1908 London Summer Games

These Olympics were by far the best organized to date. They also had the most international field of any Olympics yet held. By now the Olympics were becoming “known” to the world and athletes everywhere wanted to compete, and managed to find ways to do so. Still, the Games, though superbly run, are best known for multiple political arguments and other bickering that occurred.

The problems began at the Opening Ceremony. The Swedish and United States flags did not fly over the stadium, as the organizers stated they could not find them. This so infuriated the Swedes that when a dispute arose over wrestling rules later in the Games, they threatened to withdraw from the competition. The Finns marched in the ceremony without a flag. They were a territory of Russia in 1908, but Russia allowed them to compete separately, provided they did so under the Russian flag. The Finns, in protest, marched under no flag.

The Americans were upset with the British from the very beginning. Many of the American athletes were Irish emigrés, who opposed the British treatment of the Irish. The American flag at the opening ceremony was carried by Ralph Rose, not Johnny Garrels or Martin Sheridan as often listed (a picture of Rose in Outing Magazine exists and supports this fact). Rose was a massive shotputter and a close friend of many of the so-called “Irish Whales,” Irish-American weight-throwers such as Sheridan, John Flanagan, Pat McDonald and Pat Ryan. Rose, unlike the other flagbearers, refused to dip the American flag as he marched past King Edward VII. Legend has it that Sheridan, when asked the reason this occurred, stated, “This flag dips to no earthly king!”

Other major controversies erupted in the 400 metres and the tug-of-war. The 400 metres final was contested by Britain’s Wyndham Halswelle and three Americans, among them John Carpenter of Cornell. Carpenter entered the home straight with Halswelle at his shoulder. At this point, Carpenter, in order to prevent Halswelle from passing him, moved progressively farther towards the outside of the track, forcing Halswelle to within 18 inches of the outside curb. Carpenter was immediately disqualified and the race was ordered to be re-run. But the two remaining Americans, John Taylor and William Robbins, refused to compete again, feeling that the disqualification was not justified, and the American officials protested the decision, to no avail. Two days later, Halswelle ran by himself to win the 400 metre gold medal.

In an early round of the tug-of-war the American pullers faced a British team made of members of the Liverpool Police. The Liverpudlians won easily in the first pull, but the Americans protested, claiming that the British constables footwear was illegal. Standard shoewear was required but the Americans thought the Liverpool Police shoes were specially built up for traction. This protest was also disallowed and the Liverpool team continued to the final, where they lost to a group of London Police officers.

The most memorable event of the 1908 Olympics was the marathon. The race was to start at Windsor Castle so that Queen Alexandra’s grandchildren could watch the beginning. The distance from there to the finish line at the Shepherd’s Bush stadium was 26 miles, 385 yards. This was the first time this distance was chosen for a marathon and it later became the standard.

The leader for most of the second half of the race was Dorando Pietri, a candymaker from Capri, Italy. But when Pietri entered the Stadium, he was totally exhausted. Like a drunken sailor, he staggered and fell several times before the finish line. He also turned in the wrong direction twice during the last lap. Officials, urged on by sympathetic fans, helped him to his feet and directed him the finish line. He finished the race first and was declared the winner. Only a few metres behind him finished Johnny Hayes of the United States. An immediate protest was lodged and Pietri was disqualified. The next day, the British had a special trophy made for Pietri, and it was presented to him in the stadium by the Queen. In the United States, a young songwriter was so taken by the story that he wrote his first song hit. “Dorando, Dorando, he’s a good-a-for-not . . .” was the first line of that song by Irving Berlin.

At the closing banquet at the end of the 1908 Olympics, British IOC Member, the Reverend Robert de Courcy Laffan closed with the prescient speech, “The Olympic movement was one with great ideals – the perfect physical development of a new humanity, the speading all over the world of the spirit of sport, which was the spirit of the truest chivalry, and the drawing together of all the nations of the earth in the bonds of peace and mutual amity. They were at the beginning of one of those great world movements which was going to develop long after all present had passed away.”