One hundred years ago, St. Louis was the first city in the Western Hemisphere to host the modern-era Olympic Games. The 1904 games, held on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, had been revived in 1896.
Although the III Olympiad was overshadowed on the world stage by the concurrent 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair (a.k.a. the Louisiana Purchase Exposition), the event, held from Aug. 29 until Sept. 3, was notable and takes a place in the history books.
In 1904, Charles Lindbergh had yet to make his transatlantic first flight and the Wright brothers were still perfecting their glider, so a visit to St. Louis meant a long ocean voyage and a 1,000-mile train trip for European competitors. Only 11 other countries sent athletes to the games. Even the International Olympic Committee founder, Pierre de Coubertin, opted to stay home in Paris.
Among highlights of the 1904 Olympic Games were the following:
First Daughter Alice Roosevelt presented the apparent winner of the 24.85-mile marathon, Fred Lorz of New York, with a floral wreath, although he later confessed that he had ridden about a third of the way in an automobile. (On a humid, 90-degree day, Lorz said he only ran into the stadium to get his clothes and couldn’t resist the cheering crowd.)
The second-place marathon finisher, English-born Thomas Hicks of Cambridge, Massachusetts, plodded in at 3:29:63, physically supported by his handlers and passed out before he could claim his rightful first prize. By today’s standards, he also may have been disqualified, as his handlers helped him along the way by administering a mixture of strychnine sulfate and raw eggs with a brandy chaser. (Only 12 of the 31 entrants completed the dusty, hilly and mostly unpaved course.)
The U.S. dominated the first Olympics it hosted winning 80 gold medals, 86 silver and 72 bronze. Its closest competitors were Germany and Cuba with five gold medals each. It was argued that the Americans had an advantage in that many European competitors could not afford the trip.
By leasing land to fair organizers for $650,000, Washington University in St. Louis gained four permanent buildings on its new Hilltop campus, which was then under construction. The university’s new Francis Field and Gymnasium, now on the National Register of Historic Places, and a 12-000 seat stadium were the sites of the Olympic track-and-field events.
President Theodore Roosevelt didn’t attend the 1904 games, although he did agree to be honorary president in concert with the president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, former Missouri Governor David R. Francis. An 1870 Washington University graduate and a former mayor of St. Louis, Francis had wrestled the fair away from first-choice Chicago in order to tie it into the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase.
Among the victories by Americans in the 1904 Olympics were the 800-, 1,500- and 2,500-meter runs by Chicagoan James Lightbody; four gold medals by Ray Ewry in the standing jumps; three gold medals by sprinter Archie Hahn; the running broad jump and running triple jump by Meyer Prinstein; and all medals in the cycling, rowing, archery, boxing and wrestling contests. George C. Poage, the first African American to win an Olympic medal, took the bronze in the 200- and 400-meter hurdles.
The Cuban team aced all competitors in the fencing competition; the Germans made a good showing in gymnastics and the Canadians stayed ahead of the Americans in several rowing events.
Making their debut at the 1904 Olympics were boxing, dumbbells, freestyle wrestling and the decathlon.
Approximately 680 athletes, about 525 of them Americans, participated in 94 events, according to figures published by the IOC.
In all, the III Olympiad saw 13 Olympic records and four world records broken.
The Summer Olympics did not return to the United States until 1932 in Los Angeles, then 52 years later in 1984, again in L.A. Atlanta hosted the games in 1996.
Today on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, a wrought iron gate built in 1914 at the entrance to Francis Field and Gym, where athletes still compete, memorializes the historic event.