The Olympics

The Stockholm Olympics  -  1912

The sound of boots began to be heard throughout the world, but the Olympic Games did not suffer because of this. In fact, they became truly universal, as for the first time, all five continents were represented.

The organization of the Stockholm Games was exemplary and innovative. For the first time electronic timing devices for the track events and a public address system were introduced. New events included the modern pentathlon and women’s swimming and diving. However, Sweden’s refusal to host the boxing tournament led to the IOC to limit the powers of the host nations.

Despite their friendly atmosphere, the leitmotifs of these Games were endurance and suffering. At 320 km, the cycling road race was the longest in Olympic history. The light – heavyweight Greco – Roman wrestling final was stopped and both wrestlers declared equal second place after nine hours of tussling. The middleweight semi – final lasted two hours longer.

Hannes Kolehmainen of Finland set himself an incredibly difficult task. On 08 July he won the 10,000 m and just two days later he won the 5,000 m breaking the world record. Three days after his initial triumph he set a new record in a heat of the 3,000 m team race, and then on 15 July he won the 12 km cross country event.

Kolehmainen’s achievements were equaled, even surpassed, by the remarkable Jim Thorpe. In the space of a week, he won the five – event pentathlon, finished fifth in the high jump and seventh in the long jump. He then capped all that by breaking the world record for the decathlon, setting a mark so far ahead of its time that it would have earned him Silver in the 1948 Olympics. On 07 July, Thorpe completed the five events of the pentathlon; on 13, 14 and 15 July, he then took part in the ten events of the decathlon. King Gustav V of Sweden told Thorpe: “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world”

Jim was born on 22 May 1887 and had Irish and Indian ancestry. He was a national hero after the Stockholm Games. But in January 1913 it emerged that he had earned $ 25 a week playing minor league baseball for North Carolina. Thorpe confessed and apologized, arguing in his defense that he had merely been a schoolboy, unwary of the rules regarding professionalism, and had since turned down offers of thousands of dollars to safeguard his amateur status. On 27 January, the Olympic committee stripped him of his titles, records and medals. In 1943, a movement to reinstate him took place, but Thorpe did not live to see the outcome: he had died of a heart attack on 28 March 1953 in Lomita, California. On 13 October 1982, the IOC abolished the ban on professionals and reinstated Thorpe. On 18 January 1983, his medals were returned to his children.

The Games In Brief

Opening Date                      05 May 1912

Closing   Date                      27 July 1912

Host Nation                           Sweden

Nations Represented             28

Athletes                                 2,547 (57women, 2,490 men)

Sports                                    15 (5 open to women)

Games officially opened by  King Gustav V of Sweden

Olympic Flame not lit

Olympic Oath not taken

IOC President                        Baron Pierre de Coubertin

The competitor who won the most medals in these Olympic Games was a Swiss man, Louis Richardet, winning six medals ( four Gold and two Silver ) in shooting.

PS - : Matter researched from the Olympic Museum in Laussane.

Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal

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