now known asFrancis Field on the campus ofWashington University in St. Louis. This was the first time that theOlympic Games were held outside Europe.
Tensions caused by theRusso–Japanese War and difficulties in traveling to St. Louis resulted in very few top-class athletes from outside the United States and Canada taking part in the 1904 Games. Only 69–74 of the 651 athletes who competed came from outside North America, and only between 12 and 15 nations were represented in all. Some events subsequently combined the U.S. national championship with the Olympic championship.[2] The current three-medal format of gold, silver and bronze for first, second and third place was introduced at the 1904 Olympics.
After the first two editions of the Olympic Games were awarded to Athens and Paris, the IOC's first open bidding process was held for the 1904 Olympics at the4th IOC Session in Paris in May 1901.Chicago civic leaders, includingUniversity of Chicago presidentWilliam Rainey Harper, formed the International Olympian Games Association in February 1901 to plan for hosting the Olympics. Shortly before the session began, another American bid was submitted fromSt. Louis, which was then preparing to host theLouisiana Purchase Exposition, aWorld's Fair in 1903.[3] At the session, representatives of Chicago offered to put $100,000 (equivalent to $3,780,000 in 2024) toward the games. Unable to compete with this, all other countries withdrew their bids before the IOC voted; cities which had previously expressed interest in the 1904 games includedBerlin,Copenhagen, andStockholm. The IOC delegates then voted between the choices of Chicago and St. Louis, with Chicago winning unanimously on May 21.[3][4][5]
However, after St. Louis was forced to postpone its World's Fair from 1903 to 1904, it began planning athletic events that would compete directly with the Olympics in Chicago. TheAmateur Athletic Union favored St. Louis and planned to hold its national championships at the World's Fair. In the meantime, Chicago's plans for a new stadium on the shore ofLake Michigan seating 75,000 met considerable opposition from local leaders, includingAaron Montgomery Ward, putting the centerpiece of Chicago's Olympic bid into question. On December 23, 1902, fearing that the dispute would permanently damage the Olympic movement, the IOC asked its members to approve, by a postal vote, the transfer of the Olympic Games to St. Louis. When the votes were tallied, IOC founderPierre de Coubertin telegraphed the Chicago committee on February 10, 1903, to inform them that the Games had been moved.[3]
Boxing,dumbbells,catch wrestling (which later becamefreestyle wrestling), and thedecathlon made their debuts. The swimming events were held in a temporary pond near Skinker and Wydown Boulevards, where "lifesaving demonstrations" of unsinkable lifeboats for ocean liners took place.
One of the most remarkable athletes was the American gymnastGeorge Eyser, who won six medals even though his left leg was made of wood, andFrank Kugler won four medals in freestyle wrestling, weightlifting and tug of war, making him the only competitor to win a medal in three different sports at the same Olympic Games.
Atug of war competition at the 1904 Summer Olympics
Chicago runnerJames Lightbody won thesteeplechase and the 800 m and then set a natural world record in the 1500 m.Harry Hillman won both the 200 m and 400 m hurdles and also the flat 400 m.SprinterArchie Hahn was champion in the 60 m, 100 m and 200 m. In this last race, he set an Olympic record in 21.6, a natural record that stood for 28 years. In thediscus, after AmericanMartin 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.[6][7]
The organizers of the World's Fair held "Anthropology Days" on August 12 and 13. Since the1889 Paris Exposition,human zoos, as a key feature of world's fairs, functioned as demonstrations of anthropological notions of race, progress, and civilization. These goals were followed also at the 1904 World's Fair. Fourteen hundred indigenous people from Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, East Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America and North America were displayed in anthropological exhibits that showed them in their natural habitats. Another 1600 indigenous people displayed their culture in other areas of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (LPE), including on the fairgrounds and at the Model School, whereAmerican Indian boarding schools students demonstrated their successfulassimilation.[8]
The sporting event itself took place with the participation of about 100 paid indigenous men. Contests included "baseball throwing, shot put, running, broad jumping, weight lifting, pole climbing, and tugs-of-war before a crowd of approximately ten thousand".[9] No women participated in Anthropology Days, though some, notably theFort Shaw Indian School girls basketball team, did compete in other athletic events at the LPE.
According to theoristSusan Brownell, world's fairs – with their inclusion of human zoos – and the Olympics were a logical fit at this time, as they "were both linked to an underlying cultural logic that gave them a natural affinity".[10] Also, one of the original intentions of Anthropology Days was to create publicity for the official Olympic events.[11][12]
The 1904 Summer Olympic program featured 16 sports encompassing 95 events in 18 disciplines. Swimming, diving and water polo are considered three disciplines of the same sport,aquatics. In July 2021 the IOC accepted the recommendation of Olympic historian Bill Mallon regarding which sports and events should be considered as Olympic.[13] The number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.
Boxing made its Olympic debut at the St. Louis Games. The sport has since featured at every Summer Olympics, except for the1912 Stockholm Games.
Whilewrestling made a return, it was exclusively the newly debutedcatch wrestling (which later becamefreestyle wrestling) as opposed toGreco-Roman style of the1896 Summer Olympics. Five nations were represented, with each of the 42 competitors having resided in the United States.[14][15] Later editions would have both styles of wrestling in their programs.
Map ofSt. Louis with Olympic venues marked. Creve Coeur Lake is located further west.
Five sports venues were used for the 1904 Summer Olympics. The venues included Glen Echo Country Club, the firstgolf course constructed west of theMississippi River, which had opened in 1901.[18] Three Olympic sports were hosted at Forest Park, the site of theLouisiana Purchase Exposition which was being held concurrently with the Olympics: the Life Saving Exhibition Lake at Forest Park was used for the diving, swimming, and water polo events.[19][20][21]
Creve Coeur Lake became the first park ofSt. Louis County in 1945.[22] The Lake has hosted rowing regattas since 1882 and still hosts them as of 2010.[23][24] Francis Olympic Field and Gymnasium are still in use on theWashington University in St. Louis campus as of 2021.[25][26] An ornamental gate commemorating the 1904 Games was constructed outside the stadium immediately after the Exposition.[25] A swimming pool was added to the gymnasium in 1985.[26] Forest Park, constructed in 1876, is still in use as of 2021 and attracts over 12 million visitors annually.[27] Glen Echo Country Club remains in use as a golf course today as of 2021.[18]
Participants. Blue = Participated for the first time Green = Previously participated Host city (St Louis) marked by yellow squareNumber of athletes from each country
Athletes from thirteen nations competed in St. Louis. Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of known competitors for each nation.[32] Due to the difficulty of getting to St. Louis in 1904, and European tensions caused by theRusso-Japanese War, only 69–74 athletes from outside North America participated in the Olympics.
The nationalities of some medalists were disputed, as many American athletes were recent immigrants to the United States who had not yet been grantedU.S. citizenship. In July 2021, the IOC accepted the recommendations of Olympic historianBill Mallon, and adjusted their database with regard to the following cases:
Two Norwegian-American wrestlers,Charles Ericksen andBernhoff Hansen won gold medals. In 2012, Norwegian historians found documentation showing that Ericksen did not receive American citizenship until March 22, 1905, while Hansen probably never received American citizenship. The historians therefore petitioned the IOC to have the athletes registered as Norwegians.[36][37] In May 2013, it was reported that theNorwegian Olympic Committee had filed a formal application for changing the nationality of the wrestlers in the IOC's medal database,[38] which was done.
Swimmer and multi-medalistFrancis Gailey was an Australian who traveled to America in 1902 and competed in 1904 for the Olympic Club of San Francisco. He returned to America in 1906, sailing to San Francisco on theSS Sonoma, became a naturalized citizen, and worked as an insurance clerk in California.[39] He lived for a time in Ontario, Canada, where he married Mary Adams in 1914 or 1915,[40] finally settling in southern California in 1918 and working as a foreman in the oil industry[41][40] and managing orange-grove plantations.[42]
Multi-medalistFrank Kugler of Germany, a member of the St. Louis Southwest Turnverein team, was granted U.S. citizenship in 1913.[43]
Gustav Tiefenthaler was born in Switzerland, but the family moved to the United States when he was a child. He represented the South Broadway AC in St. Louis. At the Olympics, Tiefenthaler wrestled one bout and lost, but earned a bronze medal.[44]
French-AmericanAlbert Corey won silver medals in themarathon, and in the team race as part of a mixed team (together with four undisputed Americans).[45]
Austrian-American gymnastJulius Lenhart won gold and silver medals in individual events and gold medal in team competition as a part of a mixed team.
In addition, the IOC had counted one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals won by the American fencerAlbertson Van Zo Post for Cuba instead of the United States. The IOC also had shownCharles Tatham as a Cuban medal-winner for individual fencing events (foil and épée) and American silver medalist in the team foil event, but he was an American.[46] All are now credited to the United States.
^"Parks in St. Louis County, Missouri"(PDF).co.st-louis.mo.us. St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation. 2002. p. 103. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 25 June 2006. Retrieved4 October 2010.
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