As Quinn covered  in his post the other day about London’s first Olympic Games,Rome, Italy had been awarded teh games but for financial reasons [the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the desestation of Naples} they had to back out and the games were awarded to London.

The 1908 London Games started April 7th and ended October 31st. 1999 men participated and 36 women from 23 different countries. 11o events in 22 sports.

The host country Great Britain came out with the most medals with 56 gold and a total of 145. The United States was second with 23 gold and 47 total medals. Sweden was third 8 gold and 25 total. France finished 4th with 5 gold and 19 total medals. Germany was 5th -3 gold and 13 total medals.

The 1908 London Games [the Fourth Olympiad} were well organized for the most part and for the first time there was a comprehensive official report. King Edward VII officially opened the games. Again the games ran too long.

There were problems though. Great Britain ran the entire competition and a number of countries had problems with the British and the rules, most noteably the United States. The bickering between the United States and Great Britain got so bad that it almost put an end to the olympics.

In his earlier post Quinn discussed how the Marathon got its current distance. I will not go over that here. The most notable event was once again the Marathon. Dorando Pietri of Italy entered the stadium with the lead. He collapsed several times and also ran the wrong way. He was aided by two officials. This would lead to his disqualification and the victory would go to American Johnny Hayes.

With the next Olympic Games- 1912 Stockholm I will start to profile some of the great Olympic heroes. The first great modern Olympian would appear at those games.

Below is Dorando Pietri of Italy and his Marathon finish.

below a field hockey game going on at White City Stadium.