1.
1904 Summer Olympics
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The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in St. Louis. It was the first time that the Olympic Games were held in a majority English language nation, European tension caused by the Russo-Japanese War, and the difficulty of getting to St. Louis, kept most of the worlds top athletes away. Only 62 of the 650 athletes who competed came from outside of North America, 80% of competitors were from the United States, and in over half of the events these were the only competitors. In some cases the U. S. national championship was combined with the Olympic championship, pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, gave in and awarded the games to St. Louis. St. Louis organizers treated the games in a similar to the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. Competitions were reduced to a side-show of the Worlds Fair and were overshadowed by other, david R. Francis, the President of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, declined to invite anybody else to open the Games and, on July 1 did so himself. Officially, the games lasted for four and a half months, in fact, the Olympic-calibre events were mixed with other sporting events that Sullivan also called Olympic. The IOC later declared that 94 of these events were Olympic, the actual athletics events that formed the bulk of the recognised Olympic sports were held from Monday, August 29 to Saturday, September 3. The participants totalled 651 athletes –645 men and 6 women representing 12 countries, however, only 42 events actually included athletes who were not from the United States. Boxing, dumbbells, freestyle wrestling and the made their debuts. The swimming events were held in a pond near Skinker and Wydown Boulevards. The organizers of the Worlds Fair held Anthropology Days on August 12 and 13, one of the most remarkable athletes was the American gymnast George Eyser, who won six medals even though his left leg was made of wood. Frank Kugler won four medals in wrestling, weightlifting and tug of war. Chicago runner James Lightbody won the steeplechase and the 800 m, sprinter Archie Hahn was champion in the 60 m,100 m and 200 m. In this last race, he set an Olympic record in 21.6, in the discus, after American Martin Sheridan had thrown exactly the same distance as his compatriot, Ralph Rose, the judges gave them both an extra throw to decide the winner. Sheridan won the decider and claimed the gold medal, ray Ewry again won all three standing jumps. The team representing Great Britain was awarded a total of two medals, both won by Irish athletes, the top non-USA athlete was Emil Rausch of Germany, who won three swimming events. Zoltan Halmay of Hungary and Charles Daniels of the United States each won two swimming gold medals, galt Football Club from Canada won the gold medal in football
2.
Sport of athletics
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Athletics is a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running. The results of racing events are decided by finishing position, while the jumps, the simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most commonly competed sports in the world. Athletics is mostly an individual sport, with the exception of relay races and competitions which combine athletes performances for a team score, organized athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BCE. The rules and format of the events in athletics were defined in Western Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th century. Most modern top level meetings are conducted by the International Association of Athletics Federations, the athletics meeting forms the backbone of the Summer Olympics. The foremost international athletics meeting is the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, other top level competitions in athletics include the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. Athletes with a disability compete at the Summer Paralympics and the IPC Athletics World Championships. The word athletics is derived from the Ancient Greek ἀθλητής from ἆθλον or ἆθλος, initially, the term was used to describe athletic contests in general – i. e. sporting competition based primarily on human physical feats. In the 19th century, the term acquired a more narrow definition in Europe. This definition continues to be the most prominent one in the United Kingdom, furthermore, foreign words in many German and Roman languages which are related to the term athletics also have a similar meaning. In much of North America, athletics is synonymous with sports in general, the word athletics is rarely used to refer to the sport of athletics in this region. Track and field is preferred, and is used in the United States and Canada to refer to most athletics events, including racewalking, Athletic contests in running, walking, jumping and throwing are among the oldest of all sports and their roots are prehistoric. Athletics events were depicted in the Ancient Egyptian tombs in Saqqara, with illustrations of running at the Heb Sed festival, the Tailteann Games were an ancient Celtic festival in Ireland, founded around 1800 BCE, and the thirty-day meeting included running and stone-throwing among its sporting events. The original and only event at the first Olympics in 776 BCE was a running event known as the stadion. This later expanded to include throwing and jumping events within the ancient pentathlon, Athletics competitions also took place at other Panhellenic Games, which were founded later around 500 BCE. The Cotswold Olimpick Games, a festival which emerged in 17th century England. Annually, from 1796 to 1798, LOlympiade de la République was held in revolutionary France, the premier event of this competition was a running event, but various ancient Greek disciplines were also on display
3.
Nathaniel Cartmell
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Nathaniel John Cartmell, also known as Nat and Nate, was an American athlete who won medals at two editions of the Olympic Games. He is also known for being the first head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels mens basketball team, in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, Cartmell won silver medals in both the 100 meter dash and the 200 meter straightaway. He also participated in the 60 meters event but was eliminated in the repechage, Cartmell was a member of the gold medal American medley relay team at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. He was the runner on the squad, running 200 meters. He followed William Hamilton and was followed by John Taylor and Mel Sheppard, in both the first round heat and the final Cartmell received a lead from Hamilton and built upon it before turning over the race to Taylor. The team won races, running the 1,600 meters in 3,27.2 in the first round and 3,29.4 in the final. Cartmells split for the final was 22.2 seconds and he won the bronze medal in the 200 meter race at the same Games, taking his second medal in the event. In the first round, Cartmell won with a time of 23.0 seconds, the second round resulted in a 22. 6-second time and another win. Cartmell placed third in the final with a time of 22.7 seconds, in the 100 meters, Cartmell placed fourth. He won his first round heat and semifinal with times of 11.0 and 11.2 seconds and he ran the final in 11.0 seconds. While at the 1908 Olympics, Cartmell reportedly got into a fight with a policeman who thrust himself into face, in response, Cartmell took the policemans hand, pushed him and then ran off knowing that the policeman could not catch him on foot. Later, the police showed up at the hotel where the team for the U. S. team was staying and arrested Charles Hollaway. Cartmell came to UNC in 1909 as a coach for the Tar Heels. In 1910, student Marvin Rich along with school officials helped lobby to create a varsity basketball squad at UNC. There was no coach for this program, and UNC did not have enough money at the time to hire another full-time coach for this sport. Cartmell was asked to be the first coach even though he did not know much about the sport, the Tar Heels won their first game 42–21. The Tar Heels would end their first season with a 7–4 record, in 1914, Cartmell was charged with illegally playing dice with known gamblers and was fired after the 1914 season. He would be replaced by Charles Doak, Cartmell went on to coach track and sometimes basketball at West Virginia University, Princeton University, Fordham University, Manhattan College and LaSalle Military Academy
4.
Jim Lightbody
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James Davies Jim Lightbody was an American middle distance runner, winner of six Olympic medals in the early 20th century. Lightbody, born in Pittsburgh and graduating high school in Muncie, Indiana, had great success at the 1904 Summer Olympics. He wasnt favoured in any of the three events in which he competed, but nevertheless won all three of them. First, he won the 2590 metre steeplechase, sprinting to the 800 metres title days later, finally, he won the 1500 metres in a new world record. Later that day, he added a second place to his tally, in 1905, Lightbody won AAU titles in both the 800 and 1500 metres, and the following year he competed in his second Olympics, the 1906 Intercalated Games of in Athens. He successfully defended his 1500 metres title, and placed second in the 800 metres, Lightbody competed again in the 1908 Summer Olympics. In the 800 metres, he placed fourth in his first round heat. Lightbody lost a race to fellow American James Sullivan in the first round of the 1500 metres. He was defeated by a mere ten yards by Harry Sewell in the first round of the 3200 metre steeplechase, Lightbody died in 1953, two weeks short of his 71st birthday in Charleston, South Carolina. The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report, James Lightbodys profile at Sports Reference. com
United States
Great Britain
Canada
Mixed team
Germany
Greece
Australia (2)
Canada (5)
Cuba (1)
Germany (9)
Great Britain (3)
Greece (10)
Hungary (2)
Switzerland (1)
United States (197)
