1908 Summer Olympics in London

Archery. 1908 Summer Olympics London

1908 Summer Olympics in London
The Games of the IV Olympiad, often called 1908 Summer Olympics took place in London from April 27 to October 31. Been played 110 sets of medals in 22 sports. The IOC president for these Games was Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Due to the small amount of time, to prepare for the Games (less than two years), the organizers, headed by William Grenfell decided to hold competitions in parallel with the Franco-British exhibition. However, it was despite the fact that Pierre de Coubertin was against holding the Olympics in conjunction with other international activities.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin

So, the organizers had to quickly build a suitable stadium for the Games. Meanwhile, the total cost of construction of the stadium in White City on 66 000 sits was 220,000 pounds.

Noteworthy, by June 1908, responding to the call of the Prince of Wales, George, the owners of the newspaper “Daily Mail”, the family of the American millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt, and even the French government collected 16,000 pounds for two weeks.

Although proposed to hold competitions in golf, equestrian, cricket and hockey, but they were not included in the program. Boxing was not originally meant as Olympic sport yet, but the tournaments still took place.

Official opening ceremony of the Games was at the stadium in White City, July 13, though the first event began as early as April 27 and by this time have been played 25 sets of medals.

A lot of notable people from across the UK, and from the rest of Europe came to the ceremony. At 15:49 King Edward VII and his wife Alexandra came into the stadium. After that sounded the fanfare, and William Grenfell said to the king: “Will His Majesty declare the Olympic Games IV open?” to which the monarch said: “I declare the Olympic Games in London open.”

1908 Summer Olympics in London

BOA Chairman William Grenfell (right)

Then the Grenadiers orchestra played the national anthem of Great Britain, and 18 national teams gathered at the ceremony. They took part in a parade around the stadium, and for the first time, carrying national flags. Teams of participants marched in alphabetical order of countries in the English language. Russia prohibited the Finnish athletes to compete under the flag of Finland, and the finnish team refused to march under Russian flag.

The organizers hanged by mistake flags of China and Japan, who did not participate in the Games instead of the United States and Swedish flags.