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Did you know that?
1896 | 1900 | 1904 | 1908 | 1912 | 1920 | 1924 | 1932 | 1948 | 1952 | 1956 | 1960 | 1964 | 1968 | 1972 | 1976 | 1980 | 1984 | 1988 | 1992 | 1996
** The IIIrd Olympic Games of 1904 was originally allotted to Chicago but at
the request of US President Theodore Roosevelt, also president of the US
Olympic Committee, the venue was changed to St Louis to coincide with the
World's Fair.
** The Americans had failed on its promise to supply a ship to visit all the
European ports to gather competitors for the 1904 Games.
** As it happened in the previous Olympic Games in 1900, there were very few
overseas entrant for the 1904 edition. Even Baron de Coubertin did not
attend!
** Eighty-five percent of the competitors for the 1904 Games were from the
host nation and not surpris ingly they won 84% of the medals.
** The main diet for the athletes at the 1904 Games was the buffalo meat,
which was so unpalatable for the Europeans that they survived largely on
boiled potatoes and milk.
** The 1904 Games were the first at which gold, silver and bronze medals
were actually awarded for first, second and third place.
** The cycling events in the 1904 Games had no foreign entrants and it was a
straight fight between the cyclists from the host country.
** The swimming events in the 1904 Games was held in an asymmetrical lake,
which made it impossible for the competitors to keep to their lanes.
** In the 400m track of the 1904 Games race no heats were held and all the
13 entrants ran in the final.
** The rowing events for the 1904 Games were held in 1.5 mile course which
entailed making a turn.
** Lentauw from South Africa, a Zulu in St Louis as part of a World's Fair
exhibit, became the first black African to take part in the Olympic Games
when he finished in the ninth place in the 1904 marathon.
** In the track and field programme of the 1904 Games only two events went
to non-Armericans.
** Americans Joseph Stadler (silver medal in standing high jump) and George
Poage (bronze medals in the 200m and 400m hurdles) during the 1904 Games
became the first black men to win medals in the Olympics.
** In the 1904 marathon American Fred Lorz who was the first to reach the
finishing line had actually received a lift in a car. Although he later
claimed it as a joke, he was banned for life.
** Thomas Hicks who was awarded the marathon gold in 1904 when fellow
American Fred Lorz was disqualified, finished the race in a daze due to
being administered strychnine by his handlers as a stimulant - a
practice then common and allowable.
** Samuel Duvall, who won the silver medal for archery in the 1904 Games
remains at 68 years 194 days the oldest American Olympic medallist of all
time.
** American Frank Kungler, who won a silver in wrestling, a bronze in
tug-of-war, and two bronzes in weightlifting in 1904, became the only
Olympian to win medals at three different sports at a single Games.
** American gymnast George Eyser, who won three gold medals, two silvers and
one bronze in the 1904 Games had a wooden leg. His left leg had been
amputated after he was run over by a train.
** One of the most unusual event of the 1904 Games was the plunge for
distance. Contestants dived into a swimming pool and remained motiionless
for 60 seconds or until their heads broke the surface of water, whichever
came first. William Dickey of the United States won the event with a plunge
of 19.05 meters (62 feet 6 inches).
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