#1908 Olympic Games

[thepastisalreadywritten]

FUN FACT:

The gold medals at the 1904, 1908, and 1912 Olympic Games were all made of solid gold.

Today, gold medals aren't actual gold.

The International Olympic Committee requires that gold medals must be made of at least 92.5% silver but also have about six grams of gold. 🥇

[steampunktendencies]

The Olympic Games in 1908.

[vintage-every-day]

The Olympic Games in 1908.

[m1male2]

The Olympic Games held in London in 1908, known as the Games of the IV Olympiad, were held between April 27 and October 31.

Although the venue chosen by the Olympic Committee had been Rome, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on April 7, 1907, forced the Italian government to devote all its efforts to the reconstruction of the city of Naples, which had been completely devastated.

[queenmelancholy]

Saw a reel of tug of war in the 1908 London Olympic Games, went 👀 and immediately thought of Downton.

Did a bit of research:

Considering how well Team GB did in this sport, it could be quite respected among the Brits around that time. Then, was there more serious contempt for Thomas in Jimmy’s questioning about whether he could manage this rather formal and popular sport? Like, there’s difference in asking someone who attempted breakdancing if they found it rough in the 1970s vs today. This certainly adds another layer to Jimmy’s passive-aggressive behaviour.

Credits to papa-evershed

Meanwhile, I can only imagine a “Downton Club” standing on the podium. What a pity they cancelled it after 1920. We should really bring it back.

[barbucomedie]

1908 Pattern Cavalry Sword of the 10th (Prince of Wales's Own) Royal Hussars from the British Empire dated to 1914 on display at Horsepower, The Museum Of The King's Royal Hussars in Winchester, England

Introduced in 1908 this pattern of cavalry sowrd was considered the most effective cavalry sword ever made, albeit during a time when swords had been becoming more obsolete in war. It was designed as a thrusting weapon, using the point of the sword to kill rather than the edge. During the First World War most soldiers painted the scabbard as a form of camoflage. Officers used a similar, more ornate sword, known as the 1912 Pattern Cavalry Sword.

This particular sword was used by Major Crichton of the 10th Hussars until he was wounded in 1915 on the Western Front. He opted to use a Troopers sword rather than an officers one, although the grip has been modified. Major Crichton was an Olympic Gold medalist for the mixed 6 metres sailing in the 1908 games.

Photographs taken by myself 2023

[a-roguish-gambit]

How morph and Logan meet in you au a cabaret preformece perhaps?

Nah. They have done that before briefly, but Cabaret was kinda a low end form of performance at the time, and they were already working on Broadway by the time they met.

They actually first met at the 1904 st Louis world's Fair/US Olympic games when morph was 24, when they were visiting for a brief vacation. They ironically enough actually saw Logan performing at a wild West demonstration (Logan needed money where he could get it, and world's fairs not only paid big bucks in wages for the time but he also got tips) where he rode a live, angry bull rodeo style. They spent the afternoon together after Logan fell off the bull and had to fake a shoulder strain at least to seem normal, and morph decided to introduce them self as a bit of a hot and bothered fan. Morph figured out he was a mutant from the fact he wasn't even wincing or avoiding using his shoulder at all, and came out to him about their own powers. they bonded a bit, but had to part ways as neither of them were living in St. Louis permanently. Morph only had a week off after all.

After morph's vacation ended, they didn't see each other again for a while. Logan got recruited by charles, morph got busy landing their biggest role as captain hook in Peter Pan and was not even in the states for a bit. in 1908, when morph was stuck inbetween a rock and a hard place as a tabloid threatened to out them for homosexual behavior in exchange for dirt on their fellow stage actors, Logan seemed to pop back up "like a knight in shining armor" with Charles to recruit them for their help. And so they left Broadway and joined Charles' institute, soon drunkenly admitting their feelings for Logan one night, which to their pleasant surprise, were enthusiastically and drunkenly returned that evening...and throughout the night if you catch my drift. ;)

[worstjourney]

Fr Jeffrey John on Sportsmanship and Competition, Paris Olympics 2024

This sermon was broadcast on Radio 4's Sunday Worship from St George's Anglican Church in Paris on the opening weekend of the 2024 Olympics. I thought it worth saving because it speaks to the ethos of the time period in which the modern Olympic Games were born, and in which Our Guys were brought up.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin is generally acknowledged as the father of the modern Olympic Games. He was born in Paris in 1863, and convened the first International Olympic Congress at the Sorbonne in 1894. He was the energy behind the first games to be held in Paris, in 1900, and then again in Paris on a much larger scale in 1924. So it is wonderfully appropriate that, another a hundred years later, the games are in Paris again.

De Coubertin was an aristocrat, an educationist and an anglophile. He believed strongly in the ancient Greek philosophy of sport as building character and esprit de corps, and thought it was ideally exemplified in English public schools. He was a great friend and admirer of Thomas Arnold, and strove hard, though unsuccessfully, to introduce the same ethos into the French school system.

His real and enduring success was the Olympic games themselves, though clearly it was never going to be easy to achieve the kind of harmonious agreement and international co-operation that the games demand. Inevitably there were problems.

In the London Olympics of 1908, there was a particularly bitter dispute between the British and American delegations, with the Americans complaining that a British jury had unfairly disqualified some of their best athletes. The dispute escalated even to the White House and Downing Street.

In a special service for the Olympics held that year in St Paul’s Cathedral, the sermon was given by an American Bishop, Ethelbert Talbot,  who tried to calm the quarrel by reminding both sides that according to St Paul (in the text that we just heard) winning the game was not the most important thing. Runners may compete to win a prize, says Paul, but the earthly prize is nothing: 

"Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one."

So Bishop Talbot concluded:

"If England be beaten on the river, or if America be outdistanced on the racetrack, well, what of it? The Games themselves are better than the race and the prize. St. Paul tells us how insignificant is the prize.  Our true prize is not perishable but imperishable, and though only one may wear the laurel wreath, all may share the equal joy of the contest."

De Coubertin heard the bishop’s sermon and wrote later how deep an impression it had made on him. It made him see more clearly than before that the Olympic aim was not simply a sporting or educational ideal, but a human and religious one; and that overcoming both personal and national ambition in a spirit of genuine co-operation is essential to real flourishing. As he put it:

What matters in the Olympic games is not winning but taking part, because what matters in life is not to triumph but to compete well. We must hold fast to this truth: it is basic to every area of human experience.

That dictum, ‘It is not whether you win or lose but how you play the game’ has become proverbial in French and English, but do we actually believe it?

It is easy to be cynical. Oscar Wilde said it would be truer to say ‘It is not whether you win or lose, but how you lay the blame’. 

We know very well how much corruption, drugs, commercialisation, and the buying and selling of athletes for obscene sums of money have tarnished every kind of sport. 

Some modern athletes have flatly contradicted Coubertin’s grand ideal: ‘Of course winning isn’t everything; winning is the ONLY thing’ said one.

But I think the cynics are wrong.  Even if sport can be abused, ‘abusus non tollit usum’ – abuse doesn’t cancel out proper use. And even if some athletes are obsessed with winning, what inspires is not the gold medal but the extreme dedication and courage it takes for all the competitors to reach their peak of perfection.

The motto of the games isn’t ‘Fastest, Highest, Strongest’, it’s ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger Together’.  In other words, as De Coubertin said, what counts for everyone in every sphere of life, is the determination to do the best you possibly can, against whatever odds. The explosion of enthusiasm for the Paralympic Games in recent years is because somehow, we fell that we are all made braver and nobler in reaching our goals by seeing their bravery and nobility in reaching theirs.  The beauty revealed by the games isn’t just of the body, it’s of the soul.

Whether it is in sport or anything else, if we strive to do the best we can with what we’ve got, in the end we can all hope to say, as St Paul said at the end of his life, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith’.

[stephensmithuk]

The Illustrious Client

First published in the US in 1924 and the UK in 1925, the latter as a two-parter, this forms part of Case-book.

The first part in The Strand ends with Watson seeing the newspaper headline about the attack on Holmes.

Northumberland Avenue is a street running from Trafalgar Square to the Thames Embankment. It includes a pub called The Sherlock Holmes.

The Carlton Club was founded by the Conservative Party and was long its defacto headquarters. Originally on Carlton Terrace, it moved to Pall Mall in 1835, with the building rebuilt in 1856. A direct hit by a German bomb in 1940 destroyed the building and the Club moved to 69 St James's Street, former home of Arthur's Club. Women were not allowed to be associate members until the 1970s and not full members until 2008, with Margaret Thatcher getting honorary membership when she become Tory leader in 1975. She later become club president in 2009, although by his point she had dementia and died in 2013.

The general consensus is that the "Illustrious Client" is no less than Edward VII himself, who Holmes may have previously gotten the Beryl Coronet back for.

Prague was then under Austrian rule.

The Splügen Pass, used for travel since Roman times, connects Switzerland and Italy and with its great height, hairpins and spectacular views, is considered one of the greatest driving challenges on the planet, having featured in Top Gear. The San Bernandino tunnel has taken most of the non-tourist traffic and it is now closed in winter for safety reasons.

Kingston upon Thames, known as Kingston for short, is a town located 10 miles SW of Charing Cross. Until 1965, it was in Surrey before becoming part of Greater London and part of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Surrey County Council were based there until 2021, when their offices moved to Reigate.

The Hurlingham Club in Fulham is where horse polo's rules were established - it even hosted Olympic polo in the 1908 London Games, but the fields were compulsorily purchased by the local council after the Second World War for housing. It was also home to pigeon shooting and was home of world croquet, still holding major events in the latter. Edward VII was a keen patron of the site.

Charlie Peace was an English burglar and double murderer, executed in 1879. He ended up featuring in Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors, which was oddly enough replaced between 2016 and 2022 with an immersive Sherlock Holmes Experience... which at £66.50 a ticket was a bit too expensive.

HMP Parkhurst, a Category B prison located on the Isle of Wight, merged in 2009 with HMP Albany to form HMP Isle of Wight, although each part retains its own name. Notable inmates include the Kray Twins, Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady and currently Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadžić.

Hypnotism was rather in vogue by this time.

Apaches were the name given to various criminal gangs in Paris; named after the Native American tribe. There are various suggestions as to how that came about.

Montmartre, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, was widely known for its artistic community during this time, with many a famous name living there due to the low rents. It's still there and development is restricted due to the historic character. Pigalle, Paris's red-light district, is next door.

Kitty Winter would feature as a character in Elementary, played by Ophelia Lovibond. Gruner turns up as well.

"Tinker’s curse" is Kitty saying, in the language of the time, that she does not give an [expletive deleted].

Ruritania is a fictional country first featured in the 1894 Anthony Hope novel The Prisoner of Zenda. It has become a byword for quaint small European countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

China was still an Empire in 1902, nominally ruled by the Guangxu Emperor, aka Zaitan, but an 1898 coup resulted in his loss of any real power; he was even in house arrest for a while. He died in 1908, probably poisoned by arsenic. His nephew, Puyi, would be the last Chinese Emperor and is beyond the scope of this article.

I cannot discuss Chinese pottery in any depth and so will not attempt to.

Some husbands might have questioned the gallantry of King Edward VII, who had a box for his mistresses at his coronation.

Armorial bearings are the "shield" part of a coat of arms. The British royal one traditionally depicted a bare-breasted woman as part of the harp on the bottom left, but this is no longer standard practice.

Edward VII, while having no actual political power, was able to exercise quite a bit of influence behind the scenes, especially in foreign and defence policy.

All criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the monarch, rendered "R" (Rex or Regina) in text and "the Crown" when spoken). i.e. R vs. Winter. In addition, judicial reviews (i.e. is this government decision legal) are also brought in the name of the monarch, with the name of the actual plaintiff in brackets since a 2001 change to the format, e.g. R (Smith) vs. Secretary of State for the Home Department. It is common for initials to be used in those brackets to protect the identity of a plaintiff, such as the recent decision on flying migrants to Rwanda.

[chompinatthebit]

Thanks for the fun, Paris

The two and a half weeks that were the Paris Olympic games are now in the books, it was a great event with a lot of elite athletes competing at the highest level. No matter what your itch is, the olympics will scratch it, I watched everything from table tennis to water polo. Obviously living in the USA, I root for the American athletes to do well but it's fun watching other nations celebrate medals. It's time to reflect on the games, taking a look at what these games will be remembered for as we are on the road to 2028.

I think we can all agree that the idea of breaking or break dancing being involved in the Olympics was going to be intriguing. I can say that it will be remembered for a while, probably not for the best reasons, it was defined by a woman from Australia earning a zero. I'm sure that you've seen the routine, if not, please check it out. As of right now it seems like breaking will be one and done as it won't be returning for the 2028 games.

This was a redemption tour for Simone Biles, re-establishing her dominance after a rough performance in Tokyo back in 2020. In Tokyo she pulled out after citing her mental health, she didn't look like her normal self at all. She medaled in Tokyo but you could tell something was off, didn't want to make it seem like she did nothing. In Paris, Simone earned gold medals for the individual all around, team all around and vault. She added a silver medal for floor exercise, 4 total medals with her expressing joy and confidence that seemed to be missing in Tokyo.

This is 16 year old Quincy Wilson who made his Olympic debut in Paris and earned a gold medal as part of the 4x400 meter relay team. The coolest part of his winning a gold is the fact that he became the youngest ever to win a gold medal, now he becomes someone that I will be looking out for in 2028.

There were many more moments but that's every Olympics, whether it's summer or winter. The 2028 Olympics will be in Los Angeles as was introduced during the closing ceremonies with Tom Cruise lowering in to the arena and taking the flag to LA.

LA will see the return and introduction of 5 sports that weren't part of the Paris games. Baseball and Softball will be making a return, they were last played back in 2008. Lacrosse and Cricket are also making a return, but they haven't been in the Olympics since 1908 and 1900, respectively. Squash and Flag Football will be brand new to the Olympics. I'm excited to see them all in 2028, are you?

Make sure to follow me both @chompinatthebit and @passionandprecision with my co-host who you can also follow @jorissportsstories. Let me know what you think.

Until next time...

[psi-zi]

Swimming — A few dates

1896

First Olympic Swimming Event Swimming became an Olympic event for the first time in the 1896 Athens Games, featuring four men’s events.

1908

Introduction of Women's Swimming Events Women’s swimming events were introduced at the 1908 London Olympics, featuring three events.

1926

Introduction of Butterfly Stroke The butterfly stroke was introduced as a new swimming style in a competition held in the town of Sydenham, England.

1956

Introduction of Backstroke The backstroke became an Olympic event for the first time in the 1956 Melbourne Games.

1968

Introduction of Breaststroke The breaststroke became an Olympic event for the first time in the 1968 Mexico City Games.

2000

Introduction of Individual Medley The individual medley, which combines all four swimming styles in one race, was introduced as a new Olympic event in the 2000 Sydney Games.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Les Jeux Olympiques en 1908. 🥇🥈🥉

—

The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, from 27 April to 31 October 1908.

The 1908 Games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome but were relocated on financial grounds following the violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906, which claimed over 100 lives.

Rome eventually hosted the Games in 1960.

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Scotland’s most successful Olympian, Sir Chris Hoy.

Born in Edinburgh on March 23rd 1975,the 1982 film E.T the Extra Terrestrial inspired Chris Hoy to cycle. He was then a mere six year old boy. Between the age of seven and fourteen, Chris Hoy raced for BMX and was ranked two in Britain, ninth in the World and seventh in Europe. He then received a scholarship from Kwik-Fit and Slazenger to compete in the United States and in Europe.

Chris Hoy was also into rowing and rugby as a student. The first cycling club that he ever joined was Dunedin Cycling Club in 1992. Chris then started focusing on only track cycling from the year 1994 joining the City of Edinburgh Racing Club, his main events included the Team Sprint and the one kilometre Time Trial. It was Team Sprint that brought him his very first World Championship medal. His team came second in 1999. The first World Title for his team came in the year 2002 at Copenhagen in the Ballerup Velodrome. He also won the one kilometre time trial that same very year beating Arnaud Tournant. He was World champion in the years 2004, 2006 and 2007.

Chris won his first Olympic gold medal in Athens 2004 in the Kilo – an event that was dropped from the programme for Beijing 2008. Chris took this in his stride and switched his focus to three other track sprint events – the Keirin, Sprint and Team Sprint. He went on to win a gold medal in all three at the Beijing Olympics, cementing his name in the history books.

Following his historic hat-trick of gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, Chris was voted 2008 BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He was also awarded a Knighthood in the 2009 New Year Honours list, capping an extraordinary year. At the 2012 Olympics in London, Chris won his fifth and sixth gold medals – in the Keirin and Team Sprint – becoming OUR most successful Olympic athlete of all time with six gold medals and one silver.

In all he won 11 Gold medals, 6 Silver and 6 Bronze in World Championships, 6 Golds and a Silver at Olympics, and 2 Gold and 2 Bronze at Commonwealth games.

Chris retired from competitive cycling in 2013 he was the first Briton since 1908 to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games, and one of the most successful Olympic cyclists of all time.

Following his retirement, Chris remains passionate about bikes and has successfully made the transition into the business world following the launch of his bike range HOY Bikes, cycling accessories and clothing. He has published a series of children’s books – Flying Fergus – and is currently working on a second series.

In June 2016, Chris added to his record list of achievements when he finished the world’s most demanding motorsport endurance race, the Le Mans 24 Hours, on his debut. Last year he had a miracle escape after crashing a racing car at more than 100mph at Silverstone race track.

Chris has become a polished public speaker and media presenter, and he was a key part of the BBC TV’s commentary and punditry team covering the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Hoy has been Ambassador for SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health) since 2009. In that time he has devoted many hours to raising awareness of and funds for the mental health cause.In December 2016 and December 2017, Hoy supported the Scottish Social Enterprise Social Bite by sleeping out at their Sleep in the Park events to end homelessness in Scotland..

Last year Chris revealed he was diagnosed with cancer, although he never said what type, he is upbeat regarding it in February he said;

"I'm optimistic, positive and surrounded by love for which I'm truly grateful. As you might imagine, the last few months have been incredibly difficult. However, I currently feel fine.

"It's an exciting year of work ahead, not least with the Paris Olympics in July. I can't wait to get stuck in, have fun and share it with you all."

[ozma914]

Old Olympics Events Leave Fans Confused

Here's a look at some past Olympic sports that are no longer in the games.

Several years ago, baseball and softball were pulled from competition. The American women dominated in softball, while in baseball Americans … well, they only got three medals in five tries. The Cuban team grabbed the gold. There’s not much else to do in Cuba, except play baseball and stare longingly toward Florida, where senior citizens have high speed internet and all-you-can-eat buffets.

In lacrosse, a medal event in 1904 and 1908, people in face masks hit their balls with big fly swatters. It died out in the early 1900’s because only the Canadians, British, and Americans were willing to take the punishment. Former lacrosse players are now employed as dog catchers and butterfly collectors.

Basque pelota was only a medal event in 1900, because nobody could figure out how to pronounce it. It’s played on a court with a ball, sometimes using a racket, but sometimes not.

In other words, it’s handball. If they’d called it that, basque pelota-ites would be on Wheaties boxes.

Downhill skiing initially fared poorly, with over a dozen cases of heat stroke before it was moved to the WINTER games.

Tandem cycling was popular in the Olympics, from 1920-72. It’s being considered again with more interesting rules: The guy in front steers, while the guy in back can lash out at other competitors with lacrosse sticks. It’s now a favorite of retired hockey players.

In 1948 winter pentathlon was put on as a demonstration sport, and consisted of downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, shooting, fencing, and horse riding.

All together. In the same event.

Cat Pool proved particularly popular with pooch preference people.

Sweden, which remained more or less neutral through World War II, had a whole army of young men just itching to shoot something: They swept all the winter pentathlon medals. However, the sport was discontinued after ski-clad Swedes on horseback shot all the competitors’ horses while jumping over the fencing.

Motorboarding--I initially thought this was something altogether different--was tried in 1908. It ended with only one boat finishing in each of three races. It turns out the Swedes used their winter pentathlon rifles to shoot up the other boat engines, leading officials to change to rowing.

Polo was a favorite Olympic event in the early 1900’s, but it was canceled after the Swedes sent in their entry forms.

The Olympics also tried an obstacle course … for swimmers. Competitors had to climb over a pole, go over a row of boats, and then swim under another row of boats. Luckily they had an excess of boats left over from the motorboat races.

Speaking of swimming, in 1984 they tried solo synchronized swimming.

Think about it.

Synchronized Ball Inflation preceeded most Olympic sports that included balls, but failed badly after the tennis event caused several aneurysms.

Then there’s the one Olympic sport I actually participated in: Tug of war. Not in the Olympics, but we won, and didn’t have to borrow Swedish rifles to do it. Between 1900 and 1920 the sport was dominated by Great Britain, which sent teams of police officers. And remember, their cops were unarmed. Good thing the Swedes didn’t have a team.

Distance plunging would have been interesting … or not. Athletes would dive into the pool and coast underwater, without moving.

That’s it. The winner is the one who drifted the longest in sixty seconds, or when they floated to the surface, whichever came first. An American won the gold, although it should be noted that this competition happened only once, in the 1904 St. Louis Olympics. It should also be noted that only Americans competed.

I’m not sure how they could tell whether the athlete was winning, or drowning.

Groundhog Racing was halted after a series of crashes--and rabies.

Also at St. Louis, another US competitor did an impressive job winning gold in a sport that still gives old gym class haters nightmares: the rope climb. Why was George Eyser so impressive? Because he had a wooden leg.

In 1906 they tried the sport of pistol dueling. No, it wasn’t won by a Swede. It wasn’t really dueling, either: Competitors shot at a dummy dressed in a frock coat, and by dummy I don’t mean the guy who planned the Sochi games. It’s a good thing, because it could have been the one sport where the silver and bronze medals were awarded posthumously.

Finally, here’s a sport they tried just once, at the 1900 Paris Olympics:

Live pigeon shooting.

When the feathers cleared, a Belgian named Leon de Lunden got the gold for downing 21 birds, none of which had a say in the matter. Then he celebrated with a steak dinner.

Once the onlookers got a look at the mess left behind, they decided the Swedes weren’t so bad.

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

Substack:  https://substack.com/@markrhunter

Tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

Remember, books can make your brain strong enough to win a Reading Gold.

[the-olympics-olympics]

After the IOC awarded the Games of the XVIth Olympiad to Melbourne in Victoria, Australia they learned that Australian quarantine laws required a six-month quarantine period for horses entering the country. As the six-month quarantine made it impractical for competitors’ horses to be transported to Australia, this precluded Melbourne from being able to host the equestrian events at the 1956 Olympic Games. It was decided, actually in violation of the Olympic Charter, to contest separate Equestrian Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden.

Figure skating was first contested as an Olympic sport at the 1908 Summer Olympics, in London, United Kingdom. As this traditional winter sport could be conducted indoors, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved its inclusion in the Summer Olympics program. It was featured a second time at the 1920 Antwerp Games, after which it was permanently transferred to the program of the Winter Olympic Games, first held in 1924 in Chamonix, France.

[brandongenovesi]

Baseball's Long Road at the Olympics

The invention of the American sport of baseball is often credited to Abner Doubleday in 1839, though the game can be traced back as far as the 18th century. By the 1860s, baseball had taken on the title of the “nation’s pastime.” Major League Baseball formed in 1876 and the sport has spread throughout the country, and the world, ever since. While the sport has a long, rich history in the United States, baseball’s inclusion at the Olympics has been sporadic.

Baseball was first featured on the Olympic stage during the 1904 Summer Olympics in Saint Louis, Missouri, the first modern Olympics held on American soil. However, the sport’s inclusion was unofficial, not even constituting a demonstration sport, and there is little recorded information about what games were played.

Baseball was not included during the 1908 games in London, but was featured as an official demonstration sport in Stockholm at the following summer games. The program consisted of a single game played between the US and Sweden at Stockholm’s Ostermalm Athletic Grounds. America raced out to a 5-0 lead after two innings and sealed the game, which lasted six innings, with 8 runs in the fifth inning for a 13-3 victory.

Baseball did not feature at the Olympics again until 1936, again appearing as a demonstration event. This time the US Olympic team faced the “World Champions,” who were in fact a second team of American players. The World Champions broke a tie in the bottom of the seventh inning, winning 6-5 in front of 90,000 spectators at Olympic Stadium in Berlin.

Once again, Olympic officials and host nations elected not to continue or expand the baseball program. Pesäpallo, a Finnish variant of baseball, was featured as a demonstration sport at the 1952 games in Helsinki, and host nation Australia chose baseball as a demonstration event in 1956. The game between the US and Australia, an 11-5 win for the Americans, was the first baseball game between international teams in 44 years. The 1964 Olympics in Tokyo represented the fifth and final time the Olympic baseball program would consist of a single demonstration game.

Two decades later, the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles brought baseball back as a demonstration sport, but this time with a full program. Baseball was a full demonstration sport again in 1988 before joining the Olympic program as an official sport in 1992.

The Barcelona Olympics saw Cuba become the first ever gold medalists in baseball, defeating Chinese Taipei 11-1 in the final game. Japan defeated the US 8-3 to win bronze. Cuba defended its gold medal at the Atlanta games in 1996 and placed first for a third time in 2004. Gold medals went to the US and South Korea in 2000 and 2008, respectively.

Baseball was not featured at the 2012 London or 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, but returned in 2020. Host nation Japan defeated America 2-0 to win gold, while the Dominican Republic secured bronze.

There is no women’s baseball program at the Olympics. However, softball joined baseball as an Olympic event during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. The US women’s team won three consecutive gold medals before losing 3-1 to Japan during the 2008 gold medal game in China. Japan again defeated the US, by a score of 2-0, to win gold in 2020.

The International Olympic Committee has announced that neither baseball nor softball will feature at the 2024 games in Paris. The 2028 games have been scheduled for Los Angeles.