Athletic contests are
held at Olympia every four years, between August 6 and September 19.
Records reach back as far as 776 B.C., but it is generally accepted
that the Olympic Games had already been held for several centuries
before that. The Games originally consist only of foot races.
Other events are gradually added, starting with wrestling and the
pentathlon. |
Roman Emperor Theodosius I abolishes the Games, as part of a
series of reforms against pagan practices. Top |
At the urging of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) is founded. |
The first modern Olympic Games. 14
countries are represented by about 245 men, competing in 43
events. No women compete, as de Coubertin feels that their
inclusion would be "impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and
incorrect." Top |
The second
modern Games are overshadowed by, and incorporated into, the Paris
Exposition. 1,319 men from 26 countries compete in 75 events, although
it's not entirely clear—even to some of the
participants—which events are actually part of the Olympics.
Eleven women are allowed to compete in lawn tennis and
golf. |
Only 13
countries show up. Fred Lorz rides
in a car for eleven miles during the marathon, but is briefly
taken as being the winner anyway. Top |
The
first, last, and only Intercalated Games are held in Athens, as the
Greeks plan to hold interim Games between Olympics every four years.
While these bolster the Olympics' flagging reputation, medals won here
are considered unofficial by the IOC. |
The 1906 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius requires
the Games to move from Rome to London. For the first time, athletes
march into the stadium behind their nations' flags. There are more
than 2,000 competitors in more than 100 events. Italian Dorando
Pietri needs to be helped across the finish line of the marathon, but
is declared the winner before being disqualified in favor of Johnny
Hayes of the U.S. Top |
American Jim Thorpe
dominates the Games, taking the gold in the pentathlon and
decathlon. Finland begins its domination of long-distance
running events, as Hannes Kolehmainen picks up three gold medals and a
silver. Women compete in swimming events for the first time,
but none of them are from America, which bars its female athletes from
competing in events without long skirts. |
Jim Thorpe's medals are taken away, when it is discovered that
he was paid $25 a week for playing baseball in 1909 and 1910. The
Olympics are strictly limited to amateur players. Top |
Games cancelled due to World War
I. |
The Olympic flag is introduced,
as is the Olympic
oath. Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Turkey are
not invited, having been on the wrong side of the Great War.
Distance runner Paavo Nurmi wins three
medals for Finland. Figure-skating events are held for the
second time, and ice hockey for the first. Philip Noel-Baker of
Great Britain takes the silver in the 1500-meter dash; he later
becomes the only Olympian ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Top |
The
"International Winter Sports Week" takes place in Chamonix, and is
dominated by the Scandanavians. Two years later, this is retroactively
given the status of the first Olympic Winter Games. Due to an
error in computing the scores, American Anders Haugen is placed in
fourth in ski jumping, behind Norway's Thorleif Haug. This is
discovered in 1974, and Haugen is awarded the bronze in a special
ceremony. |
Originally
planned to take place in Amsterdam, the Games are moved to Paris at
the urging of Baron de Coubertin. He's about to retire, and wants to
see them in his homeland one last time. Germany is still
banned, but the other four nations banned in 1920 are back.
Paavo Nurmi wins five gold medals; his teammate, Ville Ritola, wins
four. Johnny Weissmuller wins three golds and a bronze in
water-based events; he later becomes known for playing Tarzan.
Top |
The IOC explains that "An amateur is one who devotes himself to
sport for sport's sake without deriving from it, directly or
indirectly, the means of existence. A professional is one who derives
the means of existence entirely or partly from sport." They forbid
such practices as compensating athletes for time taken away from work
to compete, making it hard for working-class athletes to
participate. |
The
Winter Games are plagued with warm weather, slowing some events and
cancelling the 10,000-meter speed-skating race. Gillis
Grafström of Sweden wins the last of his three consecutive gold
medals in figure skating; Norwegian Sonja Henie will equal that feat,
winning the first of her three consecutive gold
medals in figure skating here at the age of 15. Top |
The Olympic flame is
introduced. Germany returns. Paavo Nurmi picks up three
more medals, including one gold. Women compete in track and
field events for the first time; however, so many collapse at the end
of the 800-meter race that the event is banned until 1960.
Luigina Giavotti becomes the youngest medalist of all time, helping
the Italian gymnastics team pick up a silver at 11 years and 302 days
old. |
The Federation Internationale de
Football Association (FIFA) holds soccer's first World Cup
tournament in Montevideo, Uruguay, largely due to the Olympics'
restrictions against professional athletes. The World Cup is
held every four years from this time onward, excepting World War II
years. Top |
Canada continues to be undefeated in hockey, taking home the gold
for the fourth time. America's bobsleigh team, led by Billy
Fiske, wins the gold; the team includes Eddie Eagan, who was a boxing
champion in the 1920 Games. Eagan remains the only person to have won
gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Games. |
Paavo
Nurmi is barred from the Los Angeles Games, on grounds that, on a trip
to a German meet, he had claimed too much money in travel
expenses. There is no soccer event. Babe Didrikson picks up gold medals
in hurdles and javelin. She would have tied for a gold in the
high-jump, but her jumping style is ruled illegal. Top |
Alpine skiing events are
held for the first time, but ski instructors are barred as being
professionals. This leads to an Austrian and Swiss boycott, and to the
decision not to have skiing events in the 1940 Games. Canada
finally loses an ice hockey match, as Great Britain takes the gold.
Only a complete stickler would point out that almost all of the
British players lived in Canada. |
The first-ever
relay of the Olympic
torch. The Games are the first to be televised, being shown
on large screens around Berlin. Basketball is admitted as an
Olympic sport for the first time. In the final—played on a dirt
court in the rain, making dribbling impossible—the United States
team beats Canada 19–8. Denmark's 12-year-old Inge
Sorensen wins a bronze medal in the 200-meter breaststroke, making her
the youngest medalist ever in an individual event. In what may be the most famous incident in Olympic
history, Jesse Owens wins four gold
medals, showing up German claims of Aryan superiority.
Top |
Games called off due to World War II. |
Held for a second time in St. Moritz, Switzerland, as that city was
untouched by the war. Men and women each have three alpine
skiing events. The American Olympic Committee sends a hockey
team, as does the American Hockey Association; the IOC bars either
from being considered for a medal. Skeleton—a
head-first version of the luge—appears for the first time since
the previous St. Moritz Games 20 years earlier. American John Heaton
wins the silver, as he had done the previous time. Top |
The first
Games to be shown on home television. Germany and Japan aren't
invited, but a record 59 other countries attend. Dutch athlete
Fanny Blankers-Koen wins four gold medals, the equivalents of the ones
Jesse Owens had won twelve years earlier. She holds the world records
in the high and long jumps, but does not compete in those, as rules
prohibit women from competing in more than three individual
events. Right-handed Hungarian Karoly Takcaz, a member of the
national pistol-shooting team, had that hand shattered by a grenade in
1938. He teaches himself to shoot with his left, and wins the gold in
the rapid-fire pistol event this year. |