1904 Summer Olympics - wikipedia 1904 Summer Olympics Games of the III Olympiad Host city St. Louis, Missouri, United States Nations participating 12 Athletes participating 651 ( 645 men, 6 women ) Events 95 in 16 sports Opening ceremony July 1 Closing ceremony November 23 Officially opened by David R. Francis President of the Olympic Games Stadium Francis Field Summer < Paris 1900 London 1908 > The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States from August 29 until September 3, 1904, as part of an extended sports program lasting from July 1 to November 23, 1904, at what is now known as Francis Field on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis. It was the first time that the Olympic Games were held outside Europe. European tensions caused by the Russo - Japanese War and the difficulty of getting to St. Louis kept most of the world 's top athletes away. Only 62 of the 651 athletes who competed came from outside North America, and only 12 -- 15 nations were represented in all. 81 % of all competitors were from the United States, and in 53 of the 95 events, the U.S. were the only country to field competitors ; as such, some events combined the U.S. national championship with the Olympic championship. Contents 1 Background 2 The games 2.1 Highlights 2.1. 1 Marathon 2.2 Sports 3 Venues 4 Participating nations 4.1 Disputed 4.1. 1 Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees 5 Medal count 6 See also 7 Notes 8 External links Background The city of Chicago, Illinois won the bid to host the 1904 Summer Olympics, but the organizers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis would not accept another international event in the same time frame. The exposition organization began to plan for its own sports activities, informing the Chicago OCOG that its own international sports events intended to eclipse the Olympic Games unless they were moved to St. Louis. Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, stepped in and awarded the Games to St. Louis. The Games This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( July 2015 ) The St. Louis organizers treated the Games in a manner similar to the previous Olympiad, with competitions reduced to a side - show of the World 's Fair and overshadowed by other, more popular cultural exhibits. David R. Francis, the President of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, declined to invite anybody else to open the Games and on July 1 did so himself in a short, disorganised and poorly attended ceremony. Officially, the games lasted for four and a half months, with James Edward Sullivan attempting to hold a sporting event every day for the duration of the fair. The Olympic - calibre events were mixed with other sporting events that Sullivan also called `` Olympic '', with the IOC declaring that 94 or 95 of these events were Olympic. The actual athletics events that formed the bulk of the recognised Olympic sports were held from Monday, August 29 to Saturday, September 3. The participants totalled 651 athletes -- 645 men and six women representing 12 countries. However, only 42 events ( less than half ) actually included athletes who were not from the United States. Highlights An Ainu man competing in an archery contest during `` Anthropology Days '' Boxing, dumbbells, freestyle wrestling and the decathlon made their debuts. The swimming events were held in a temporary pond near Skinker and Wydown Boulevards, where `` lifesaving demonstrations '' of ' unsinkable ' lifeboats for ocean liners took place. The organizers of the World 's Fair held `` Anthropology Days '' on August 12 and 13. Various indigenous men from around the world competed in various events for anthropologists to see how they compared to the white man. Felix Carvajal on his way to 4th at St. Louis Olympic 's Marathon One of the most remarkable athletes was the American gymnast George Eyser, who won six medals even though his left leg was made of wood, and Frank Kugler won four medals in freestyle wrestling, weightlifting and tug of war, making him the only competitor to win a medal in three different sports at the same Olympic Games. Chicago runner James Lightbody won the steeplechase and the 800 m and then set a world record in the 1500 m. Harry Hillman won both the 200 m and 400 m hurdles and also the flat 400 m. Sprinter Archie Hahn was champion in the 60 m, 100 m and 200 m. In this last race, he set an Olympic record in 21.6, a record that stood for 28 years. In the discus, after American Martin Sheridan had thrown exactly the same distance as his compatriot, Ralph Rose ( 39.28 m ), the judges gave them both an extra throw to decide the winner. Sheridan won the decider and claimed the gold medal. Ray Ewry again won all three standing jumps. The team representing Great Britain was awarded a total of two medals, both won by Irish athletes. The top non-USA athlete was Emil Rausch of Germany, who won three swimming events. Zoltan Halmay of Hungary and Charles Daniels of the United States each won two swimming gold medals. Galt Football Club from Canada won the gold medal in football. Marathon The marathon was the most bizarre event of the Games. It was run in brutally hot weather, over dusty roads, with horses and automobiles clearing the way and creating dust clouds. Access to water along the course was intentionally restricted by organizer James Edward Sullivan. The first to arrive at the finish line was Frederick Lorz, who actually rode the rest of the way in a car to retrieve his clothes, after dropping out after nine miles. The car broke down at the 19th mile, so he re-entered the race and jogged back to the finish line. When the officials thought he had won the race, Lorz played along with his practical joke until he was found out shortly after the medal ceremony and was banned for a year by the AAU for this stunt, later winning the 1905 Boston Marathon. Hicks and his supporters at the marathon Thomas Hicks ( a Briton running for the United States ) was the first to cross the finish - line legally, after having received from his trainers several doses of strychnine sulfate ( a common rat poison, which stimulates the nervous system in small doses ) mixed with brandy. He was supported by his trainers when he crossed the finish, but is still considered the winner. Hicks had to be carried off the track, and possibly would have died in the stadium had he not been treated by several doctors. He lost eight pounds during the course of the marathon. A Cuban postman named Felix Carvajal joined the marathon, arriving at the last minute. He had to run in street clothes that a fellow runner cut around the legs to make them look like shorts. He stopped off in an orchard en route to have a snack on some apples which turned out to be rotten. The rotten apples caused him to have to lie down and take a nap. Despite falling ill from the apples, he finished in fourth place. The marathon included the first two black Africans to compete in the Olympics : two Tswana tribesmen named Len Tau ( real name : Len Taunyane ) and Yamasani ( real name : Jan Mashiani ). They were not in St. Louis to compete in the Olympics, however ; they were actually part of the sideshow. They had been brought over by the exposition as part of the Boer War exhibit. Len Tau finished ninth and Yamasani came in twelfth. This was a disappointment, as many observers were sure Len Tau could have done better if he had not been chased nearly a mile off course by aggressive dogs. Arriving without correct documents, Frenchman Arthur Coray was not included as part of the French team. He is inconsistently listed as performing in a mixed team in the four - mile team race and performing for the US in the marathon. Sports A tug of war competition at the 1904 Summer Olympics 94 events in 17 disciplines, comprising 16 sports, were part of the Olympic program in 1904. Swimming and diving are considered two disciplines of the same sport, aquatics. The number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses. Aquatics Diving ( 2 ) Swimming ( 9 ) Archery ( 6 ) Athletics ( 25 ) Boxing ( 7 ) Cycling ( 7 ) Fencing ( 5 ) Football ( 1 ) Golf ( 2 ) Gymnastics ( 11 ) Lacrosse ( 1 ) Roque ( 1 ) Rowing ( 5 ) Tennis ( 2 ) Tug of war ( 1 ) Weightlifting ( 2 ) Wrestling ( 7 ) Basketball, Hurling, American football, and Baseball were featured as demonstration sports. Water polo is mentioned in the games reports for the 1904 Summer Olympics but currently is not included in the IOC 's medal database and retrospectively considered by IOC as a demonstration sport as well. Venues Five sports venues were used for the 1904 Summer Olympics. The venues included the first golf course constructed west of the Mississippi River. Three of the sports venues were on the site for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition which was being held concurrently with the Olympics. Glen Echo Country Club became the first golf course west of the Mississippi River when it opened in 1901. It is still in use as of 2017. Forest Park was where the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition took place, and it hosted the diving, swimming, and water polo events on the Life Saving Exhibition Lake. During the water polo events, several of the cattle from a World 's Fair livestock exhibit were allowed to enter the lake, on the opposite side from the swimming and water polo events. Within one year, four of those athletes died of typhus. Creve Coeur Lake became the first park of St. Louis County in 1945. The Lake has hosted rowing regattas since 1882 and still hosts them as of 2010. Francis Field and Gymnasium are still in use on the Washington University in St. Louis campus as of 2010. An ornamental gate commemorating the 1904 Games was constructed outside the stadium immediately after the Exposition. A swimming pool was added to the gymnasium in 1985. Forest Park, constructed in 1876, is still in use as of 2010 and attracts over 12 million visitors annually. Glen Echo Country Club remains in use as a golf course today as of 2010. Venue Sports Capacity Ref. Creve Coeur Lake Rowing Not listed. Francis Field Archery, Athletics, Cycling, Football, Gymnastics, Lacrosse, Roque, Tennis, Tug of war, Weightlifting, and Wrestling 19,000 Francis Gymnasium Boxing, Fencing. Not listed. Forest Park Diving, Swimming, Water Polo Not listed. Glen Echo Country Club Golf Not listed. Participating nations Participants. Blue = Participating for the first time Green = Have previously participated. Yellow square is host city ( St Louis ) Number of athletes from each country Athletes from twelve nations competed in St. Louis. Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of known competitors for each nation. Due to the difficulty of getting to St. Louis, and European tensions caused by the Russo - Japanese War, only 62 athletes from outside North America came to the Olympics. Participating National Olympic Committees Australia ( 3 ) Austria ( 2 ) Canada ( 56 ) Cuba ( 3 ) France ( 1 ) Germany ( 22 ) Great Britain ( 6 ) Greece ( 14 ) Hungary ( 4 ) South Africa ( 8 ) Switzerland ( 2 ) United States ( 526 ) ( host ) Disputed Some sources also list athletes from the following nations as having competed at these Games. Italy ( 1 ) Norway ( 2 ) Newfoundland ( 1 ) Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees IOC Country Athletes USA United States 526 CAN Canada 56 GER Germany 22 GRE Greece 14 RSA South Africa 8 GBR Great Britain 6 HUN Hungary AUS Australia CUB Cuba AUT Austria SUI Switzerland FRA France Total 651 Medal count Main article : 1904 Summer Olympics medal table These are the top ten nations to win medals at the 1904 Games. The Silver Medal of the games for the 800m run Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total United States ( host nation ) 78 82 79 239 Germany 5 13 Cuba 9 Canada 6 5 Hungary 6 Great Britain 0 Mixed team 0 8 Greece 0 Switzerland 0 10 Austria 0 0 The nationalities of many medalists are disputed, as many American competitors were recent immigrants to the United States who had not yet been granted US citizenship. In 2009, historians from the International Society of Olympic Historians discovered that cyclist Frank Bizzoni, formerly thought to be an American, was still an Italian citizen when he competed in 1904, being granted US citizenship in 1917. The International Olympic Committee considers Norwegian - American wrestlers Charles Ericksen and Bernhoff Hansen to have competed for the United States. Each man won a gold medal. In 2012, Norwegian historians however found documentation showing that Ericksen did not receive American citizenship until March 22, 1905, and that Hansen, who was registered as an `` alien '' as late as 1925, probably never received American citizenship. The historians have therefore petitioned the IOC to have the athletes registered as Norwegians. In May 2013, it was reported that the Norwegian Olympic Committee had filed a formal application for changing the nationality of the wrestlers in the IOC 's medal database ; as of April 2018, no decision has yet been made. Francis Gailey competed in 1904 as an Australian and immigrated to America in 1906, sailing to San Francisco in the SS Sonoma. He worked as a banker in California, lived for a time in Ontario, Canada, where he married Mary Adams, and finally settled in 1918 in southern California, managing orange - grove plantations. Multi-medalist Frank Kugler of Germany was a member of the St. Louis Southwest Turnverein team, being granted US citizenship in 1913. The IOC attributes his medals to the United States. Gustav Thiefenthaler was born in Switzerland but the family moved to the United States when he was young. He represented the South Broadway AC in St. Louis. At the Olympics, Tiefenthaler wrestled one bout and lost, but earned a bronze medal for his efforts. He was still a Swiss citizen in 1904 ; the IOC, however, still attributes his medals to the United States. The IOC also lists French - American Albert Corey as a United States competitor for his marathon silver medal, but ( together with four undisputed Americans ) as part of a mixed team for the team race silver medal. Other sources list the above athletes as competitors for their country of birth rather than the United States. See also Olympics portal Olympic Games celebrated in the United States 1904 Summer Olympics -- St. Louis 1932 Summer Olympics -- Los Angeles 1932 Winter Olympics -- Lake Placid 1960 Winter Olympics -- Squaw Valley 1980 Winter Olympics -- Lake Placid 1984 Summer Olympics -- Los Angeles 1996 Summer Olympics -- Atlanta 2002 Winter Olympics -- Salt Lake City Summer Olympic Games Olympic Games International Olympic Committee List of IOC country codes Notes Jump up ^ `` The Olympic Summer Games Factsheet '' ( PDF ). International Olympic Committee. Retrieved August 5, 2012. Jump up ^ Christen, Barbara S. ; Steven Flanders ( November 2001 ). Cass Gilbert, Life and Work : Architect of the Public Domain. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 257. ISBN 978 - 0 - 393 - 73065 - 4. Retrieved June 8, 2008. Jump up ^ Stead, W.T. ( 1901 ). The Americanization of the World. Horace Markley. p. 341. Jump up ^ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-1904-olympic-marathon-may-have-been-the-strangest-ever-14910747/?no-ist ^ Jump up to : Cronin, Brian ( August 10, 2010 ). `` Sports Legend Revealed : A marathon runner nearly died ''. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. Retrieved August 31, 2010. Jump up ^ Abbott, Karen. `` The 1904 Olympic Marathon May Have Been the Strangest Ever ''. Smithsonian.com. Retrieved April 8, 2015. Jump up ^ Martin, David E. ; Gynn, Roger W.H. ( 2000 ). The Olympic Marathon. p. 50. ISBN 9780880119696. Jump up ^ The IOC site for the 1904 Olympic Games gives the figure of 91 events, while the IOC database lists 94. Probably this discrepancy in IOC data is consequence that the figure 91 just derived from the `` 1904 Olympic Games -- Analysis and Summaries '' publication of Bill Mallon, who used his own determination of which sports and events should be considered as Olympic. ^ Jump up to : Healey, Jim. `` Glen Echo County Club ''. golfclubatlas.com. Accessed July 7, 2010. Jump up ^ 1904 Summer Olympics men 's springboard diving results. -- Sports-reference.com. Accessed October 4, 2010. Jump up ^ 1904 Summer Olympics swimming results. -- Sports-reference.com. Accessed October 4, 2010. Jump up ^ 1904 Summer Olympics water polo results. Sports-reference.com. Accessed October 4, 2010. Jump up ^ https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1904/WAP/mens-water-polo.html Jump up ^ St. Louis County, Missouri 2002 Department of Parks and Recreation report. Archived June 25, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. p. 103. Accessed October 4, 2010. Jump up ^ `` CONTESTS AT THE OARS ; THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY REGATTA -- ROWING AT PAWTUCKET '' ( PDF ). The New York Times. June 25, 1882. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 02. Jump up ^ `` SPORTING AFFAIRS ''. Chicago Daily Tribune. May 11, 1885. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 02. ^ Jump up to : Washington University in St. Louis profile of Francis Field. -- accessed October 4, 2010. ^ Jump up to : Washington University in St. Louis profile of Francis Gymnasium. -- accessed October 4, 2010. Jump up ^ St. Louis, Missouri city profile of Forest Park. -- accessed October 4, 2010. Jump up ^ Spalding 's report of the 1904 Summer Olympics. Archived August 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. p. 213. Accessed October 4, 2010. Jump up ^ Spalding 's report of the 1904 Summer Olympics. Archived August 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. pp. 222 -- 9, 233 -- 47. Accessed October 4, 2010. Jump up ^ Spalding 's report of the 1904 Summer Olympics. Archived August 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. pp. 231, 245. Accessed October 4, 2010. Jump up ^ Spalding 's report of the 1904 Summer Olympics. Archived August 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. pp. 229, 231. Accessed October 4, 2010. Jump up ^ Mallon, Bill ( 1998 ). `` 1904 Olympic Games -- Analysis and Summaries '' ( PDF ). LA84 Foundation. Archived ( PDF ) from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved August 8, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Italy at the 1904 St. Louis Summer Games ''. Sports Reference. Jump up ^ `` Norway at the 1904 St. Louis Summer Games ''. Sports Reference. Jump up ^ `` Newfoundland at the 1904 St. Louis Summer Games ''. Sports Reference. Jump up ^ Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement -- Italy. books.google.com. Retrieved July 31, 2014. Jump up ^ `` Her er beviset som endrer norsk idrettshistorie ''. NRK. August 14, 2012. Jump up ^ `` USA - guld 1904 var Norges ''. Svenska Dagbladet. August 14, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Norges OL - historie skrives på nytt ''. Nettavisen. May 3, 2013. Jump up ^ http://corporate.olympics.com.au/F50BFE65-5056-B031-6AE23D104E37B9A4 Jump up ^ https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ku/frank-kugler-1.html Jump up ^ https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ti/gustav-tiefenthaler-1.html External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1904 Summer Olympics. `` St Louis 1904 ''. Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. `` Results and Medalists -- 1904 Summer Olympics ''. Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. The Olympic Games 1904, Charles J.P. Lucas Spalding 's Athletic Almanac for 1905 Competitions on Anthropology Days Photos of the 1904 Olympics from the Missouri History Museum the memory palace podcast episode about 1904 olympic marathon Preceded by Paris Summer Olympic Games St. Louis III Olympiad ( 1904 ) Succeeded by London Olympic Games Ceremonies Charter Participating nations Summer Olympics Winter Olympics Host cities Bids Venues IOC NOCs Country codes Medal Medal tables Medalists Ties Diploma Scandals and controversies Colonialism Doping Sports Symbols Torch relays Pierre de Coubertin medal Women Deaths WWI Olympic video games Summer Games 1896 Athens 1900 Paris 1904 St. Louis 1908 London 1912 Stockholm 1916 Berlin 1920 Antwerp 1924 Paris 1928 Amsterdam 1932 Los Angeles 1936 Berlin 1940 Tokyo 1944 London 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 2004 Athens 2008 Beijing 2012 London 2016 Rio de Janeiro 2020 Tokyo 2024 Paris 2028 Los Angeles 2032 TBD Winter Games 1924 Chamonix 1928 St. Moritz 1932 Lake Placid 1936 Garmisch - Partenkirchen 1940 Sapporo 1944 Cortina d'Ampezzo 1948 St. Moritz 1952 Oslo 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo 1960 Squaw Valley 1964 Innsbruck 1968 Grenoble 1972 Sapporo 1976 Innsbruck 1980 Lake Placid 1984 Sarajevo 1988 Calgary 1992 Albertville 1994 Lillehammer 1998 Nagano 2002 Salt Lake City 2006 Turin 2010 Vancouver 2014 Sochi 2018 Pyeongchang 2022 Beijing 2026 TBD 2030 TBD Ancient Olympic Games Intercalated Games 1906 Paralympic Games Youth Olympic Games Nations at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, United States Australia Austria Canada Cuba France Germany Great Britain Greece Hungary South Africa Switzerland United States Mixed teams Events at the 1904 Summer Olympics ( St. Louis ) Archery Athletics Basketball ( demonstration ) Boxing Cycling Diving Fencing Football Gaelic football ( unofficial ) Golf Gymnastics Lacrosse Roque Rowing Swimming Tennis Tug of war Water polo Weightlifting Wrestling Venues of the 1904 Summer Olympics Creve Coeur Lake Francis Field Francis Gymnasium Forest Park Glen Echo Country Club Olympics portal Missouri portal United States portal GND : 10095731 - 6 LCCN : n87940156 VIAF : 131448501 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1904_Summer_Olympics&oldid=842658221 '' Categories : 1904 Summer Olympics Olympic Games in the United States Summer Olympics by year Sports competitions in St. Louis St. Louis World 's Fair 1904 in American sports 1904 in Missouri 1904 in multi-sport events 1904 in international relations 1900s in St. Louis Olympic Games in Missouri Sports competitions in Missouri Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links CS1 : Julian -- Gregorian uncertainty Use mdy dates from August 2017 Articles needing additional references from July 2015 All articles needing additional references Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Afrikaans Аҧсшәа Aragonés Asturianu Azərbaycanca বাংলা Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Bosanski Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Frysk Gaeilge Galego 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Ido Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית Қазақша Кыргызча Latina Latviešu Lietuvių Magyar Македонски മലയാളം मराठी مصرى Bahasa Melayu Монгол Nāhuatl Nederlands नेपाली 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Occitan Олык марий ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Polski Português Română Русский Саха тыла Scots Sicilianu සිංහල Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Tagalog தமிழ் Татарча / tatarça తెలుగు ไทย Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt Walon 吴语 Yorùbá 粵語 中文 76 more Edit links This page was last edited on 23 May 2018, at 20 : 37. 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Question: where was the first olympics held in the united states
Answer: St. Louis, Missouri