History

Rome had originally been selected to host the 1908 Olympics, but the Italian organizers withdrew after a 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius created havoc in the country. The IOC asked the British Olympic Association to take over.

In many respects, it was the ideal solution. England had much more collective experience in organizing large sports events than any other country, with the Henley Royal Regatta, the All-England (Wimbledon) tennis tournament, and the 30-year-old Amateur Athletic Association's national track and field championships.

The English organizers did bring considerably more order to the Olympics, primarily by limiting the number of athletes that could represent any one country in a given event. But the 1908 Games were the first to be marred by international politics and controversy over judging.

Finnish athletes were told that they would have to march under the Russian flag, not the flag of Finland, and they chose not to carry any flag at all. Similarly, Irish athletes who wanted to represent their country were ordered to compete on behalf of Great Britain, and many of them withdrew as a result.

Acrimony between the United States and the host country began at the opening ceremony, when the American flag bearer, Ralph Rose, refused to dip the flag to the royal box, as other countries did. He explained his action with the terse statement, "This flag dips to no earthly king."

Several decisions by British judges went against American athletes during the games, and U. S. spokesmen felt they stemmed from bias, caused in part by the flag incident. Other countries also complained about some official decisions. The Swedish Greco-Roman wrestling team withdrew because of several adverse rulings, and both Canada and France complained bitterly about what they felt were unfair decisions in cycling.

The biggest controversy arose from the final of the 400-meter run, in which there were only four runners, one Briton and three Americans. J. C. Carpenter, who apparently won the race, was disqualified for allegedly interfering with the British runner, Wyndham Halswelle. Judges ordered a rerun of the final, but the three Americans refused to take part and Halswelle won by running around the track all by himself.

One reason for the disqualification was that Great Britain and the United States had different rules governing obstruction in running races. As a result of the controversy, the IOC decided, after the 1908 Games, that judges would be drawn from an international pool, rather than being furnished by the host country, and that standardized rules would be drawn up for all sports. That led directly to the founding in 1912 of the International Amateur Athletic Federation to codify rules for track and field competition.

The marathon also ended in controversy when Dorando Pietri of Italy collapsed after entering the stadium ahead of the pack. He was revived by doctors and some of the officials helped him to his feet and then assisted him to the finish line. John Hayes of the United States was the second finisher. Pietri had been declared the winner, but the Americans lodged a protest that was finally upheld. However, the action by the British officials, and the unusually long time it took them to uphold the protest, didn't go over very well with the United States.

On the brighter side, the overall organization of the 1908 Olympics was nearly impeccable. The system of using qualifying standards and preliminary competition leading up to the medals events has been followed by the organizers of every Olympics since then.

Quite by accident, the standard marathon distance was established in 1908. The original course was 25 miles long, which was more or less the standard distance at the time. But the starting line was moved from its original location to Windsor Castle, in order to give the royal family a better view, and the resulting distance of 26 miles, 385 yards has been the standard ever since.

The British also set a standard for future international swimming competition by building a 100-meter pool, clearly marked into lanes. And they planted the seed of the future Winter Olympics by adding figure skating to the program.

Despite the disputed 400-meter result, the United States did well in track and field, winning 13 of the 24 events. Ray Ewry won the standing broad jump and standing high jump to increase his gold medal total to 10, which is still the all-time record. Mel Sheppard was the only other double gold medalist and track and field, winning the 800- and 1,500-meter runs. The biggest winner overall was Henry Taylor of Great Britain, who won three gold medals in swimming.

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