London 1908: The British capital goes Olympic for the first time
For the first of the three Olympic Games that London has held to date, Britain was keen to show that it was a “great athletic nation” and had the sporting prowess to match its global economic and cultural clout.
The UK capital already had most of the infrastructure in place, but lacked a stadium, a problem remedied thanks to an agreement reached with the organisers of the Franco-British Exhibition, an event also due to be held in 1908. The Exhibition Committee agreed to build the venue in exchange for a three-to-one share of revenue from the Games.
Unlike Paris 1900 and St Louis 1904, which were both held in conjunction with World Fairs, it was a complete coincidence that London 1908 took place alongside another major international exhibition.
The Games of the IV Olympiad were originally awarded to Rome in 1904. Already overstretched by major government projects, Italian finances were put under unbearable strain when Mount Vesuvius, which overlooks Naples, erupted on 7 April 1906, killing over 100 people and causing widespread damage. The Italian government decreed that the funds required for relief operations and reconstruction would have to come from the Olympic Games budget, leaving the organisers with little option but to pull out. The International Olympic Committee asked the British Olympic Association (BOA) to step in and host the Games, which it agreed to do on 19 November that year, giving it a little over 17 months to prepare.