International Sports in the 20th Century Beginning of Modern Olympics 1896 1st modern Olympics o Held in Athens Greece o Pierre DeCoubertin very young French man who was a strong advocate and promoter of physical education and sport Before 1896 he successfully organized the Sports Festival in France He got a Greek philanthropist to donate 1 million dollars equivalent to 300 000 USD to build a stadium He got the Greek government to raise funds through ticket sales and the sales of commemorative medals o The first games had seven events track and field swimming gymnastics cycling fencing pistol shooting and tennis o The competitors were mainly European and from the United States o The athletes travelled as individuals not teams in the first modern Olympics They did represent their countries though o The United States team had 13 athletes mainly students from Princeton who were members of the Boston Athletic Association 10 were track and field 2 were pistol shooters and 1 was a swimmer o The United States ended up winning all but two events in track and o DeCoubertin became the president of the international Olympic o In 490BC the Greek army defeated the Persians in a place called Marathon They sent a soldier from marathon to Athens about 25 miles away The soldier was ordered to run the news of the victory to Athens when he arrived he said Rejoice we have conquered and then died o In 1896 Spirdon Louis won the first marathon field committee 1st marathon Olympic Games 1900 1976 Game summary o 1900 Paris games the early years of the 20th century 1900 1908 are considered to movement years of the Olympic games It was very easy after the first two games 1900 in Paris 1904 is St Louis for the Olympics to have ended the games were considered failures Both games lasted about 5 months DeCoubertin has no large part in the 1900 games He was delegated to being an official for the track and field events There were about 1100 athletes o 1904 St Louis games many countries avoided these games completely The 1904 games only had about 500 athletes One of the positive things from these games was that women were allowed to participate o 1906 Olympic movement was saved due to its 10 year anniversary Interim games were held in Athens and helped revive the Olympics because it sparked interest in the Olympics o 1908 London games At the time Finland was part of the Russian empire and Ireland was part of the British Empire both countries wanted to appear under their own flag and not their mother country s An International Olympic Federation IOF was formed for the sports to deal with the issues There were then more clear cut rule about the Olympics after the IOF formed In 1908 the marathon distance was also changed to 26 2 miles because the king of England wanted the marathon route to go in front of Windsor Palace o 1912 Stockholm games the games attracted over 2 000 athletes shows a growing interest in international sport The 1912 games had the introduction of the modern pentathlon The Pentathlon considered of fencing fiscal shooting swimming cross country road running and cross country horse riding The pentathlete was recognized as the best athlete at the games Jim Thorpe was a Native American who at the turn of the century was a very important athlete and successful in track and field and football His Indian name was Wa Toh Huk aka Bright Path At an early age his father was an alcoholic he was sent off to Carlisle Boarding School a Pennsylvania school for Native Americas from lower school to college He could do almost anything with very little training Pop Warner a football coach at Carlisle who had successful seasons due to Jim Thorpe s presence on the team While playing for Carlisle Thorpe left to play minor league baseball When he returned he was named an all American athlete In 1912 after he won the decathlon and pentathlon the King of Sweden called him the greatest athlete in the world After his time at Carlisle he played 6 years of major league baseball as well as professional football The Olympic Committee striped him of his medals because they did not consider him an amateur athlete because he spent a few summers playing minor league baseball this was no different than the normal but the USOC decided to make a statement and draw a line between amateurism and professionalism He was selected by the US president as the most outstanding athlete Died in 1953 One of his daughters battled with the USOC and in 1982 his medals were returned to his family o 1916 Olympic games cancelled because of World War I they were scheduled to take place in Berlin o Post World War I 1918 Competitions in 24 sports in the Inter Allied games USA French initiative Inter allied Games held in Paris Keeps countries and athletes spirits alive o 1920 Antwerp Belgium games Germany and German s allies were denied participation shows the power of the Olympic Committee Antwerp had suffered a lot of damage in the war so the games were more primitive than those in the past since the country was in recovery mode What came out of these games The Olympic flag was flown for the first time It had been approved as the Olympic flag in 1914 but it was flown for the 1920 games One athlete would take an oath on behalf of their country similar to the Greek oath of fair play It came as a result of the Jim Thorpe trials in the 1912 games o 1924 DeCoubertin requests that the Olympic games be assigned to Paris this is their second time The International Olympic Committee approves the request because DeCoubertin was about to retire At this game the idea of the Winter Olympics was introduced The winter Olympics would take place for one week About 3 000 athletes attended The French strongly hinted that they would not be able to guarantee the safety of German athletes so the German athletes chose not to attend the games At the ends of these games tennis was expelled as an Olympic sport because the International Tennis Federation refused to adhere to the strict amateurs only rule establish by the IOC In 1988 tennis returned to the games o 1928 Amsterdam games there is the participation of female athletes in 5 track and field events they had previously participated in swimming at the Olympics o 1932 Los Angeles games only about 1 300 athletes attended this shows that Europe was still the center of international sports and that people weren t willing to travel to America for the games At these games there were photo finishes at the finish lines whereas