18 • July 26 - 28, 2020 NATIONAL ST. LOUIS (AP) — The first Summer Olympics held in the U.S. looked unlike anything that had happened previously in Europe. Or that would happen again anywhere else. The Games originally were awarded to Chicago for 1904, but organizers of the World’s Fair in St. Louis put up such a fuss about a second international event held simultaneously that they threatened to have their own athletic events. It took the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin, to forge peace by moving the Olympics south. Not that he did so with much glee. Writing later of the bizarre extravaganza that took place that summer, de Coubertin said: “I had a sort of presentiment that the Olympiad would match the mediocrity of the town.” Mediocre? Maybe. Memorable? Absolutely. Fred Lorz looked to have won the marathon — until it was discovered that he rode part way in a car. Organizers ran “Anthropology Days,” when members of indigenous tribes from around the world on hand for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition were plucked from the fair and told to compete with no warning. Boxing and freestyle wrestling debuted, sports that have clung to the Summer Olympics until the present day, along with long-since-forgotten croquet and tugof-war events. Vestiges of the 1904 Games still stand today. Glen Echo Country Club, the first golf course west of the Mississippi River, was completed in 1901 and remains a private club. Forest Park, where the lake was used for swimming, diving and water polo, remains a popular place for running, cycling and other recreational activities. Francis Field just to the east of the park is used by the Division III football, soccer and track and field teams of Washington University in St. Louis. “The first Olympic Games in the New World would produce a probransonglobe.com St. Louis Olympics was really World’s Fair with some sports found and permanent result,” author and historian Carl Posy wrote years later, “shaping every Olympic Games to come.” The St. Louis Games were the first at which gold medals were awarded to winners, and they remain the only medals made entirely of gold. That proved lucrative for a trio of Americans — gymnast George Eyser, swimmer Charles Daniels and aptly named track star James Lightbody — that each won three gold medals. U.S. athletes won 78 of 96 gold medals and 239 of 280 medals overall. There are several reasons for the dominance. The outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War and the challenge in getting to St. Louis prevented many of the best European athletes from competing. Fifteen nations and a few unattached individuals represented in the “Gateway to the West.” There were nearly 100 events during the months-long Summer Games, but archery was the only one in which women were officially allowed to compete. Lida Howell bested five other archers during the twoday competition. Woman also stepped into the boxing ring, though the bouts were considered display events. It was the last time women boxed at the Olympics until the 2012 Summer Games in London. The marathon may be the single SEE OYMPICS, PAGE 19 This image provided by the Library of Congress, shows the athletics field at the 1904 Olympic games in St. Louis.
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