1908 Summer Olympics

The Games of the IV Olympiad, originally scheduled to be held in Rome, were instead held in 1908 in London, England.

Italian authorities were preparing infrastructure for the games when Mount Vesuvius erupted on April 7, 1906, devastating the nearby city of Naples. Funds that were to have gone to the Olympics were diverted to the reconstruction of Naples, so a new venue was required. London was selected, and the games were held in White City alongside the Franco-British Exhibition, which at the time was the more noteworthy event.

The White City Stadium, built in very short time especially for the games, held 68,000 people and was considered by some to be a technological marvel for the time. The distance from the start of the Marathon to the finish at the stadium was established at this games; 42km, 195 m. (26 miles, 385 yards). The starting line was moved to allow the Royal Family a good view.

The games were surrounded by controversy. On opening day, following the practice introduced at the Intercalated Games of 1906, the teams paraded behind their national flags. However, the arrangement caused several complications:

• The Finnish team were expected to march under the Russian flag rather than the Finnish flag, so chose to march without a flag at all.
• Irish athletes were compelled to compete for the British team, so many of them withdrew.
• The Swedish flag had not been displayed above the stadium, so the members of the Swedish team decided not to take part in the ceremony.
• The United States flag had also not been displayed above the stadium before the opening so the United States' flag bearer refused to dip the flag to the royal box. Though the flag was later dipped in the collective greeting of the royal family, one of his teammates later gave the explanation that "This flag dips to no earthly king." As a result of that claim, for as long as dipping the flag was common practice, the US-bearers found their entire nation expected them to insult the head of state of the host country by not dipping the flag.

The 1908 Olympics also prompted the establishment of standard rules for sports, and the selection of judges from different countries, rather than just the host. One of the reasons for this was the 400 metre run in which the US winner was accused of interfering with the British runner. Part of the problem was the different definition of interference under British and US rules. The race was re-run, but the Americans refused to participate. The British runner, Wyndham Halswelle, won by running around the track on his own because three of the four original runners had been American.

The most famous incident of the games came at the end of the marathon. It occurred when the first runner to re-enter the stadium, Dorando Pietri of Italy, collapsed several times and ran the wrong way. Not far from the finish-line, two of the officials took him by the arms, and brought him to the line. As a consequence, after crossing the line he was disqualified. The medal went to American John Hayes who was second over the line, but the glory went to Pietri. Since he himself had not been responsible for his disqualification Queen Alexandra the next day awarded him a gold cup in recognition of his achievement.

These Games were the first to include Winter events, such as had originally been proposed for the Games. There were four figure skating events contested. However, the on-ice events occurred months separated from most of the other events.

Disciplines contested

Medal count

(Host nation in bold.)

Top medal-collecting nations:
(for the full table, see 1908 Summer Olympics medal count)

See also

• International Olympic Committee
• WikiProject Sports Olympics
• IOC country codes

External links

• IOC London 1908 Page
• White City Stadium/BBC radio