The British and the Olympic games The Olympics

The British and the Olympic games The Olympics in 1908 and 1948 Annaliisa Jäme Jõgeva Gümnaasium

The 1908 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the IV Olympiad : • Were an international multi-sport event which was held in 1908 in London. • These games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome. • Standard rules for sports were established. • Judges were also selected from countries other than the host. • Winter sports were introduced in Olympics for the first time. • For the first time the Olympic motto that "the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part" was publicly proclaimed.

The 1948 Summer Olympics : • Due to II World War the XII and XIII Summer Olympics were called off, so the 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin. • It was forbidden for Germany and Japan to take part in the Olympic Games because they were guilty for World War II. • Because of the World War the sports results were average in London. For example, the only record which was renewed, was in athletics.

In 1908 : Athletics, aquatics (swimming, water polo, diving), wrestling, boxing, cycling, fencing, football, gymnastics, rowing, shooting, sailing, tennis, archery, lacrosse, rugby, tug of war, field hockey, jeau de paume, water motorsports, polo, rackets and skating for the first time. Field hockey is the only event which has stayed in the programme of the Olympic games until now.

In 1948 : athletics, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, diving, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, hockey, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, water polo, weightlifting, wrestling.

• Since Finland was a part of the Russian Empire, the Finnish team were expected to march under the Russian rather than the Finnish flag, so many chose to march without a flag at all. • The Swedish flag had not been displayed above the stadium, so the members of the Swedish team decided not to take part in the ceremony. • The flag of the United States had also not been displayed above the stadium before the opening, which is possibly the reason why the United States' flag bearer refused to dip the flag to the royal box.

• There were a lot of protests in all the fields of sports during the Olympic games, but mostly in boxing, where a lot of wrong decisions were made. To show their protest the spokesman of Poland left the bench. The French refused to cooperate with English referees • The USA, which won the 4 x 100 m relay, was The Americans handed where it was clearly shown that which had caused the arguement, correct. disqualified. in the tape, the change had been

• At the end of the marathon in 1908, the first to enter the stadium, Dorando Pietri, collapsed several times and ran the wrong way. Not far from the finish, two officials took him by the arms and brought him to the line. As a consequence, after crossing the line he was disqualified, but the glory still went to Pietri. Since he had not been responsible for his disqualification, the Queen awarded him a gilded silver cup next day. • In 1948, the 22 -year old Etienne Gailly led the marathon since 10 km until 450 m before the finish. Due to the stitch in his stomach he wasn’t able to run any more. Before Gailly managed to finish, two men had already finished.

In 1908: 1. Great Britain – 146 medals 2. United States – 47 medals 3. Sweden – 25 medals 4. France – 19 medals 5. Germany – 13 medals In 1948: 1. United States – 84 medals 2. Sweden – 44 medals 3. France – 29 medals 4. Hungary – 27 medals 5. Italy – 27 medals

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