but a bevy of Olympic historians disagree. One scholar has gone as far as to say that those Games “may be the most important Olympic Games of the modern era—they saved the Olympic Movement.”160 After all, in the aftermath of St. Louis, the Games were reeling.
The striking success of US athletes in Athens—especially in track and field events where they were dominant—lent credence to the Americans’ “scientific” training regimen. They were a hit off the field too. Their fawning deference to and enthusiastic fraternizing with the Greek aristocracy ingratiated them with their hosts. After defeating O’Connor in the long jump under dubious circumstances, Prinstein wrote a letter to his fiancée describing a wild night of partying with the Greek king where they slugged down champagne, raided the royal cigar stash, attended “a millionaire’s villa and dance,” and behaved “like wild Indians.”161 Even the New York Times covered the “gala dinner” given by the king to commemorate “these never-to-be-forgotten days.”162
The 1906 Athens “intercalary” Olympics brought numerous innovations that remain with us today. As mentioned earlier, these Games had an opening ceremony with roughly 900 athletes parading behind twenty-two national flags. NOCs played a newfound role. During the Games, many athletes lived in the Zappeion, a de facto Olympic Village (although one the US team found unsatisfactory, moving quarters partway through the competition). And the Olympic organizing committee published for the first time ever an official list of participants and results, setting a trend for what became common practice as Official Reports at subsequent Olympic Games.163 Despite these strides, political instability in and around Greece made hosting another “intercalated” Olympics in Athens unviable. After the 1906 Games the region was wracked with conflict, and the Greek government, strapped by the costs and consequences of war, lacked resources.164 These and other factors made the four-year rotation of the Olympics the norm.
The Games Find Their Footing
When Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 1906, forcing the 1908 Games to be relocated from Rome to London, Lord Desborough stepped in to help. An Olympic fencing medalist and IOC titan from Britain, Desborough announced that the Games “shall be carried out by private enterprise, and without help of any sort from the government, a distinction which other nations do not share.”165 This subtle allusion to disgruntlement in Rome, where locals had protested the high costs of hosting the Games, points to a lasting question in Olympic history: Who should pay the five-ring tab?166 Despite Desborough’s assurances, the Baron once again had to attach the Olympics to a World’s Fair, the Franco-British Exhibition, “for budgetary reasons.”167 But Lord Desborough’s support was part of a pivot, transforming the IOC from what was essentially a paper-tiger front group, to one that took a much bigger role in organizing the Olympic Games.168
The London Olympics would turn out to be a mixed success, but one thing about them is undeniable: they ran thick with monarchic entitlement. Bowing to the whims of privilege, the marathon began on the lawns of Windsor Castle, per the request of King Edward and Queen Alexandra, who wanted their grandchildren to see the start of the race without having to leave the cozy confines of their property. The race concluded in front of the Royal Box in the stadium. This put the marathon distance at 26 miles, 385 yards, which has remained the official length ever since.169
The Games were marked by strident nationalism, much of it coming from the Americans who traveled across the Atlantic to compete with their former colonizers. US Olympic officials were displeased with the lodging the team was assigned in London, perceiving it as a slight, and decided to stay in Brighton instead.170 The American flag was not flown at the opening ceremonies, furthering tensions, so the US flag bearer returned the favor by opting not to dip the flag in deference to the British monarchy in attendance. Irish-American athletes, meanwhile, bristled at Britain’s rejection of Irish independence. US Olympics officials including James E. Sullivan complained about the officiating, an objection European observers dismissed as American hyper-competitiveness.171 British royalty were offended by the Americans’ behavior, and Coubertin agreed, noting the American athletes’ “barbaric shouts that resounded through the stadium.” As for Sullivan, “he shared his team’s frenzy and did nothing to try to calm them down.”172
Sullivan lived up to his reputation as a cutthroat competitor, working hard behind the scenes to declare ineligible the Canadian Tom Longboat—an Onondaga runner from the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation in Ontario—who was favored to win the marathon. Longboat was ultimately declared an amateur and allowed to participate, but for many, the American’s efforts to exclude him left a sour taste.173 Such fractiousness prompted the New York Times to report, “Thoughtful men in England have serious doubts … as to whether the Olympian games serve any good purpose, while theoretically they are supposed to foster international friendship.” A prime outcome of the 1908 Games was “to create international dissensions and kindle animosities.”174 Meanwhile, feminist activists like Emmeline Pankhurst used the Olympics as a platform for suffrage, vowing to interrupt the Games if organizers refused to allow women to participate. They used guerrilla tactics like shoveling up golf courses and leaving behind messages like “No Votes, No Golf.”175
While the 1908 Games in London were a mixed picture, many historians identify the 1912 Games in Stockholm as the Olympics that established them as a top-tier international event.176 Coubertin described the contrast between the two: “Whereas in London the life of the huge metropolis had not been influenced by the invasion of Olympism, the whole of Stockholm was impregnated by it.”177 Sullivan concurred. Upon his return to the United States after Stockholm, he beamed, “I have never seen a better managed set of sports since I’ve been in the Games.”178 The Olympics were becoming more advanced technologically and organizationally. To preempt allegations of bias, officials from international sports federations served as judges rather than local coordinators.179 Swedish officials set the standard for record keeping, deploying electric timers and finish-line photographic technology for greater precision. The “Pentathlon of the Muses” was born, with prizes handed out for literature, architecture, and the arts.180 Stockholm was where Coubertin won gold for his pseudonymous poem “Ode to Sport.”
Jim Thorpe was arguably the biggest superstar of the Games. He was a Native American from Oklahoma, born to a father of Sac and Fox and Irish descent and a mother who was Potawatomie and French. Thorpe was a dazzling multi-sport athlete who starred in football, baseball, and track and field.181 In 1912 he achieved the remarkable feat of winning both the pentathlon and the decathlon. Among his competitors in these two events was a young Avery Brundage, the future president of the IOC. Brundage noted in his personal papers that the “1912 Games were the first that were really properly organized.”182 But Brundage himself did not have his act together. He actually dropped out of the pentathlon when he knew he was out of contention rather than completing all the events, a decision that shamed him decades later. According to his biographer, “Thorpe’s shadow was to haunt Brundage the rest of his life.”183
In a front-page story, the New York Times anointed Thorpe—whom the paper had once called “the Redskin from Carlisle”—the “finest all-around athlete in the world.” King Gustav V of Sweden concurred, telling Thorpe, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.” Sullivan deemed Thorpe “the real hero of the Olympics.” When Thorpe was announced as champion of the pentathlon, the New York Times reported: “There was a great burst of cheers, led by the King. The immense crowd cheered itself hoarse, renewing its efforts a few moments later when Thorpe reappeared to receive a valuable silver model of a Viking ship presented by the Emperor of Russia to the winner of the decathlon.”184 Thorpe kindled pride in Native Americans and non-Natives alike.
Nevertheless, the Games weren’t pure bliss. Despite Coubertin’s pleas for internationalism, the Olympics once again stirred intense nationalist sentiments that bubbled up throughout the festival. Media coverage
