Backgrounder: Olympic Games London 1908: Consolidating Olympic movement worldwide

After the "disasters" in Paris and St. Louis, the most powerful capital city in the world at the time put everything into organizing the new Olympic Games and consolidating the Olympic movement.

The 1908 Olympics should have been held in Rome, Italy, as the venue had been chosen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). However, when it became apparent that Rome would not be ready on time due to financial issues following a disastrous eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 1906 the Games were reassigned to London.

Despite the short notice, the Games were exceptionally well organized.

For the first time, a stadium, White City Stadium, was specially built for the Olympics with capacity for almost 80,000 spectators.

The Opening Ceremony was presided over by the King of the United Kingdom, Edward VII, and the participating athletes marched behind their flags within the Olympic stadium. This was the very first Olympic inaugural parade. The first ever Olympic oath was also taken by the athletes during this Olympics.

The 1908 Games were held between April 27 and October 31, lasting six months and four days, making these Games the longest in modern Olympic History.

A total of 2,008 athletes (37 women, 1,971 men) from 22 countries and regions competed in 110 events representing 22 sports.

During these Games, the marathon started from Windsor Castle. In order for this to happen, the marathon distance had to be changed from 25 to 26 miles (40.23 to 41.84 kilometers) and then another 385 yards (195 meters) were added so that the race could finish below the royal box in the stadium. This distance of 26 miles and 385 yards (42 kilometers and 195 meters) became the official Olympic distance from the 1924 Games.

Olympic spirit and sportsmanship was high in London. An example of this was when the middleweight Greco-Roman wrestling final between Frithiof Martensson and Mauritz Andersson was postponed by one day to allow Martensson to recover from a minor injury. Martensson recovered and went on to win.

Ray Ewry from the U.S. won his third consecutive gold medal at an Olympics in the standing long jump and standing high jump categories after winning in St. Louis (1904) and Paris (1900). Winning these gold medals, plus two more for standing triple jump, made him the only athlete to win eight gold medals in individual athletics events at the Olympics. This record still has not been broken.

Despite the lack of mass support from the public at the beginning, as the days went by interest for the Games from the hosts grew especially after Englishman Henry Taylor won three gold medals in the 1500 meters freestyle, 400 meters freestyle and 4x200 meters freestyle swimming categories. This was a new Olympic record for the UK which stood for 100 years until it was equaled by Scottish cyclist Chris Hoy in 2008.

The most famous incident of the Games came at the end of the marathon when the first athlete to enter the stadium, Italy's Dorando Pietri, collapsed several times and ran the wrong way due to tiredness. He was helped to cross the finish line by officials at the request of the spectators.

Even though he crossed the finish line in first place, Pietro was eventually disqualified as he was helped across the line. However, his courage earned him admiration among the British public and he received a gilded silver cup from Queen Alexandra as a consolation prize.

British archers William and Charlotte Dod became the first siblings to both win a medal at an Olympics.

Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn, 60, was the oldest athlete to win a gold medal at the London Olympics.

It was during this edition of the Games that the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, adopted and modified the words of Ethelbert Talbot, Bishop of Pennsylvania, during a banquet. These words became the creed of the Olympic Movement: "The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight; the essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well."

OLYMPIC GAMES LONDON 1908 MEDAL TABLE

COUNTRY GOLD SILVER BRONZE TOTAL

United Kingdom 56 51 38 145

United States 23 12 12 47

Sweden 8 6 11 25

France 5 5 9 19

Germany 3 5 6 14

Hungary 3 4 2 9

Canada 3 3 10 16

Norway 2 3 3 8

Italy 2 2 0 4

Belgium 1 5 2 8

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