The History of the Olympics:
1904 - St. Louis, United StatesUnfortunately, St. Louis was hosting the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition (a large fair celebrating the 100th anniversary celebration of the Louisiana Purchase) at the same time as the Games. Again, having a city hosting a large fair plus the Games hurt the Olympic Games.
There was an uproar about the marathon. After Fred Lorz (United States) was seized with cramps during the marathon, he was picked up by a car, which after chugging along for a little while, broke down about five miles from the stadium. Feeling much better, Lorz walked into the stadium and, to his surprise, was hailed as the winner of the marathon. Lorz was almost crowned with the olive wreath before the truth was discovered.
A major problem for the 1904 Olympics was that it was held far from Europe. The fact that European participants would have to make a trans-Atlantic voyage plus a long train ride to Missouri to get there, not to mention that many Europeans envisioned St. Louis as small town on the wilderness frontier, made international participation very weak.
Though twelve countries were represented, only a little over 100 of the 681 athletes participating were from outside of the U.S. and most of those were from Canada. No athletes represented England, France, or Sweden.
During the 1904 Olympics, boxing was added as an Olympic sport.
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| Histories of the Olympic Games |
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1896 - Athens 1900 - Paris 1904 - St. Louis 1906 - Athens ("Unoffficial") 1908 - London 1912 - Stockholm 1916 - Not held 1920 - Antwerp 1924 - Paris 1928 - Amsterdam 1932 - Los Angeles 1936 - Berlin 1940 - Not held 1944 - Not held |
1948 - London 1952 - Helsinki 1956 - Melbourne 1960 - Rome 1964 - Tokyo 1968 - Mexico City 1972 - Munich 1976 - Montreal 1980 - Moscow 1984 - Los Angeles 1988 - Seoul 1992 - Barcelona 1996 - Atlanta 2000 - Sydney |
