1908

London 1908

Athletics

Figure Skating

Shooting

Swimming

Tennis

France

Great Britain

Ireland

Italy

South Africa

Sweden

United States

Nine women took part in the indoor tournament: seven Britons and two Swedes\. A specialist on indoor wooden courts, Gwendoline Eastlake\-Smith, 25, began by beating a rival she had faced on many previous occasions, her compatriot Violet Pinckney, in the quarter\-final, a close two\-set match where the score was five

Tennis galore in London in 1908

The first event had been a rackets tournament at the nearby Queen’s Club, which was poorly\-attended with only 58 seats reserved and won by the Briton Evan Noel before a ball in the final had been hit after opponent Henry Leaf injured his hand\. But the opening ceremony, which marked

Back to the future in Athens

The Italian capital had been the IOC’s preferred venue and was awarded the Games in 1904\. However, growing doubts about the Italians’ preparations came to a head when tragedy struck on 7 April 1906\. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius, overlooking the southern city of Naples, killed over 100 people and

London to the rescue after Roman tragedy

He was right about the amicable nature of the Games and to be proud of the swift construction of the White City Stadium, which would exist until 1985 and – among many other events – would host a World Cup match between Uruguay and France in 1966\. Pressed into action

A triumph for the hosts across the board

This was the first time a ‘winter sport’ had ever been incorporated in an Olympiad, with the inaugural Olympic Winter games still 16 years away, and the competition took place at the end of October – more than three months after the athletics had drawn to a close\.

Syers skates to landmark gold

This was the stage on which Ernest Blakelock Thubron, racing for France under the first name ‘Emile’, wrote his name into the history books – if almost by default\. Thubron was another of the Games’ older competitors, aged 47 by the time London 1908 came around, and was an experienced

Thubron wins first and last motor boat racing gold

Prior to the London Games, his main athletic achievements had come alongside a successful life in academia: he had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary medicine – where he was a member of the first black university fraternity, Sigma Pi Phi – the same and had, during

Taylor helps USA to poignant medley relay gold

Taylor was brought up in impoverished surroundings in Oldham, Greater Manchester\. He was so poor, according to the Manchester Evening News, that he could only afford to swim in his local Chadderton Baths on &lsquo;dirty water day&rsquo;, when the entrance fee was reduced\. His first experiences of swimming had come

Three Taylor-made triumphs in the pool

He had already suffered some misfortune on the international stage: in 1906, at the Intercalated Games in Athens, he had been leading the race by five minutes when gastric illness struck him down and he was forced to withdraw\. He recovered to win the Italian championships a year later and,

Marathon man Pietri wins hearts but no gold

The London\-born athlete came into the final, on 23 July, in good form\. He had qualified faster than anyone else, setting a then\-Olympic record of 48\.4 seconds in the second round having fallen only marginally short in the first\. The event was not run in lanes at this points in

Halswelle wins controversial 400m gold

Walker had been recommended for the South African team in May 1908, but did not have the money to fund his own journey to England, having been left out of the government&rsquo;s selection of funded athletes amid doubts about his level of experience\. He was assisted by a local sportswriter

African trailblazer Walker sprints to glory

Larner was a latecomer to athletics; he worked as a policeman and was 28 when, in 1903 he began walking competitively\. It brought instant dividends: he won the two\- and seven\-mile Amateur Athletics Association titles in 1904 \(in the same years, he set a world record in the former that

Larner takes long walk into the history books

Sheridan had already won gold in the discus throw at St Louis, in the III Olympiad, and had repeated the feat at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, adding a shot put gold to his tally and also winning three silver medals\. He was a noted all\-rounder and also competed

All-rounder Sheridan triumphs in long jump and discus

The &lsquo;running deer&rsquo;, which debuted at London 1908, involved one shot per run being made at a deer\-shaped target that made 10 runs of around 75 feet apiece\. The marksman stood 110 yards away\. Swahn, a distinctive figure with a long, white beard and bushy moustache, won his first gold

Swahn's way leads to double shooting gold

London 1908 - Stories Mosaic

Welcome to This Week in Olympic History, where Olympics.com looks back on the most significant sporting events of the past. This week, we'll cover 28 October to 3 November.
On this day – 28 October: Figure skating stars at London 1908
It was at the Olympic Games London 1908 that

London 1908 | Olympic Games

The best pictures from London 1908.

This week in Olympic history: Figure skating makes its debut

The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896, and for quite some time the only events on the Olympic program were pulled from traditional summer sports like athletics and swimming. Five years later, in 1901, the first organized international competition involving winter sports -- the Nordic Games

Bowen Li CHN and  Yumeng Gao CHN perform in the Free Programme of the Pairs Figure Skating competition at Hamar Olympic Amphitheatreduring the Winter Youth Olympic Games, Lillehammer Norway, 15 February 2016. Photo: Jed Leicester for YIS/IOC  Handout image supplied by YIS/IOC

Figure Skating Pairs Free Skating

Look to the past: the curious debut of figure skating at the Olympic Summer Games

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Olympic Games London 1908

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This week in Olympic history: Figure skating makes its debut

Look to the past: the curious debut of figure skating at the Olympic Summer Games

Tennis galore in London in 1908

Back to the future in Athens

London to the rescue after Roman tragedy