1906 - Athens, Greece
April 14, 2008
In an attempt to regain enthusiasm for the Olympic Games, the IOC started Games that would be held every four years (between the regular Olympic Games) in Greece. In 1906, the Games were held in Athens. It was in here that the United States first had an official U.S. team plus wore official team uniforms.
The enthusiasm for these Games was great and the Games seemed to regain their popularity. Unfortunately, because of political unrest in Greece around 1910, the Games were canceled for that year and never continued.
Though originally the 1906 Games were officially considered Olympic Games, the IOC now considers them the “Unofficial Olympic Games” and they are not included in Olympic records.
Twenty countries were represented by 887 athletes.
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1904 - St. Louis, United States
April 14, 2008
Unfortunately, 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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1900 - Paris, France
April 11, 2008
The 1900 Olympics, hosted by his own country, greatly disappointed Pierre de Coubertin. Coubertin and the IOC lost control when the French government took over the organizing and planning of the Games.
At the same time of the Olympic Games, Paris was also hosting the World Exhibition, an international fair of immense size. Because of the fair, the Olympics were poorly organized and poorly publicized.
Though more athletes attended the 1900 Games than in 1896, the conditions that greeted the contestants were abysmal. Scheduling conflicts were so great that many contestants never made it to their events. And even when they did make it, athletes found the area for the running events to be on grass (rather than on cinder track) and uneven; the discus and hammer throwers often found that there wasn’t enough room to throw so their shots landed in the trees; the hurdles were made out of broken telephone poles; and the swimming events were conducted in the Seine River which had an extremely strong current. (copyright about.com)
1896 - Athens, Greece
April 11, 2008
The very first modern Olympic Games opened in the first week of April 1896. Since the Greek government had been unable to fund construction of a stadium, a wealthy Greek architect, Georgios Averoff, donated one million drachmas (over $100,000) to restore the Panathenaic Stadium, originally built in 330 BCE, with white marble for the Olympic Games.