Olympics History: Power and glory of the Games

The Olympic Games, an international festival of sport which originated in ancient Greece, were revived in the 19th century by a French aristocrat worried by young Frenchmen not getting enough physical education at school.

The ancient Olympics were mainly about the ruling classes preparing for war and barred women. Successive presidents of the International Olympic Committee, which Baron Pierre de Coubertin set up in 1894, were just as eager to keep the working classes and women in their place.

De Coubertin, also troubled by the growing commercialisation of sport 100 years ago, visualised an amateur championship for the world's sportsmen.

He took as his model the British and American upper class educational system of enlightened paternalism.

Oxford and Cambridge university graduates had, after all, started France's first sports club at Le Havre in 1872, while lawn tennis became all the rage after being imported from Britain in 1878.

The Greeks had twice tried to revive the Games, in 1859 and 1870, so the first Olympic Games, since the Roman emperor Theodosius had banned them in AD 393, were held in Athens.

1896 ATHENS

Of the 13 nations who had responded to de Coubertin's invitation to Paris, and the 21 who had given written support, only 12 were represented in Athens.

The nine sports on the Olympic programme were athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, lawn tennis, shooting, swimming, weightlifting and wrestling.

A Greek architect Georgios Averoff picked up most of the bill and many of the competitors were simply tourists visiting Athens at the time.

James Conolly of Boston, who dropped out from Harvard to go to Athens, became the first Olympic champion in 1,527 years when he won what was then known as the hop, step and jump.

Athens crowds were fascinated by the "crouch" start of Americans Thomas Burke, who went on to get gold, and Thomas Curtis.

A Greek shepherd, Spiridon Louis, won the first marathon over the same course covered by Greek hero Pheidippides after the battle of Marathon in 490 BC.

1900 PARIS

The Games, overshadowed by the Eiffel Tower, were very much a sideshow to the Paris Exposition and the organisation was an embarrassment.

Charlotte Cooper of Britain had already won three of her five Wimbledon titles when she became the first women's Olympic champion.

American college students Alvin Kraenzlein, Irving Baxter, John Tewksbury and Ray Ewry won 11 of 23 track and field events, five seconds and a third. Kraenzlein is still the only athlete to win four individual athletic golds at one Olympics - 110m hurdles, long jump and the discontinued 60m hurdles and 200m hurdles.

1904 ST LOUIS

The distance to Missouri meant that only eight overseas nations took part. The Games, part of the World Fair, lasted five months. There was even a sack race.

There were some respected runners for the marathon. There was also Felix Carvajal, a Cuban postman who had hitch-hiked from New Orleans after losing his money in a card game, and Lentauw and Yamasani, two Zulus who were part of the Boer War exhibit at the fair.

The start was delayed so Carvajal's long trousers could be cut off at the knees. He eventually finished fourth. Lentauw was chased through a field by two dogs but still finished ninth.

The race, run on dusty roads in the middle of the afternoon, was won by English-born Thomas Hicks from Massachusetts, second in that year's Boston marathon, who was revived with strychnine and brandy.

Fred Lorz from New York caused a stir when he appeared in the stadium. He was about to be presented with the gold medal when it was discovered he had stopped running after nine miles and got a lift. The practical joke backfired when he was banned for life but he was later reinstated and won the 1905 Boston marathon.

1906 ATHENS

Greece staged an attempt to revive interest in the Olympics, which was flagging after after Paris and St Louis. It was quite successful and helped ensure the modern games continued but medals were not recognised by the IOC.

1908 LONDON

London was host for the first time when Rome withdrew. With 1,500 competitors from 19 nations the Games were by now established.

However, there were constant rows between British and American officials and South African Reggie Walker, whose 100m win put an end to four American victories, was greeted like a hero.

Walker, a 19-year-old clerk from Durban, benefitted from training from Sam Mussabini, who was later to coach Harold Abrahams to victory in Paris in 1924.

Lieutenant Wyndham Halswelle, who had fought in the Boer War, became the only man in Olympic history to win by a walk-over when an American was disqualified for obstructing him in the 400m and the other two Americans refused to take part in the re-run. Halswelle was so disgusted he gave up sport. He was killed in World War One fighting in France in 1915.

Political disputes made their entry into the Games when the English tried to prevent the Irish from displaying their flag and the Russians did the same to the Finns.

The most dramatic episode was in the marathon, extended 385 yards to finish in front of Queen Alexandra's royal box. The distance of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195km) later became the norm.

Italian sweetmaker Dorando Pietri was disqualified after being helped over the line by British officials but he was presented with a gold cup by the queen.

1912 STOCKHOLM

American Indian Jim Thorpe, aged 24, proved himself one of the greatest athletes of all time when he won both the pentathlon and decathlon. His score for the decathlon would have won the next two Olympic competitions and even have given him a silver medal in 1948.

But in 1913 it was revealed he had been paid 25 dollars a week playing minor league baseball, something which other college students did under different names. He was stripped of his medals and records for being a professional.

Avery Brundage, who as IOC president from 1952 to 1972 refused to listen to calls for Thorpe to be reinstated, was sixth in the pentathlon and did not finish the decathlon in 1912.

At the instigation of de Coubertin, the modern pentathlon, an event acting out the ordeal of a messenger fighting his way through enemy lines, was introduced. Two years later war broke out.

Hannes Kolehmainen of Finland won the 5,000m, 10,000m and cross-country and returned in 1920 to win the marathon.

1920 ANTWERP

Germany and its allies were barred but there were still a record 29 countries. The five-ring Olympic flag and oath-taking were introduced. Finland's Paavo Nurmi won the 10,000m and cross-country individual and team titles as well as a silver in the 5,000m. He was to win 9 golds and 12 medals and set 22 world records in three Games but in 1932 he was suspended for claiming too much on expenses.

Jack Kelly, a Philadelphia bricklayer-turned millionaire who had been refused entry to the Royal Henley rowing regatta, got his revenge by beating Britain's Diamond Sculls winner Jack Beresford. Kelly's daughter was the later Princess Grace of Monaco.

Defending Wimbledon champion Suzanne Lenglen dropped only four games in 10 sets to win the tennis gold medal.

The only break in Hungary's 56-year domination of individual sabre fencing occured as Hungary was not invited.

1924 PARIS

Citius, Altius, Fortius -- faster, higher, stronger. A new Games motto from the Paris Olympic Games taken to heart by Nurmi who ran seven races in six days to win five gold medals.

Harold Abrahams, whose triumph was glorified in the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire, won the 100m.

Johnny Weismuller, later to find fame as Tarzan, swam to three gold medals.

There was another dramatic increase in the number of athletes with 5,533 from 44 countries.

1928 AMSTERDAM

First time the Olympic flame was used. Germany allowed to compete again.

Women were allowed to compete in athletics for the first time and 16-year-old American Betty Robinson's 100m win made her the first women's Olympic champion at track and field.

The 800m race sparked off a controversy when several women collapsed. IOC president Count Henri de Baillet-Latour said all women's sports should be excluded from the Olympics and the IAAF banned women from running more than 200m for another 32 years. The anti-feminists overlooked the fact that men often collapse after races.

Lina Radke of Germanybeat Japan's Kinue Hitomi, who had been unable to compete in her world record events -- the 200m and long jump -- since they were not on the programme.

1932 LOS ANGELES

The distance and the depression led to the smallest numbers since 1906 although excellent conditions led to every Olympic athletic record except the long jump being broken. Babe Didrikson showed her versatility by winning gold medals in the 80m hurdles, javelin and a silver in the high jump. Officials prevented her from competing in another two events.

Japan won five gold medals in men's swimming.

Just before the Games, the IOC said Nurmi would not be allowed to run in his fourth Games because he had received too much expenses on trip to Germany in 1929.

1936 BERLIN

Adolf Hitler, who had risen to power since the Los Angeles Games, seized on the idea of using the Olympics as a platform for demonstrating the supposed supremacy of the Aryan races.

The torch relay, exploited in Leni Riefenstahl's film Olympia, made its first appearance.

Germany won only five gold medals in men's track and field but thorough preparation in gymnastics, rowing and equestrian helped them to 89 overall, compared to 56 for the USA.

Jesse Owens and the other black American athletes were described by the Nazi press as "black auxilliaries" but his four gold medals and tremendous personality won over ordinary Germans.

The IOC said it had been alarmed at the ill-treatment of Jews but would not be drawn into political and other controversies.

A Workers' Games, which were proving more popular, came to an end when Franco started the Spanish Civil War. There had been 150,000 at Paris in 1925 and 100,000 at Vienna in 1931.

1948 LONDON

The Games had been scheduled for Tokyo in 1940.

Germany and Japan were not invited, the Soviet Union decided to stay away, but other Communist countries took part.

Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands became the first woman athlete ever to win four medals at a single Games, winning the 100m and 200m, 80m hurdles and anchoring the 4x100m relay. It could have been six -- the mother of two did not compete in the high jump or long jump, two of the five events for which she held the world record.

Alice Coachman won the women's high jump to become the first black Olympic women's champion. When she returned home to Albany, Georgia, she was not allowed to speak at a town hall reception where the audience was segregated.

Bob Mathias won his first Olympic decathlon title at the age of 17.

1952 HELSINKI

The Cold War games. The Soviet Union participated for the first time after a 40 year absence, in a country they had invaded twice during World War II, and Germany and Japan were allowed back. Nine of their 22 gold medals came in gymnastics. The Soviets and their eastern block allies stayed in a separate village.

Emil Zatopek won three gold medals, the 5,000m, 10,000m (which he had won in London) and the marathon. He had never run the marathon before. His wife Dana also won the women's javelin.

There was a revolution in equestrian sports when civilians and women were allowed to compete in dressage. Previously only officers had been allowed to take part.

Lis Hartel of Denmark, struck down by polio eight years earlier when she was 24, won the silver medal. She forced herself to walk again although she remained paralysed below the knees and had to be helped on and off the horse.

Two future professional world heavyweight champions took part in the boxing. Floyd Patterson of the United States won the middleweight gold medal while Sweden's Ingemar Johansson was disqualified in the heavyweight final for "not trying."

Barbara Jones, a 15-year-old from Chicago, one of four black women in America's 4x100m relay team, became the youngest ever Olympic athletics champion -- man or woman.

Ferenc Puskas helped Hungary win the soccer gold medal. The Hungarians were third in the medals table.

1956 MELBOURNE

The isolation of the first southern hemisphere Games kept entries down and the Games were hit by two boycotts.

Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon withdrew to protest the Israeli-led take-over of the Suez Canal while Holland, Spain and Switzerland boycotted to protest the Soviet Union invasion of Hungary.

The equestrian events were held in Stockholm because of Australia's quarantine laws.

Soviet strongman Vladimir Kuts won the 5,000m and 10,000m and Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser won two gold medals and a silver. She went on to win a total of four gold medals and four silvers in three Games and was world record holder for the 100m for the next 15 years.

Betty Cuthbert followed Marjorie Jackson's 1952 sprint double with one of her own for Australia while Murray Rose, a vegeterian, made a lot of Australians think twice about their diet with three gold swimming medals.

Pat McCormick repeated her diving double gold medal performance of 1952. Her daughter Kelly won silver and bronze in 1984 and 1988.

1960 ROME

In the resplendent setting of Rome, Cassius Clay won the light heavyweight boxing gold medal and, in both that name and as Muhammad Ali, became the world's most famous sportsman as professional heavyweight champion.

Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia won the marathon, running barefoot and won again four years later, in shoes. Wilma Rudolph, the 20th of a family of 22 children from Tennessee, won three gold medals. She had suffered from polio, double pneumonia and scarlet fever as a girl.

Herb Eliott of Australia won the 1,500 in a world record -- he was never beaten over the 1,500 or mile.

For the first time since 1928, women's track events did not consist entirely of sprinting with the return of the 800m won by the Soviet Union's Lyudmila Shevtsova.

India's run of 30 Olympic hockey wins without defeat was ended by Nasir Ahmad's 12th minute goal for Pakistan in the final.

These were South Africa's last Games for 32 years because of its apartheid policies.

1964 TOKYO

The first Games to be staged in Asia were a masterpiece of organisation.

Don Schollander, 18, became the first swimmer to win four gold medals at one Olympics while Dawn Fraser won her third successive 100m freestyle.

Peter Snell of New Zealand retained his 800m title and added the 1,500m while Bob Hayes won the 100m in a world record of 10.0sec. This performance was verified on the photo-finish device used for the first time.

Judo was introduced but the Japanese lost the fourth title and most important, the open category, to Holland's Anton Geesink.

Joe Frazier, another future world professional champion, won the heavyweight boxing title and India won their seventh hockey title, turning the tables on Pakistan who has broken the sequence in 1960.

Larysa Latynina of the Soviet Union lost the all-round gymnastics title to Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia but collected six more medals to bring her total to 18: nine gold, five silver and four bronze.

1968 MEXICO CITY

This was the year when student-led strikes in France almost toppled General de Gaulle and Soviet tanks wiped out Prague's attempts to throw out Communism. Students in Mexico disagreed about state money being spent on the Olympics and staged a series of protests, all broken up violently by the police.

IOC president Avery Brundage warned the president, Diaz Ordez, that if there were demonstrations at the Olympic sites the Games would be cancelled. Ten days before the Games were to begin the army opened fire on a peaceful rally and killed nearly 300.

The IOC refused to take a stand and described it as a local affair.

Two weeks later, sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in a Black Power salute during the American anthem.

"A nasty demonstration against the United States flag by Negroes," was Brundage's response and the two men were thrown out.

Significantly, the civil rights protest was supported by Australia's Peter Norman, the silver medal winner.

Mexico City's rareified air helped athletes set records in the sprint events.

Bob Beamon jumped 29ft 5in (8.90m) for a world record that would remain unbeaten for 23 years.

But the distance runners suffered -- unless they were from the east African plateau.

Kip Keino won the 1,500m and a silver in 5,000m when a tactical error let in Tunisian Mohammed Gammoudi as Kenya won their first ever gold medals. Naftali Temu won the 10,000m and Amos Biwot the steeplechase. Ethiopia's Mamo Wolde won the marathon.

Dick Fosbury, whose jump was nicknamed the flip but later became the flop, won the high jump and dicus thrower Al Oerter became the first man to win four athletic golds.

But the hero of Mexico was Vera Caslavska, the defending All-round gymnastic champion from Czechoslovakia who had publicly come out against Soviet involvement in her country before Leonid Brezhnev sent the tanks in.

She was eventually allowed to go to Mexico where she captivated the crowds, adding four gold medals and two silvers to the three gold and two silver she had won in Tokyo.