Summer Olympic Games: Stockholm (1912)-London (2012). Sports Russia 1912 Olympic Games

At the Stockholm Olympic Games, swimming competitions were held in a 100-meter-long summer pool. About 100 athletes from 17 countries participated in them. Russia, Finland and Norway sent their swimmers for the first time. The team of Russian swimmers and divers consisted of about 20 pupils of the Shuvalov swimming school, led by well-known Russian swimming champions Pavel Avksentiev, Georgy Baimakov, Viktor Baranov, Nikolai Voronkov, Georgy Kulberg. Having no experience of participating in such major international competitions as the Olympic Games, Russian swimmers were unable to compete with experienced athletes from other countries. None of the Russian Olympic debutants managed to win then the right to participate in at least one of the semi-final heats.

In the program of the Stockholm Olympic Games, women's swimming debuted, where Australian and American athletes excelled. The first Olympic champion in the 100-meter freestyle was Fanny Durek (Australasia - the combined team of Australia and New Zealand). In the preliminary heat, she set a world record - 1.19.8, and in the final she swam 2.4 seconds worse, which did not prevent her from becoming an Olympic champion. Fanny Durek was the first athlete to demonstrate the "Australian crawl".

By the start of the Olympic Games in Stockholm, the record for the 100m freestyle belonged to Charles Daniels - 1:02.8, set in a short (25-yard) pool in New York. At that time, the FINA Rules allowed for world records in any pool, starting from a 25-yard length. Only when swimming more than 400 m, a world record could only be recorded if it was shown in a long pool - at least 50 yards. (From May 1, 1957, by decision of FINA, world records at any distance could only be set in 50-meter and 55-yard pools.) Due to the fact that it is easier to achieve record speed in a short pool due to the greater number of turns each turn, due to the rapid sliding after an energetic push from the wall, the swimmer gains 0.4–0.5 seconds), athletes sought to conduct record swims in short 25-yard pools. However, FINA rules required that Olympic swimming competitions be held in 50 and 100 m pools. Therefore, until 1957, participants in Olympic competitions were relatively rarely able to update world records.

The fastest swimmer in the world at the Olympic Games in Stockholm was recognized as Duke Kahanamoku, a Hawaiian by birth, a resident of Honolulu (Hawaii), but who played for the US team. Already in the semi-finals, he updated the world record of Charles Daniels in the 100-meter freestyle, and in the final he won the gold medal with an advantage of 1.2 seconds.

Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku was an innovator of a special crawl technique, taken by the Americans as the basis for the creation (several years later) of the "American rabbit", which dominated all basins of the world for almost half a century. Kahanamoku grew up in the Hawaiian Islands and often watched as fishermen and pearl divers chased away sharks with quick kicks and sprays. For each stroke with his hand, Kahanamoku managed to take two "steps", and for a full cycle of hand movements - four. It was already a "four-handed crawl." Before him, the world record holder in crawl swimming, Charles Daniels, swam in short jerks, raised his head high for inspiration and at the same time drowned his legs, and made shortened strokes with his hands. The Kahanamoku crawl was smoother, the athlete did not raise, but turned his head to inhale, made elongated strokes with his hands, and while performing leg movements, hit them on the surface of the water weaker than Charles Daniels. The Kahanamoku crawl was recognized by experts as the most beautiful and fastest (for that time) when swimming for short distances.

In Stockholm, at the middle and long Olympic distances, the tridzhen-style continued to dominate, but in the modernization of the Canadian swimmer George Hodgson. The Canadian is better than his British predecessors in mastering soft strokes with his hands; he performed scissor-like closing of the legs almost in a horizontal plane and reduced the "chatter" of the body in the water to a minimum. Thanks to these "English style" improvements, he updated the 400 and 1500 m freestyle world records. In the 1500m final, George Hodgson overtook John Hetfield of the old trudgeon style by almost 50m. The world records set by Hodgson in Stockholm were the last for the trend style.

The best team results were shown at the Games of the V Olympiad by swimmers from Germany, Australia and Great Britain. They shared gold awards with swimmers from the USA and Canada.

Materials used

from Z. Firsov's book "In the Olympic Pools" 1960

and Handbook "SWIMMING" 1976

The games were held in Stockholm from 6 to 15 July. Olympic indoor tennis competitions took place in May, tennis and football competitions - in June (before the opening of the games), rowing and sailing - after the closing of the games.

In terms of the number of sports, the program of the V Olympiad was somewhat reduced compared to the IV Olympiad, but it was wider in terms of the total number of competitions held. A total of 106 first places were up for grabs. For the first time modern pentathlon for men and swimming for women were held. For the first time, the so-called art competition was organized, i.e., works of architecture, painting, sculpture, music and literature on sports topics. There were no competitions in boxing, freestyle wrestling, weightlifting, grass hockey, figure skating, archery and a number of other sports.

Four countries - Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Russia - participated in competitions in all sports included in the Olympic program. In total, 2541 athletes from 28 countries took part in the games.

For the opening of the games, the Royal Stadium was specially built with two towers and stands in the form of a horseshoe.

Under the stands there are rooms for participants, service rooms, showers, locker rooms, here is an exhibition of prizes, equipment and sports literature. The track of the stadium and sectors were kept in exemplary order.

The grand opening of the games took place on July 6, 1912. The weather was clear and sunny. The new stadium, illuminated by the rays of the sun, seemed to show off its outfit: the overdressed audience filled the stands of the stadium to capacity, which were designed for only 25 thousand spectators and were clearly insufficient.

At 11 o'clock in the morning, a bell is heard on the towers of the stadium. Fanfare announces the arrival of the Swedish king. He was met by members of the IOC, employees of the organizing committee.

The solemn march of the columns begins. The procession is opened by the Belgian team, followed by the athletes of Chile, Denmark...

The last to appear on the field is a huge column of Sweden.

For the first time at this Olympiad, Russia was represented by a large delegation (169 participants).

It should be noted that the first performance and victories of Russian athletes in the 1908 Olympic Games contributed to the popularization of sports in Russia and influenced its development. At the end of 1910, the tsarist government officially recognized the expediency of creating the Russian Olympic Committee. In March 1911, the Russian Olympic Committee was created and approved by the government. Baron F. E. Meyendorff was approved as the honorary chairman of the committee, V. I. Sreznevsky was approved as the chairman, A. P. Lebedev and Count G. I. composition of the IOC from Russia. The charter of the committee stated: "The Russian Olympic Committee is being established with the aim of uniting all Russian sports and gymnastic institutions in order to prepare for their participation in the Olympic Games" *.

* (The Charter of the Russian Olympic Committee was approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs only on May 17, 1912.)

The Russian Olympic Committee has addressed all sports organizations in Russia with the following letter:

"In June 1912, the Olympic Games will be held in Stockholm, the fifth in a row since they were resumed in 1896. Russian athletes did not participate in the first three Olympic Games; only in 1908, in the IV Olympiad in London, were representatives of Russia were seconded by some societies for the first time.* Out of 5 participants, 1 returned with the first prize, 2 - with the second.

* (The press sometimes states that 8 athletes competed from Russia in London. Indeed, the application was sent for 8 people (wrestlers G. Demin, E. Zamotin, N. Orlov, A. Petrov, figure skater N. Panin-Kolomenkin, athletes A. Petrovsky and G. Lind, cyclist Martinson). But, judging by this letter from the Russian Olympic Committee, as already noted, 5 people took part in the competition - four wrestlers and figure skater N. Panin-Kolomenkin.)

This fact, as well as the fact that Russian amateur athletes, wrestlers, skaters, rowers, gymnasts, shooters, football players and others often won victories over celebrities in Russia and abroad, allow us to be sure that with the right organization, Russia can show itself in Olympic Games in 1912 from the best side".

The magazine "Russian Sport", reporting in No. 14 for 1912 about a dinner given for representatives of Russian sports organizations, wrote:

“The speakers noted that in recent years sport has occupied a very prominent position in Russia, since there has been a big turn in public opinion and sport has ceased to be looked upon exclusively as an amusement of rich people. At present, great attention has already been paid to sports in schools and in troops, and this has begun to bring quite real results in terms of the physical strengthening and development of our youth and diverting them from unhealthy entertainment.In view of the upcoming Olympic Games in Stockholm this summer, all sports organizations are actively preparing for this event, and it should be noted that This time the official circles pay full attention to the upcoming performance of Russian athletes at the world competition and promise to provide all possible assistance to the representatives of Russian sports in Stockholm.

In the same issue of Russian Sport, the following note was placed:

"In Oranienbaum, at the officers' shooting school, tests of shooters began, of which the best will be sent to competitions. In addition, general tests of representatives of all sports will be held in St. Petersburg in April, after which the best of them will be given the right to take part in world competitions. So far, it is believed that no more than 250 athletes will leave Russia, including the military, Finns and Germans from the Baltic region.The number of Russian participants themselves will become clear after the April preliminary competitions.

But the desired "correct organization" was not there. The Russian Olympic Committee did not even have information about which of the athletes could be sent to Sweden.

F. Zabelin, a member of the Russian Olympic team, speaks of this, in particular, in his memoirs.

* (Journal. "Physical culture and sport" No. 4, 1956.)

He's writing:

“The fact that I and my four comrades in the St. Petersburg Gymnastics Society will have to defend the sporting honor of Russia at the V Olympic Games, we learned only a month and a half before the start of the Olympiad.

I then worked as a sculptor for a contractor, and gave my free time to sports. My friends also combined gymnastics with work or study: P. Kushnikov, F. Yasyukov and S. Kulikov were employees and A. Akhun was a student. We were all considered good gymnasts, but why we were sent specifically remained a mystery to me: in Moscow, Odessa, Kharkov and St. Petersburg itself, there were gymnasts stronger than us. The reason for this was probably the organizational confusion that reigned in the Russian Olympic Committee, which for the first time in history had to field teams in all sports included in the program of the Olympiad.

Under the terms of the competition, each country had the right to put up 6 participants in individual gymnastics and from 20 to 40 in group gymnastics. In addition to our five, appointed without qualifying competitions, a strong gymnast from Kharkov - Pilipeychenko was included in the team, but he could not leave. But in group gymnastics, Russia sent a full team - 40 people. It was staffed by cadets of the Main Officer Gymnastics and Fencing School. Unlike us, who combined training with work or study, the officers began special training for the Olympics six months in advance."

The famous football player V. Zhitarev, who played at the Olympics for the Russian national team, recalls:

"On the international football arena, the Russian team was still a novice. However, this is not so bad. The trouble was that when the question arose of forming a team for the Olympics, real battles began between St. Petersburg and Moscow. The figures who headed the football leagues of both cities, sought to drag as many "their" players into the national team as possible. The qualifying matches revealed the advantage of Moscow, but this also did not lead to anything. Sports interests were discarded, real bargaining began. Then Moscow issued an ultimatum: "Or the Muscovites will not go to Stockholm at all , or if they go, then in as many "their" players as they are entitled to" * .

* (Journal. "Russian Sport" No. 28.)

Such unhealthy competition had the most detrimental effect on the entire preparation of our athletes for the Olympic Games. In the same "Russian Sport" one of the Moscow athletes wrote: "St. athletes." When they finally agreed on the number of units in the team, the same pattern was repeated in the league committees. There, the players were allocated to the national team not according to their strength, but in such a way as not to offend the chairmen of the clubs - the actual "owners" of them *.

* (Cit. by journal. "Physical culture and sport" No. 11, 1955 ("At the dawn of Russian football").)

There is nothing surprising in the fact that the composition of the Russian team was random.

If most countries began to prepare for the Stockholm Olympiad immediately after the Olympic competitions in London, then in Russia they began to talk about preparing for the Olympiad only in 1911. The training was poorly organized, without taking into account the experience of other countries. For example, qualifying competitions in equestrian sports were held a month before the opening of the Olympiad, before that no special training was carried out. At this time, teams from a number of countries had already arrived in Stockholm and were training on the spot.

At the beginning of July 1912, the Russian Olympic Committee commissioned the large ocean-going steamship Burma, on which most of the members of the Russian team left for Stockholm. On the same ship, Russian athletes lived. About what results they have achieved, we will tell in the description of the competition.

I must say that in general, the sports results of the Olympiad were very high. Already the 100m run was marked by an Olympic record: American Donald Lippincott showed 10.6. True, in the final he was only third. New Olympic records were set in 20 types of track and field athletics. In the 5000m race, which represented a fierce duel between the Frenchman Buen and the Finn Kolehmainen, the latter showed an excellent time - 14.36.6 seconds, which was 25.4 seconds. better than the world record. The Russian record set by L. Stender was then 17.28.2. Good results were also shown in other types of athletics: in the 1500-meter run, less than 4 minutes. - 3.56.8 (Jackson, England) in the 800 m run under 2 minutes. - 1.51.9 (Meredith, USA), in the 400 m run less than 50 seconds. - 48.2 (Reidpath, USA). World records were also set in 100, 400 and 1500 m freestyle swimming, etc.

The program of athletics competitions was already approaching the traditional Olympic, although it did not yet include women's competitions. The program included: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 5000, 10000 m, 110 m hurdles, marathon, 8000 m cross (individual-team competition), 3000 m team competition, 4 × 100 relay races m and 4×400 m; walking 10 km; jumps - height, length, pole, triple; jumping from a place - height and length; throwing - discus, javelin, core (one, strongest, hand and the sum of both hands), hammer, pentathlon, decathlon. In total there were, therefore, 30 types of athletics. For the first time there was a 5000 m and 10000 m run, a 10 km walk, an 8000 m cross, a 3000 m team run, a 4 × 400 m relay race, competitions in the sum of hands in javelin, shot and discus throw, decathlon. In the pentathlon, wrestling was replaced by the 1500m run.

The 400-meter hurdles and 3000-meter steeplechase, which later became classic, were not held.

During the track and field competitions there was a strong heat, and representatives of the northern countries were languishing from the non-northern generous sun. But the southerners felt great. This could not but affect the outcome of the competition, in particular in the marathon run. But more about that later.

Hundreds of athletes gathered in Stockholm. In the 100m, for example, 97 people entered, including Russian representatives Levenshtein, Schwartz and Steglitz. 17 preliminary races were held, of which 2 athletes went to the semi-finals (there were 6 of them). The winners of the semi-finals contested the title of Olympic champion in the final race. At the same time, the number of participants per country was not actually limited. So, 9 Americans, 5 British, 4 Swedes, 4 Hungarians, etc. competed in the semi-final races (Russian sprinters dropped out after the preliminary races). Of the 6 semi-finals, 5 were won by the Americans and one by South Africa's Patching. The American runners had six false starts in the final. Many journalists, not without reason, believed that the Americans did this with the clear intention of unbalancing the African runner. Whatever it was, and Patching took 4th place and lost the medal.

There were many participants in the race for other distances - 18 preliminary races were held at 200 m, 15 at 400 m.

One person from each semi-final race got to the final of the 400 m race. In the fifth semi-final race, the German Hans Braun ran, who was taken into the "box" by the American runners. When Brown tried to come forward, he invariably received a strong elbow in the chest from the American Yong. As a result, the American came first to the finish line, but was disqualified for the wrong run. The German was declared the winner of the race. This incident forced to subsequently revise the rules of the 400-meter race, which was usually held then along a common track. After 1912, the 400m run began to be played on separate lanes (like the 100m and 200m runs), and the participants could no longer interfere with each other.

At a distance of 800 m, 75 people started (9 races, 2 semi-finals and a final). From Russia performed (unsuccessfully) Zakharov, he did not get into the semi-finals, as he was below the 2nd place (athletes who took 1-2 place went to the semi-finals).

The German 400m silver medalist Hans Braun reached the finals in the 800m as well. Hans Braun, a German sculptor from Munich, was considered the best middle distance runner in Europe at the time. I wonder how he got into the sport. Skinny, with a hollow chest, he once went to the doctor. "Mr. Brown," said the doctor, "you need to be in the air more. Go in for sports!" Brown followed this advice and in 1908 became the German record holder in 800m (1:57.8) and 1500m (4:14.6). Over the next four years, he brought the German record to 1:54.9. But the American student Meredith became the Olympic champion, ahead of his countryman Sheppard. There were 4 American runners in the final. They dominated the lane and prevented Brown from taking the lead at the finish line; By common efforts, the Americans saved all three medals for the USA (Meredith, Sheppard, Davenport). Brown was fourth, only 0.3 seconds behind the winner.

True, two weeks later in Berlin, Brown took revenge on the Olympic champion. However, Melvin Sheppard managed to get ahead of the Munich player here too. The impressionable Brown said: “I will make your bust with the inscription “Winner Sheppard.” However, he failed to fulfill this promise. The war began, Brown was drafted into the army, he graduated from flying school and died in Flanders in 1918. The Hans Braun Prize in Munich is a reminder of this outstanding runner.

The American Melvin Sheppard, the 1908 Olympic champion in both these distances and in the 100-200-400-800 m relay race, performed in the 800 and 1500 m. True, this time Melvin had to be content with second place in the 800 m run , although he exceeded his Olympic record (1.52.8-1.52.0), but the American compensated for this "failure" by participating in the team that set new world and Olympic records in the 4 × 400 m relay.

There were 83 participants in the 1500m run. Of particular interest was the American Abel Kiviat, who broke records from competition to competition. He confidently reached the final, where 7 Americans, 3 Swedes, 2 Englishmen, a Frenchman and a German performed. In the final race, the Americans seemed to be playing a well-thought-out running plan like clockwork, but they were so carried away by the spurts that they did not leave the strength for the finishing throw. As a result, the first with a new Olympic record (3:56.8) was the English student Arnold Jackson, who was not paid attention to. The main favorite Abel Kiviat lost 0.1 seconds to him.

The 5000m run left an indelible impression on the spectators. Among the participants of the race are the tall, swarthy and athletic world record holder Frenchman Jean Buen and the thin, small Finn Hannes Kolehmainen. In the preliminary races, Frenchman Jean Bouin showed the best time in the fifth last race - 15:05.0. Hannes Kolehmainen in the fourth race - 15:38.9. The representative of Russia, Nikolsky, took 4th place in the third race and did not compete in the final (3 runners came out of each race).

In the final, Buen led the race from the start, Finn followed him about two meters away. So they went circle after circle, more and more breaking away from the rest of the rivals. There was tension in the Frenchman's run; on the contrary, the movements of Kolehmainen pursuing him were measured and light. The gap between the leaders and the other runners reached almost a circle when the athletes entered the last straight. Only 40-45 m left to the finish line. The buzzing stadium froze. Kolehmainen, who ran second almost the entire distance, makes an amazing throw. Buen's efforts are in vain, the Finn is the first to cross the finish line.

In the 10,000 m run, the performance of H. Kolehmainen, the Indian Lewis Tewanim (USA) and the South African L. Richardson aroused particular interest, who showed much better time in the races than Kolehmainen. Hannes Kolehmainen took the lead in the final. Many runners couldn't keep up with the strong pace offered by the Finn and dropped out. So, after five laps, the Englishman Scott left the track. Richardson only lasted 15 laps. Only the Indian Tevanima fought the Finn. He took 2nd place. The first was X. Kolehmainen with a new world and Olympic record of 31:20.8. Kolehmainen also won the cross-country race, 33.2 seconds ahead of Swede Hjalmar Andersson.

The 4 × 100 m relay race was held for the first time in the Stockholm Olympics. 13 countries announced their teams in this relay race, but 5 of them, including Russia, did not start, only 8 teams remained. Nevertheless, the organizers held 6 preliminary, 3 semi-final and final races. Starting from the first race, the teams set world and Olympic records: after all, this competition was held on the international arena for the first time. First, the Canadians did it (46.2), then the Americans 43.7), the Swedes (43.6). In the final, the British showed 42.4. Second place was awarded to the Swedes. Two strong teams were disqualified (US in the semi-finals, Germany in the final) for crossing the transfer zone. 98 people were declared to participate in the marathon, 68 athletes took the start. The stands of the stadium were, as always, overcrowded. Most of the spectators are in white dresses, with bright colored umbrellas to protect from the sun. This was most welcome, because the thermometer showed 45 degrees. The hard task went to the runners. The track (40200 m) passed mainly through open areas, the athletes had to run under the rays of the scorching sun. The organizers tried in vain to alleviate the situation of the athletes, strenuously pouring water on them. Of the 62 runners, only 24 completed the race. The Portuguese Lazaro, who had been leading for a long time, fell from heat stroke not far from the finish line, was taken to the hospital and died the next day ... At 13.25 a starter shot rang out. The marathon runners went on a difficult journey to the village of Sollentuna and back. Algren was the first to leave the stadium. Who will be the first to return?

The public was keenly interested in the course of the "solar battle", as the journalists dubbed this hard run. At the stadium, the flag of the country whose representative led the race was hung out. First checkpoint. On the mast is the flag of Finland. Tatu Kolehmainen, Hannes's brother, runs ahead, Algren the Swede, Speroni the Italian. Turning point at the village of Sollentuna. The flag of the Union of South Africa is raised: the African Christopher Gitschem goes first; next to Tatu Kolehmainen. Ten minutes later, Kenneth MacArthur finishes half the distance. In the same order, these three runners pass the last checkpoint, but the distance between Kolehmainen and MacArthur is getting shorter all the time. At the village of Stoksuna, two Africans are already ahead.

Observers on the stadium tower noticed the runners approaching. The trumpeters give the signal. And soon a runner of small stature, in a green T-shirt, appears on the treadmill. This is Kenneth MacArthur, ahead of his fellow countryman before entering the stadium. He slowly runs the last tens of meters of a grueling path and falls exhausted beyond the finish line.

When MacArthur came to his senses a little, the jubilant countrymen lifted him up, hoisted a wreath and carried him to the locker room. A minute after MacArthur, Christopher Gitsham runs onto the treadmill. He is still full of energy, smiling cheerfully, as if he had not run 40 km. Where is Tatu Kolehmainen? The sultry sun "squeezed out" all the strength from the stubborn son of Suomi - he left the race 3 km before the finish line.

As in 1906, pentathletes competed, but this time, instead of wrestling, a 1500-meter run was included, and long jumps from a place were replaced by long jumps with a running start. The order of performances was as follows: length, javelin, 200 m, discus, 1500 m. All pentathletes participated in the first three competitions. According to the results of three types, the 12 best were determined, which were allowed to throw the discus. The 6 best (in 4 types) competed in the 1500m race. At the same time, the points were determined not according to the evaluation table, but according to the places taken: 1st place - 1 point, 2nd - 2, etc. After 3 types in front was James Thorpe (colloquially called "Jim") - 5 points. Norway's Ferdinand Bie was in 2nd place with 11.

Thorp finished 1st in the discus throw (35.57). He got 6 points (!), and Bie - 15. Thorpe and the 1500m won (4:44.8). Thus, Jim Thorpe won 4 events out of 5 (only in the javelin he was third), gaining 7 points, and confidently took 1st place. Jim Thorpe, a 25-year-old Indian from Oklahoma, was undeniably an outstanding athlete. Tall, slender, with a magnificent figure, possessing exceptional jumping ability, he could win a number of prizes in certain types of athletics. So, in the spring of 1912, he took a height of 196 cm. Presenting the prize to Thorpe, the King of Sweden said: "You are the most amazing athlete in the world."

The Americans disqualified Jim Thorpe, accusing him of professionalism. A sports writer for a New York newspaper discovered that Thorpe had once played baseball for money, which was especially blamed on him as the height of cunning and deceit. Meanwhile, it is known that other athletes who were considered amateurs played baseball and received money. The Swedes, as the organizers of the 5th Olympiad, refused to resolve this issue and sent all the materials to the International Olympic Committee. On May 26, 1913, in Lausanne, the IOC considered the matter and agreed to the proposal to disqualify Thorpe. Ten months later, the world learned that Thorp was not the champion in the pentathlon and decathlon, but the Norwegian Ferdinand Bie and the Swede Hugo Wieslander. G. Wislander refused to take the gold medal, saying that Thorpe was the winner and no one else. As you know, Thorpe had 7 points in the pentathlon, Bie (in the case of Thorpe's results) - 21. In the decathlon, the results were 8412.955 points for Thorpe and 7724.495 for Wieslander (688.460 points difference!). In all 10 events, Thorp showed better results than Wislander, in 9 events he scored a better total of points than the Swede in 10. Here are his results: 100 m - 11.2; length - 6.79; core - 12.89; height - 187 cm; 400 m - 52.2; 110 s / b - 15.6; disc - 36.98; pole - 3.25; spear - 45.70; 1500 m - 4.40.1.

Interestingly, the decathlon was played over three days: the first day - 110 m, length, core; the second - height, 400 m, 110 m s/b, disk; third - pole, spear, 1500 m.

According to the current points table, Thorp scored 6266 points in the decathlon, that is, more than the winners of the 1920 Olympic Games (Levland - 5191) and 1924 (Osborne - 6164). Great result!

Here is what F. Zabelin tells about competitions in athletics all-around:

“Among my new acquaintances was the all-rounder Jim Thorpe. Having shown exceptionally high results for that time in all types, he emerged victorious in the pentathlon and decathlon, thereby bringing the US team the largest amount of points ...

Thorpe explained to me that American leaders, having learned that his mother was Indian, themselves struck him off their team as a "colored one", so the Swede Wislander was officially declared the Olympic champion in decathlon.

For 15 years, no athlete could come close to the result of Jim Thorpe. The American racists succeeded in erasing Thorpe's name from among the winners of the Olympiad, but they failed to erase him from the history of sports and from the hearts of those who personally knew this noble and courageous man, who then seemed to us a fairy-tale hero from Cooper's novels.

* (About J. Thorpe, see the essay by E. Kaitmazova "Give me back my medals!" in the magazine "Physical culture and sport" No. 6, 1959.)

This was not the only case of rampaging racists. The best sprinter in the world, Negro Drew, did not compete at the Olympics, although he was in Stockholm. The head of the American delegation ordered him to be locked in a room.

Prominent among the shot putters were giants Patrick McDonald and Ralph Rose, both from the United States. In training, Rose excelled, but at the competitions, the veteran was let down by nerves. Patrick McDonald (15.84) beat him by 9 cm. True, Rose showed the best total of hands and still won the gold medal!

F. Zabelin also met and talked with these throwers. In his memoirs, he wrote:

"An unhealthy spirit of rivalry and national enmity reigned at the Olympics. However, its organizers were primarily to blame for this. Despite this, the most friendly acquaintances were made among athletes from different countries, mutual understanding arose. I would like to tell about such acquaintances.

Once at the training stadium I met two American throwers - Ralph Rose and McDonald. Rose was the Olympic champion in 1904 and 1908, he held the world record in the shot put - 15.54. Interestingly, this result turned out to be one of the most durable: it lasted 19 years... Naturally, I was interested in the training method of such outstanding athletes. I learned about him in the most unexpected way. Starting training, I asked to put me on a high crossbar. My new acquaintances willingly complied with the request. Having successfully completed the combination and finished it with a spectacular dismount, I looked in their direction. Without saying a word, a tall and overweight, like his comrade, Rose, approached the projectile. Having slightly jumped, he hung on the crossbar, rushed forward, backward, even forward with his body, went to point-blank range on straight arms and finished the combination with a jump of his legs apart, flying high above the crossbar. And all this (with a weight of almost 100 kg) is easy, soft, at ease! Responding to my praise, Rose and McDonald explained that in order to achieve record results in such a seemingly simple form as the shot put, high physical fitness is needed. Therefore, in their training, they select exercises that, in addition to strength and other qualities, would develop speed, sharpness of movements ... All this was told in the most friendly tone, without the slightest feeling of superiority. "The only time in the history of the Olympic Games in 1912 The results of the shot put 27.70 (R. Rose, USA, 15.23+12.47) and discus throw 82.86 (A. Taipale, Finland, 44 ,68+38.18), in javelin throwing 109.42 (J. Saaristo, Finland, 61.00+48.42).

Throwers showed very good results. True, there were some surprises. Finn Armas Taipale won among discus throwers, and world record holder James Duncan (USA) was in 3rd place. Swede Eric Lemming - Olympic champion in 1906 and 1908 confirmed his superiority among javelin throwers, setting a world and Olympic record - 60.64. But this record was short-lived: it lasted only one day. When the left-handed and right-handed throwing competitions began, Finn Julius Saaristo brought back the Finnish record with a time of 61.00.

In the hammer throw, Matthew McGrath was the world record holder. True, he did not reach his record (57.13), but, having sent a hammer at 54.74, he was ahead of the nearest competitor by more than 6 m. One throw by McGrath was even 56.50, but the judges did not count it for the reason that the thrower touched the frame of the circle (although he did not leave it).

In jumping from a place at four Olympics (1900, 1904, 1906, 1908), the American Ray Every, who won 10 gold medals, successfully performed. He left the Olympic field undefeated. In Stockholm, he would have met worthy opponents, primarily in the person of the brothers Platt and Ben (Benjamin) Adams. In height, P. Adame took 167 cm, Ben - 160. The third was the Greek Konstantin Tsiklitiras (155 cm), who managed to push the Adame brothers to 2 and 3 places in long jump from a place.

Athletes showed high results in running jumps. The favorite among the high jumpers was undoubtedly the American student George Horain: after all, in the spring of 1912 he set a new world record - 204 cm. But the trip had a negative effect on the jumper's sports form: he showed only 189 cm and remained in 3rd place. The first was his countryman Elmer Richards (193 cm). The height of 191 cm was first taken by Hans Liche from Hamburg. Richards overcame it on the second try. On the second attempt, he took 193 cm, and the German knocked down the bar three times. In length, Albert Gutterson (USA) jumped 7.60 - just 1 cm behind the Irish O'Connor's world record. How did Russian athletes perform in Stockholm? In decathlon competitions, Russian athletes A. Scholz and A. Alsleben took 10th and 11th places (out of 28). In standing high jump our athletes took 13-15th places (140 cm), in pole vault - 15-16th places (3 m 40 cm), in javelin throw - 17th place (44 m 98 cm). The football team of Russia met in the quarterfinals with the team of Finland and lost to it with a score of 1:2. It should be noted that 13 teams were declared for the football tournament, and 11 teams participated in the competition, as France and Belgium took back the applications. England, Denmark, Hungary, Norway and Russia were drawn straight into the quarter-finals.

Let's talk about some of the matches of the tournament. Match England - Hungary. The game starts with the attack of the Hungarians, the British can't beat the Hungarian defence. They shoot a lot of free kicks and free kicks. The Hungarians also hit for the handball, but the goalkeeper Breiner takes a strong ball. And immediately follows the attack of the British. Walden scores the ball - 1:0. Soon the Englishman Henney was injured. The Hungarians are constantly attacking, but they hit the goal poorly and do not achieve a result. On the contrary, the British, who were on the defensive for more time, were able to score two more goals in the first half (Woodward).

After the break, the British play with ten men, but, unlike the first half, they advance more. All the efforts of the Hungarians (the right wing played especially well with them) did not work: they hit very badly on goal. The British managed to score four more goals. The overall score is 7:0 in their favor.

The match Holland - Austria ended with the result 3:1. The Austrians opened the scoring, but the referee did not count the goal, determining the position "offside". This was followed by a violent attack by the Dutch, and within 3 minutes. the score became 2:0. The Austrians take three corners in a row, but to no avail. The Dutch breakout follows, and the score is 3:0. At the end of the first half, the Austrians left the "dry" - 3:1.

The second half of the match was uneventful. The Austrians attacked sharply, but Goebel, the Dutch goalkeeper, withstood the test with honor and did not allow the score to be changed.

The already mentioned V. Zhitarev spoke about the performance of the Russian national team:

"... As a result, the bargaining ended with the fact that the Russian team included 5 players from St. Petersburg and 6 from Moscow: goalkeeper - F. Favorsky (Moscow); defenders - V. Rimsha (Moscow) and P. Sokolov (St. Petersburg); midfielders - I. Uversky, N. Khromov (both Petersburg) and A. Akimov (Moscow), forwards - S. Filippov (Petersburg), V. Zhitarev (Moscow), M. Butusov (Petersburg), A. Filippov and M. Smirnov (both Moscow) Football players from other cities (and among them there were undoubtedly worthy candidates) were not even discussed.

The national team arrived in Stockholm unplayed, as no training work was carried out with the team. Only on the spot did we learn about our opponent: it turned out to be the Finnish team. Being then an integral part of the Russian Empire, Finland has achieved the right of independent participation in the Olympiad. Accustomed to looking at Finland as an insignificant administrative unit, our leaders treated the upcoming match nonchalantly and conveyed this mood to us. But the match showed something else. The Finns defended selflessly, attacked stubbornly. We were leading 1:0, but just before the end of the game, Favorsky absurdly missed the ball from his hands behind his head, and the score became 1:1. After 30 min. additional draw again. The game continued until the first goal, and this ball was scored against us (again through the fault of Favorsky).

We dropped out of the competition, but there was still a "consolation" match with the German team, which lost to Austrian footballers. And then a battle broke out between the leaders of football over the composition of the team (we had spare players). As a result, 10 Petersburgers and in my person one Muscovite came out against the Germans.

Balls fell into our gates from the very first minutes. We, utterly inflated by previous events, were completely at a loss and lost with a huge score - 0:16. "

England - Finland, 4:0. At the very beginning, the Finns score an own goal. They do their best to change the score and "lock" the English in their half, but they cannot take the English gate. The British then gain an undeniable territorial advantage, but the Finns' strong defense and goalkeeper fight selflessly. The score is only 2:0.

The second half is again attacked by the Finns, but the technical superiority is clearly on the side of the British. Then the energy of the Finns dried up. Last 25 min. the British skillfully use the wingers and score two more goals.

There were many Finns among the spectators. When the Finnish player took possession of the ball, an incredible noise and din rose in the stands. But all attempts by the fans to inspire their countrymen were in vain: the British, no doubt, played better.

Denmark - Holland, 4:1 (3:0).

It was a persistent struggle between the Danish forwards and the Dutch goalkeeper. The Danes immediately offered a fast pace. Many corners at the Dutch gate. Danish midfield center Jergensen scored a goal from about 15 m. Soon Anton Olsen's brilliant breakthrough (attack center) made it 2-0. Paul Nielsen, right welterweight, scores the third goal against the Dutch from a corner.

The second half - the sharp attacks of the Dutch. But soon leaves the field due to injury midfield center Boatlen. Defeat seems inevitable, but Boatlen was back on the field 10 minutes later. Spectators inspire the Dutch. However, the Danes have the advantage, playing and territorial. Brilliant game demonstrates the Dutch goalkeeper Gebel. Here he hits the ball in a jump and falls. Another blow - the goalkeeper, having risen from the ground, catches the ball in a jump. Ovation. The game is escalating. Every now and then the players fall. For 10 min. until the end the score is 3:1. This was done by de Groot. And Olsen's breakthrough immediately follows - 4:1. The meeting ended with this score. "Goebel is the best goalkeeper," the newspapers wrote.

Final 4 July: England 4-2 Denmark. The excellent game of the Danes in the previous meetings aroused increased interest in the match. Many thought that the Danes could beat the British. The stadium is invaded. The royal box is also full.

The game begins with attacks by the Danish team, which has a territorial advantage. The British seize the initiative, are playing a combination game. Sharpe hits Hoare between the goalkeeper's legs, and the ball flies into the net. And immediately a retaliatory attack by the Danes. Right welterweight Tufvasson hits under the bar, and the goalkeeper in an incredible jump sends the ball to the corner. At the corner, the Danes hit the post. Soon Hansen, the Danish left-back, cuts the ball right at the feet of Walden, who immediately sends it into the net. The score becomes 2:0 in favor of the British.

The Danes again rush to the attack. The center midfield gives a longitudinal pass to the center forward Olsen, who directs the ball into the goal. Score 2:1. After that, the right welterweight of the English team Woodward scores two more goals. The hero of the day, the Danish defender Middleboye, managed to return one goal, but the Danes did not manage to achieve more. The English team won with a score of 4:2.

In the fight for 3rd place, the Dutch easily defeated the Finns (9:0) and won bronze medals.

Here are the results of the repechage tournament: Germany - Russia, 16:0; Italy - Sweden, 1:0; Austria - Norway, 1:0 (games were held on July 1); Hungary - Germany, 3:1; Austria - Italy, 5:1 (games were played on July 3); Hungary - Austria; 3:0 (the game took place on July 5).

Of great interest were the Olympic wrestling competitions, which for the first time in their scale could rightfully be called international. 270 (180 participated) wrestlers from 17 countries, including Russia, Sweden, Hungary, the USA and others, were declared. Wrestlers competed in five weight categories: featherweight (up to 60 kg), light (67.5), medium (75), light heavy (82.5) and heavy (over 82.5 kg). At that time, the International Wrestling Federation did not yet exist (it was founded in 1912 and finally formalized in 1921), there were no uniform international rules, which caused a lot of criticism and misunderstanding.

According to the then adopted position, the fight lasted one hour. If there was no carcass, the winner was determined by points. The meeting in the final (3 people in each weight category) took place until a complete victory.

For wrestling competitions, three carpets were equipped at the stadium. This alone created undeniable advantages for the Swedes, who are used to performing in the open air, and they have been preparing for the Olympics for several years.

The competition started at 9:00. morning and continued, almost without interruption, until 6 o'clock. evenings. The rules did not limit the number of wrestlers per country. Therefore, for example, 24 Finns, two Russians (Kaplyur and Klein), 6 Swedes, etc., reached the semifinals.

There were several very long fights. Thus, German Georg Gerstacker and Finn Kalle Koskelo fought in feather weight for 2 hours. 3 min. (German won). In light heavyweight, Swede Anders Algren and Finn Ivar Böhling fought, or rather stood against each other, for 6 hours without having a single reception, avoiding an aggravation of the fight. After 6 o'clock. the fight was abandoned and each of these wrestlers received a silver medal.

The longest was, however, the meeting of middleweights - our Latvian Martin Klein and Finn Alfred Asikainen: it lasted over 10 hours!

The wrestlers were completely exhausted, their fingers did not bend, and the athletes, not being able to capture the enemy, only pushed. Nevertheless, Klein contrived, threw the Finn on the carpet and won. The next day, of course, Klein could not continue the fight, and the victory was awarded to the Swede Claes Johansson, who did not have a single fight in the final. As the ancient Greeks would say, he won "without dust". It is known that the Hellenes did not highly appreciate such a victory. Johansson's victory deserves no more respect: it was made by the judges.

The newspapers wrote that "Swedish wrestling leaders did not pay attention to other countries and dismissed well-founded protests. If the team leaders were not real athletes, many teams refused to continue the fight." The general public was not aware of the discontent, which led to a sharp protest of the judges from the international wrestling committee (Russia, Finland, Bohemia, Germany, Austria, England, Hungary). In Stockholm, the well-known principle that wrestlers and judges should be from different countries was systematically violated. The reference to the fact that there were few judges and that many foreigners were unskilled was not substantiated.

Rowing competitions were held on July 17, 18 and 19, that is, after the official closing of the games. There were few spectators, as many had already gone home. True, the weather was fine - the heat subsided, a pleasant weak breeze blew. On the other hand, the place of the competition caused a lot of complaints: the rowers had to make two turns, and 300 m before the finish line, pass between the piles of a wooden bridge. Only two boats could compete in each race.

Eight, four with a coxswain, four with a coxswain built according to the Swedish rules (without outboard oarlocks), single - these classes of boats were included in the program. A country could enter no more than two boats in each class. M. Kuzik represented Russia (alone). M. Kuzik won the open championship of the Netherlands in 1909. Then in the final he met with the German Scholz. From the start, the German went quickly, Kuzik calmly reacted to this breakthrough. In the second half of the distance, Kuzik sharply increased the pace and finished first. Scholz protested, claiming that he was allegedly interfered with by a motorboat. Kuzik agreed to the second run and won again, beating the German by ten lengths. Spectators on the shore warmly welcomed the victory of the Russian rower, waved their headscarves and hats. In 1910, Kuzik again won the open championship of the Netherlands, defeating the Frenchman de la Plaine, who had not been defeated for three years. In a word, he was a strong and experienced rower.

In Stockholm, in the first race, M. Kuzik was ahead of the Austrian A. Geirich, but the judges annulled the race, motivating their decision by the fact that Kuzik allegedly intentionally crossed the water of the Austrian. But in another meeting, Kuzik was ahead. Without much difficulty, he also defeated the Hungarian rower Lewicki.

In one of the races, Kuzik's precious skiff was smashed with a log thrown by someone, and the second time, when this courageous athlete tried to continue the fight on someone else's heavy boat, his oars were broken. The protests of the Russian representatives did not lead to anything.

In the semi-finals, which took place on July 19, 4 athletes participated, including M. Kuzik, who, thus, became one of the 4 best rowers in the world. (Speaking in someone else's boat, he lost in the semi-finals to the Belgian Polydor Weirman.) The Englishman William Kinnar won the gold medal. It is interesting that in the fall of 1912, in London, Kinnar lost to the Russian rower A. Pereselenetsev, who for some reason was not registered for the Olympic Games.

In the fours of the Swedish type were mainly Scandinavians.

In the class of eights, a strong Australian team participated - the winner of the Henley regatta. In the semi-finals, the Australians met with the English eight (rowing club "Leander"). Soon after the start, the Australians took the lead and by 1000m they were already winning more than a corps. It seemed that the outcome of the struggle was clear: the British were losing. But then the British made a desperate spurt and centimeter by centimeter began to reduce the gap. The Australians noticed the danger late, all their attempts to maintain leadership were in vain. The British finished first. It was a meeting of two equal rivals, distinguished by excellent technique and great energy. The strokers were especially distinguished, which literally “pumped out” their partners.

Swimming competitions were distinguished by exceptionally high results - Olympic records were set in all types of the program. Hawaiian Duke Paoa Kahanamoku *, who played for the US team, scored in the sprint. He repeatedly improved the world record in swimming in the 100m freestyle, won all the heats.

* (Some researchers took the name Kahanamoku for a title ("duke" - prince) and wrote in reference books "Prince Paoa Kahanamoku".)

Interestingly, already in the preliminary heats for 100 meters, four swimmers, including Kahanamoku, broke the world record of the American Daniels (1:05.8).

Due to a mistake by the judges, Kahanamoku and two other strong American swimmers did not qualify for the final. To correct the situation, they decided to hold another - the third - semi-final, which was won by the Hawaiian with a new world record (1:02.4). 2nd place here was taken by Kenneth Hushag, who won the bronze medal in the final.

Canadian George Hodson performed equally well in medium and long distances: he set world records in the 400 m and 1500 m freestyle. In the final swim, he immediately set three world records for 1000, 1500 m and the English mile.

The Australian team won the 4×200 m relay, although they competed without a good swimmer, Longworth (who had an ear infection). Australians for 9 sec. ahead of the US team. Even Kahanamoku could not catch up with the Australian Harold Hardwick, although he significantly reduced the clearance.

Even before 1908, the Swedes proposed to include equestrian competitions in the program of the Olympic Games, but the British did not agree with this proposal. Naturally, having taken over the organization and holding of the 5th Olympiad, the Swedes fulfilled their desire.

The program of equestrian sports competitions included dressage (higher riding school), individual and team competitions for the Prize of Nations, field trials - "military" (triathlon).

From Russia, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, captains Rodzianko and Ekimov, lieutenants Pleshkov, Zagorsky, Rummel, Selikhov acted in the competition.

In competitions for the Prize of Nations (jumps), the Russian team was fifth.

In the higher riding school, Captain Ekimov on Tritonych took 9th place (out of 21).

Spectators, of course, expected more from Russian horsemen. After all, shortly before the Olympics, Russian officers successfully performed at competitions in London. But hopes for success in Stockholm did not come true. It seemed that the horses were tired, overworked, and acted very sluggishly. This was true in fact, because a few days before the start of the Olympic competition, they had to endure a large training load.

Newspapers and official publications of that time paid too much attention to Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, who participated in competitions, but did not shine at all.

Russian athletes were widely represented in shooting competitions, they competed in all types of weapons (military rifle, free rifle, small-caliber rifle, pistol, running deer target shooting, trap shooting). But more or less successful were the Russian shooters in only two forms. In duel pistol shooting, the Russian team (N. Melnitsky, A. Kashe, P. Voilochnikov, G. Panteleymonov) took 2nd place - 118 hits (out of 120), 1091 points (out of 1200). In skeet shooting, Harry Blau took 3rd place (91 out of 100). It is interesting that in the last round Blau broke 49 cymbals out of 50. The Russian shooters received one silver and one bronze medal and shared 6th-8th places with the teams of Norway and Germany in the complex standings.

Yachtsmen competed in four classes of yachts (6-8-S-12 m). A country could enter no more than 2 yachts in each class. A total of 20 vessels participated - from Sweden (7), Finland (5), Russia and Norway (3 each), Denmark and France (one yacht each). There were two races in each class. For the 1st place in the race, 7 points were counted, for the 2nd - 3, for the 3rd - 1. In case of equality of points among the yachts claiming a medal, an additional race was held.

In the 10m class, the Russian yacht "Gallia II" (Alexander Vyshnegradsky) took 3rd place on the first day, 2nd on the next day and in terms of the number of points scored (4) caught up with the yacht "Nina", on which Harry Wahl competed ( Finland). In the third meeting, an interesting struggle unfolded between them. Ahead for a long time was "Gallia", but at the turn it was overtaken by "Nina", which took 2nd place. The gold medal was won by the Swede Nils Asp ("Kitty"). A. Vyshnegradsky received a bronze medal.

The yacht "Norman" competed in the 8m class from Russia. On the second day of the competition, the Norman and the Norwegian yacht Typhoon, which won on the first day, sailed for a long time. But suddenly a man fell overboard from the Russian yacht. The yacht was delayed by 3 minutes, and the Finns (Lucky Girl) bypassed it. As a result, the yacht "Norman" took 5th place.

The gymnastics competition program was very diverse: team performances were held according to the Swedish system and according to special rules, arbitrary team performances, individual gymnast competitions.

According to the Swedish system, the Swedes, Danes, Norwegians and Finns performed. The hosts of the field, who put up a well-prepared and numerous team, especially distinguished themselves. They showed mass exercises, beam performances, etc.

Team performances were also held with arbitrarily chosen objects: maces, dumbbells, sticks, etc. The program included exercises on the crossbar, uneven bars and pommel horse (swings) - by choice. The team consisted of 16-40 people. Performance time is no more than an hour. The judges took into account the bearing of the team, the purity of the execution, but did not attach much importance to the difficulty of the combinations. Teams from Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany and Luxembourg participated in these competitions. Norwegians were the best.

During team performances, according to special rules, they showed an arbitrary program on the uneven bars, crossbar, pommel horse (swings) and floor exercises. The exercises were significantly more difficult, with the judges taking into account both difficulty and composition. It was gymnastics free from the influence of the Swedish system. The Italian team excelled everyone with accuracy and purity of execution, the difficulty of the exercises and deservedly took 1st place. Subsequent places were taken by the Hungarians and the British.

Another team competition was held, for participation in which the gymnasts were awarded only commemorative medals. Each country could field one men's and one women's team. 45 minutes were allotted for the performance of the team. The Russian officer school performed here with an original program. In the first exercise, dance steps (from Russian folk dance) were combined with hand movements, body rotation, etc. In other exercises, the positions characteristic of shooters (aiming, observing the terrain), fencing, fighting techniques, etc. were included. The performance of the Russian team was warmly received by the public and was repeatedly interrupted by applause. Weaker was the second part - group exercises on the crossbar, uneven bars, pommel horse. They did not stand out either for great difficulty or for the purity of execution.

Among the women's teams, the Finns successfully performed.

As F. Zabelin recalls, “the performances of our gymnasts, like the entire Russian Olympic team, were unsuccessful. This was due to the lack of proper training and the predilection of the judges and the Swedish organizers of the competition, as well as the mediocrity of our representative in gymnastics, staff captain Fock.

A group of Russian gymnasts, tanned and muscular, with their floor exercises, which included elements of the Kamarinskaya folk dance, performed to the sounds of a brass band, made a huge impression on the audience and even on the judges, who were obviously not in favor of the Russians, a huge impression ...

Performances in individual gymnastics did not bring us success. The lack of proper preparation and experience of international meetings, and the fact that we were called to participate in the stadium at 8 o’clock, also affected here. in the morning, and our turn came only at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Having spent the whole day in the scorching, almost 40-degree heat, we had to re-compose our combinations on the go, replace difficult elements with easier ones (competitions then, as now, were held in hexathlon, but only in a free program). As a result, the best of us - Pavel Kushnikov - took only 42nd place."

In individual competitions, gymnasts, as already mentioned, performed with a free program. Since the best gymnasts from Germany and Switzerland did not arrive in Stockholm, and the Swedes refused to perform according to the "European system", the main struggle unfolded between the Italians and the French. Suffice it to say that 6 Italians and 4 Frenchmen entered the top ten. 1st place was won by the Italian gymnast Alberto Braglia, who also competed in team competitions.

There were also personal and team competitions of cyclists at the V Olympiad - a road race around Melarsee (320 km) - a lake, in places as narrow as a river, in places as wide as the sea. There were 123 riders from 18 countries (each country could enter 12 cyclists, the team standings for the total time of four).

The race around Mälarsee has been regularly held since 1892. It was won ten times by Henrik Mohren, who in 1909 set a track record of 11:22.27.

The start was given on July 7 at 2 am (there were white nights!), The riders were allowed in 2 minutes, the last cyclist, the Belgian Patou, took the start at 7 am, i.e., the start lasted about 5 hours.

There were 11 checkpoints on the track. The first checkpoint - Sodertelje - 33 km. In front of the cyclist from South Africa, Rudolf Lewis, who was number 2. From that moment on, Lewis did not give way to anyone in the lead, he passed all the checkpoints first and showed the best time - 10:42.39.0. The course record was broken by 40 minutes! The announcement of this caused an indescribable delight of the audience, and the South African athletes carried Lewis in their arms. So, the man accustomed to the hot climate won again: during the race, the sun was very hot. Interestingly, the representative of Russia Richter, who started twelfth, was the second in Sodertelier! Such a frisky start did not testify to the high tactical training of Russian riders: none of them entered the top ten, the Russian team did not get into the top six. The track record holder Henrik Morin took only 15th place, although he covered the distance faster than in the record run of 1909.

For the first time, competitions in modern pentathlon were held, in which athletes from 9 countries participated: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, and the USA. There were 32 participants in total (mostly officers), including 12 Swedes. The documents of the organizing committee preserved the names of the Russian pentathletes: Eimelaens, Almqvist, Borislavsky, Hoenthal, Nepokupnoy, Vilkman. The first Olympic champion in this sport was the representative of Sweden, Senior Lieutenant Gustav Lilliehek, who scored 27 points (shooting - 3rd, swimming - 10th, fencing - 5th, horse cross - 4th, running - 5th ).

2nd and 3rd places were also taken by the Swedes. Representatives of Russia were unsuccessful. So, in shooting the best was Nepokupnaya (8th place), in equestrian cross - Vilkman (5th place). In other types of pentathlon, the results were even worse.

As already mentioned, tennis competitions began in the spring; Indoor competitions were held from May 5 to May 22. The Frenchman Andre Gobert and the Englishwoman E. M. Hannam performed most successfully, receiving 2 gold medals each: the first for winning the singles and doubles game, the second in singles and mixed. Russian tennis players did not play in this tournament.

In competitions in open areas (they were held from June 28 to July 5), M. Sumarokov-Elston and A. Alenitsyn acted from Russia. True, at the very beginning of the tournament, the Russians had to fight among themselves, and Alenitsyn dropped out of further competitions. Then Sumarokov beat the Swedish champion G. Setterval, and in the fourth round lost to the German Oscar Kreuzer (2:6, 12:10, 4:6, 0:6), who later became the owner of the Olympic bronze medal.

The fencing competition brought together the best fencers in the world, with the exception of the French, who did not agree with the rules of the tournament and took the application back.

There were 24 athletes from Russia, but none of them even made it to the semi-finals, that is, they did not rise above 4th place in the subgroup.

In Stockholm, for the first time, an Olympic art competition was organized. It should be noted that back in 1906, the International Olympic Committee held a meeting of writers and artists in Paris in order to restore the links between literature and art and sports, characteristic of the ancient world. At this meeting, it was decided to hold Olympic competitions of works of architecture, painting, sculpture, music and literature on sports topics. Only works that had not previously been exhibited at exhibitions, had not been performed publicly and had not been published could be submitted to the competitions.

The Olympic Games in Stockholm have turned from a sporting event into a great celebration. So, the day of July 9 in Sweden was celebrated as an Olympic holiday. On July 11-13, a Swedish festival of singers was held, in which several thousand people participated, including about 2,000 tenors, over 2,000 basses, etc. Next to the stadium was the Olympia park, which was equipped with carousels, laughter wheels, shooting shooting ranges and other attractions. A military band played. In the evenings, thousands of visitors gathered in the park.

More than 25,000 athletes and several thousand tourists arrived in Stockholm, including 94 people from Russia. Such an influx of athletes and tourists was clearly not included in the calculations of the organizers. It was especially difficult with transport. Trams in the direction of the stadium went with the inscription "Fulsat" - "overcrowded". Every day, the tram carried about 200,000 passengers, and on the day of the marathon, 348,874 people. At the same time, it should be taken into account that the tram fleet was fully put into operation (the tram staff had to be reinforced at the expense of high school students). Every day two special trains came from Malmö to Stockholm. Special trains were also sent from Berlin.

The Swedes strongly emphasized that the main idea of ​​the Olympic Games is not to prepare individual class athletes, but to provide physical education for the masses. By this they also motivated their official calculation of the team championship (1st place - 3 points, 2nd - 2, 3rd - 1). According to this scoring system, the 1st place was taken by the Swedish team (133 points), the 2nd - by the USA (129), and the 3rd - by England (76).

The Russian team scored only 6 points, sharing 15-16th places with the Austrian team. In 1908, a small group of Russian athletes took 13th place with 7 points. Although the Russian team in 1912 was more than twenty times larger than in 1908, it scored fewer points.

Prizes and medals were handed out at the stadium on 17 July. Three platforms were installed on the football field.

Athletes entered the field in three groups - according to the won medals (gold, silver, bronze). Herold loudly called the names of the athletes who took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places in this form. Athletes approached the corresponding platform, where they were awarded medals: the Swedish king - gold, the crown prince - silver, the prince - bronze.

In addition to medals, 20 challenge prizes were awarded: for example, for the victory of the espadron team - the prize of the city of Budapest, the winner of individual competitions in gymnastics - the prize of the city of Prague, for the victory in athletics pentathlon - the prize of the Swedish king, in decathlon - the prize of the Russian emperor, etc. In order to avoid misunderstandings, the organizers forced the winners to sign for receiving prizes.

After the solemn closing of the games at the stadium, a final reception was held, to which all athletes, coaches and representatives were invited. A huge table was installed on the football field, at which all the participants of the banquet were seated. The winners of the Olympiad sat in a special place of honor.

Summing up the results of the V Olympiad, we have to state that due to poor preparation, Russian athletes in Stockholm did not win a single gold medal. The second places were taken by the wrestler M. Klein (middle weight) and the pistol shooting team. The third places were taken in sailing competitions (vessel class 10 m) and skeet shooting. In the equestrian competition (jumping), the Russian team took 5th place. In the team competition in shooting from an arbitrary rifle, the Russian team took 7th place, in the team competition in 50 m pistol - 4th place. In general, the Russian team suffered a serious defeat.

A certain role was played in this by the obviously biased attitude of the organizers and judges of the Olympiad towards Russian athletes. Let's just give two examples. The representative of Russia, wrestler M. Klein, before reaching the final, had 8 meetings and won 8 victories, and the semi-final meeting lasted more than 10 hours in the scorching sun on a black carpet. Another finalist - Swedish wrestler K. Johansson - had only 3 matches and was promoted to the final. Tired M. Klein was forced to meet with him the next day after a ten-hour fight with Finn A. Asikainen. This decision was clearly unfair and aimed to ensure the victory of the Swedish wrestler at all costs. As we have already noted, Klein lost the final fight.

The Russian athlete Kuzik was considered the most likely winner in the rowing competition. Knowing the strength of the Russian rower, the "enterprising" organizers made it so that Kuzik's boat was smashed to smithereens, Kuzik competed on someone else's boat. At the same time, his oars were broken, but nevertheless he reached the semi-finals.

When the hearing of Kuzik's protest was scheduled, the judges did not appear. Only one judge came (half an hour late) and delivered an arbitrary, unfair ruling on the protest.

In general, the 1912 Olympic Games were one of the most scandalous. The Swedish organizers and judges wanted to ensure the victory of the Swedish team at any cost and were not shy about the means. Having determined the strength of the participants in wrestling competitions, the Swedes tried to pair up the best wrestlers, equal in strength, and after an hour of wrestling, if the result was not achieved, the wrestlers were counted as a defeat. As a result, the best foreign wrestlers did not reach the finals, and the Swedish wrestlers, meeting against obviously weak opponents, got into the finals.

(Protests about incorrect refereeing in wrestling were signed by representatives of Russia, Germany, Finland, Austria, England, Hungary, France, Italy, Portugal and Bohemia.)

There were so many protests that the IOC member Weningen was instructed to collect and publish all the claims of the National Olympic Committees. These documents - "A set of comments and proposals for improving the Olympic Games" - were translated and published in 1913 by the Russian Olympic Committee.

But, of course, it was not this dishonest behavior of the organizers that had a decisive influence on the results of Russian athletes. We have already noted that their preparation was poorly organized.

The defeat of the Russian team in Stockholm is the result of the policy of the tsarist government, which neglected the issues of sports.

The Olympic Games of 1912 excited the sports life of Russia, and the subsequent all-Russian competitions showed a sharp increase in the skill of Russian athletes, revealing the enormous potential of Russian sports. Among these competitions, first of all, is the I Russian Olympiad in August 1913 in Kiev, in which about 600 people participated, and the II Olympiad in Riga in July 1914. Among the achievements of Russian athletes, one should mention the first-class Russian record set by V. Arkhipov in 1914 in the 100 m run, - 10.8 sec.

But only after the Great October Socialist Revolution, physical culture and sports in our country received mass development, and Soviet athletes boldly entered the struggle for world championship.

Swimming competitions were distinguished by very high results - Olympic records were set in all types of the program, many of which exceeded world records. At the shortest distance, the performance of a young Hawaiian became sensational Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, who is also considered the "father" of modern surfing.

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku (postcard, 1915)

A year before the Stockholm Olympics, the National Olympic Committee of the United States received a letter from one of the officers of the naval forces stationed in the Hawaiian Islands. The officer reported that he saw a young man in Honolulu who, in his opinion, is the fastest swimmer in the world. The next ship, sailing from Honolulu to the United States, brought the young Hawaiian to San Francisco.

His first training confirmed the opinion of a naval officer. Kahanamoku defeated all his competitors, while captivating the audience with such a refined crawl technique, which was not known in America before him. Already in the preliminary swim in the 100-meter freestyle at the V Olympics, an exotic swimmer broke the world record Charles Daniels, then confidently won all the classification competitions, the semi-final and the final. In the semi-finals Duke Kahanamoku showed a brilliant result, which became a new world record - 1 minute 02.4 seconds.

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku with a surfboard, Los Angeles, 1920

Some historiographers of the Olympic Games took the name of the Hawaiian for the title ("Duke" - prince) and wrote in reference books: "Prince Paoa Kahana-moku". In fact, he has a double name - Duke Paoa. A few days after the Stockholm success, he started in Hamburg, where he again set a world record in his favorite distance - 100 meters freestyle - 1 minute 01.6 seconds. After the brilliant victories of the Hawaiian athlete, American swimmers went to Honolulu to study the Hawaiian swimming technique and look for new talents for the upcoming Olympics.

Monument to Duke Paoa Kahanamoku in Hawaii

Himself Kahanamoku I had to wait eight years for the next Olympic start. But even in 1920, he was again out of competition at his crown distance. Only at the 1924 Games did he have to be content with a silver medal: the era of Johnny Weismuller.

January 5 - June 27, 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden, the Games of the V Olympiad were held. 2437 athletes from 28 countries came to the competition. For the first time, athletes from the African continent - the Egyptians - took part.

The Olympic program included 100m swimming for women, 4x100m freestyle relay, men's high jump, 5,000 and 10,000m running, 4x100 and 4x400m relay, pentathlon and decathlon in track and field athletics, modern pentathlon. For the first time at the Olympic Games, a photo finish and an electronic clock were used.

For the first time, following the ancient tradition, an art competition was organized. The works of architecture, painting, sculpture, music and literature presented at the competition were dedicated to the Olympic movement. The gold medal for the poem "Ode to Sports" was awarded to Pierre de Coubertin.

The Russian team, which officially took part in the Games for the first time, consisted of 178 people, but performed poorly, taking 15th place in the unofficial team count. Russian athletes did not get gold medals. Wrestler Martin Klein won silver in the middleweight division. Shooters from the Russian Empire received two medals. The duel pistol shooting team consisting of Nikolai Melnitsky, Amos Kashe, Pavel Voiloshnikov and Georgy Panteleymonov became the silver medalist. The third place in throwing pigeon shooting was taken by Harry Blau from Riga. Esper Beloselsky, Ernest Brachet, Nikolai Pushnitsky, Alexander Rodionov, Philip Strauch, Iosif Shomaker, Karl Lindholm, the owner of the yacht is Alexander Vyshnegradsky.

The Russian football team, after being eliminated from the main tournament (defeated by Finland - 1:2), was defeated in the consolation match by the German team with a score of 0:16. This defeat remains the largest for the Russian team to this day.

Distinguished at the Games american indian Jim Thorpe, who won gold in the track and field pentathlon and decathlon. Despite a large number of protests from athletes and the public, after the Games, he was unfairly disqualified for allegedly having previously played professional baseball. Many believed that the real reason for Thorpe's disqualification was that he was an Indian. He was rehabilitated only 60 years later, after his death.

Two years after the Stockholm Olympics, the First World War began, interrupting the Olympic series.

Sweden considered it a great honor to be granted the right to organize the V Olympic Games. The Swedes have been asking to host the Games since the creation of the International Olympic Committee, that is, since 1894. And when Stockholm was chosen as the capital of the 1912 Games at the 1904 IOC session in Berlin, the Swedes began to actively prepare.

Physical culture in this largest Scandinavian country developed at a gigantic pace, and this, of course, gave the right to hope for the successful holding of the Olympics. The organizers began by offering a clear program for the Olympic Games. This was undoubtedly a big step forward.

Then the construction of the stadium began, which caused the Swedes a lot of trouble. During construction, they slightly changed the line of turns of the running track, as a result of which the length of the track was reduced to 380 meters 33 centimeters, although the circle should have been exactly 400 meters. I had to draw eleven starting marks, which were difficult to figure out later.

Apart from this oversight, the stadium turned out to be good: all red brick, decorated with two large towers, with stands in the form of a horseshoe. Under the stands there were rooms for participants, showers, locker rooms, office space. Exhibitions of prizes, sports equipment and literature were also organized here. The stadium was named "Royal".

The grand opening of the Games of the V Olympiad took place at the Royal Stadium on July 6, 1912. It was a warm sunny day. The stands of the stadium, accommodating 32,000 spectators, were packed to capacity. At 11 o'clock a bell sounded, fixed on one of the towers of the stadium. In the silence that followed, fanfares solemnly announced the arrival of the King of Sweden. Gustav V.
Members of the IOC, led by Pierre de Coubertin, meet him, and everyone goes to the box for guests of honor. The march parade begins. Athletes from 28 countries take to the field of the stadium. For the first time, Egypt, Luxembourg, Portugal, Serbia and Japan sent their representatives to the Olympic Games.

In terms of the number of sports, the program of the 5th Olympiad was somewhat reduced compared to the 1908 Games, but was wider in terms of the total number of competitions held.

For the first time, modern pentathlon appeared in the Olympic program, and swimming competitions among women were also held for the first time.
There were no boxing, freestyle wrestling, weightlifting, grass hockey, figure skating, archery competitions at the V Olympiad.
The Icelandic wrestling competition "Glima" and the baseball match between the teams of the USA and Sweden were held as demonstration performances.

Russia sent a large team to Stockholm - 178 people who performed in almost all numbers of the program.

The most representative sport in Stockholm was athletics.
It was at the V Olympiad that the competitions, which are now considered one of the classics, were first included in the program - running at 5000 and 10000 meters and relay races 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 meters.
Thirteen countries applied for participation in the 4 x 100 meters relay, but five of them, including Russia, did not start. Nevertheless, the organizers held six preliminary, three semi-final and final races.
The German team set a new world record - 42.3 seconds, but due to the fact that the baton was passed outside the zone, the result was not counted and the team was disqualified.

In the 800 meters run, the two-time Olympic champion in 1908, an American, started Melvin Shepperd. In Stockholm, he took second place. Gold and bronze medals also went to American runners James Meredith and Aire Davenport. The fourth was a sculptor from Munich Hans Braun, considered at the time the best middle-distance runner in Europe. I wonder how he got into the sport.

He was a very thin, sickly young man. The doctor advised him to spend more time in the fresh air, go in for sports. Brown obeyed the doctor and after a while got so carried away that he began to compete in earnest.
In 1908, he became the German record holder in the 800 and 1500 meters, and four years later he was one of the contenders for the Olympic victory. However, he failed to win. Two weeks later, in Berlin, Brown again met with Shepperd, who managed to get ahead of the Munich player here too. After the finish, Brown exclaimed: - I will make your bust with the inscription "To the Winner Shepperd"!

But he failed to fulfill this promise - the war began. Brown graduated from flying school and died in Flanders in 1918. And only the memorial - competitions for the Hans Braun Prize in Munich - reminds of this outstanding runner.

The final 5000 meters race was interesting. The fight unfolded between the Finnish athlete Hannes Kolehmainen And Jean Buin from France. In the preliminary race, Jean Bouin set a world record. This news spread like lightning through the Royal Stadium.
This was the whole of Jean Bouin, with his love for spectacular antics, with complete contempt for all sorts of calculations. Skeptics shrugged their shoulders, believing that it would be better to save energy for the final. But the majority had no doubt that the Frenchman would not have worthy opponents in the final.

Journalists who hastened to report this to their newspapers claimed: "Tomorrow, Jean Bouin will rise to the highest step of the pvedestal of honor".
Jean Buen himself showed complete confidence in victory. Perhaps there was only one person in Stockholm in those days who did not share the general confidence in the outcome of the final race of 5000 meters, but had his own opinion on this issue.
His name was Hannes Kolehmainen. Medium height, ruddy, not talkative Finn carefully prepared for the final. He saw how Buen ran, he knew what a serious opponent he would have to compete with, but he was determined to fight until the last second.

And now both equally self-confident athletes stand side by side on the start line. From the very first minutes it becomes clear that the outcome of the race will be decided in the single combat of these two runners. They rush at such a staggering speed that it will leave all their competitors in sheer confusion. At this pace, Buen's record yesterday is unbeatable. But will they keep up the pace?

At the fourth kilometer, the leaders were already half a circle away from the main group, which stretched along the stadium's running track. But who will be the first? They run toe to toe, without slowing down, and it is felt that each of them has a reserve of strength that will be used at a decisive moment.

Last round. Buen picks up speed and takes the lead. He is already ahead by three meters, but Kolehmainen, confused at some point, picks up the pace, catches up with him, and then bypasses him. Immediately Buen makes a dash, and again he is in the lead.
After a few meters, the Finn takes the lead, then again the Frenchman. And so 17 times on this last lap. 17 times one comes forward, then the other, not wanting to give up, not wanting to admit defeat. The rest of the athletes are dragging somewhere, more than a circle behind the leaders. Yes, no one pays attention to them. All eyes are on two magnificent masters who are already entering the finish line.

Thirty meters from the finish line Buen leads the race, but he can not break away from Kolehmainen. The struggle is merciless, full of drama, a struggle, the equal of which has not yet been known by the Olympic Games. When twenty meters remain to the finish line, Kolehmainen, by some superhuman effort of will, begins to increase speed, catching up with the Frenchman rushing to the finish line. The gap between them has almost narrowed. Who will be the first? The entire stadium stood up and exploded in a single scream. With the last, seemingly hopeless, tension, Kolehmainen manages to snatch victory literally at the last moment. The stadium roared. The world record set the day before by Buen was exceeded by as much as 30 seconds. After the award, Pierre de Coubertin, addressing Buen, said:
- Your defeat is worth the victory! To which the stubborn Marseillais replied: - Victory? I will have her! - And he clarified: - Even if I do not win at the next Olympiads, another Frenchman will take revenge for me.

The next year after the Olympic Games, Jean Bouin again comes to Stockholm and on the same treadmill goes to storm the world record in the hour run.
He had 91 competitors, but none of them had their backs in front of him throughout the race. He won this competition, almost a circle ahead of his closest rivals.
When a pistol shot rang out, announcing the end of sixty minutes, it turned out that Jean had run 19.021 kilometers, breaking the world record by 143 meters. So he told the sports world that he would have to be reckoned with at the 1916 Olympics.

But ... the First World War began, and everyone had no time for the Olympic competitions.
In the very first days of the war, Jean Bouin appeared at the mobilization point. By the end of the medical examination, the military doctor, after listening to him well, said:
- You have hypertrophy of the heart, my boy! - But, Mr. Major ... - I know, I know. You want to fight. But there's not much to talk about here. With such a heart, you won't even be able to carry a duffel bag. - But, Mr. Major, I'm... - No talking! Next!
And now the world record holder was left in reserve due to a physical ailment. Buen was very indignant and grumbled all the time: - Who is fighting, if someone like me, with such legs - and not at war!
After some time, Jean Bouin nevertheless seeks to be sent to the front. He caught up with his infantry regiment on August 2, and on September 28 the order to advance came. The battle was fierce. The battle was for every meter of trenches. Attacks and counterattacks followed one after another. And suddenly, during the strongest onslaught of the Germans, Jean Bouin collapsed to the ground. That day's summary for the 163rd Infantry Regiment stated:
"Sergeant Jean Buin, famous for his athletic exploits, from August 2 was a model of civil and military courage: he fell, struck by a bullet in the forehead, at the very time when he raised his comrades to attack enemy positions."
This happened in a battle on the heights of Meuse in September 1914, when he was not yet twenty-six years old. One of the most famous athletes of his time could not become an Olympic champion. Jean Bouin's time in the 5000 meters race in Stockholm was not officially recorded, but since Kolehmainen showed 14 minutes 36.6 seconds, they decided that Buen came in 14 minutes 36.7 seconds - after all, they were separated at the finish line by only a moment. And the French federation set this achievement as a national record that lasted 22 years.

In the 10,000 meters, Kolehmainen set a world record and won another gold medal. And he received the third medal for winning the 8 km cross-country. In total, a wonderful Finnish runner at one Olympics won three gold medals and one silver medal in the 12-kilometer team cross.

Giants stood out among the shot putters Patrick McDonald And Ralph Rose both from USA. In training, the more experienced Rose showed the best results, but at the competitions his nerves let him down, McDonald won, ahead of his teammate by 9 centimeters - 15 meters 34 centimeters.

But Rose still managed to win the gold medal. He managed to do it in an unusual competition. For the only time in the history of the Olympic Games in Stockholm, competitions were held in the shot put, discus and javelin throws with the right and left hands: the sum of the two results was counted. Rose showed the best total in the shot put with both hands.

Fyodor Zabelin writes about American throwers in his memoirs: “Once at a training stadium, I met two American throwers - Ralph Rose and Patrick McDonald. Rose was the Olympic champion in 1904 and 1908, he held the world record in shot put: 15 meters 54 centimeters. Interestingly, this result turned out to be one of the most durable: it lasted 19 years ... Naturally, I was interested in the method of training such outstanding athletes. I learned about it in the most unexpected way. Starting training, I asked to put me on a high bar. My new acquaintances willingly complied with the request. Successfully done combination and finishing it with a spectacular dismount, I looked in their direction. Without saying a word, tall and heavy, like his friend, Rose, approached the projectile. Slightly jumping, he hung on the crossbar, rushed his body forward, backward, still forward, went out point-blank on straight arms and finished the combination with a jump of the legs apart, flying high above the crossbar.And all this (with a weight of almost 100 kg) is easy, soft, unconstrained But! Responding to my praise, Rose and McDonald explained that in order to achieve record results in such a seemingly simple form as the shot put, high physical fitness is needed. Therefore, in their training, they select such exercises that, in addition to strength and other qualities, would develop speed, sharpness of movements ... All this was told in the most friendly tone, without the slightest feeling of superiority ".

The 110m hurdles was won by American athlete Fred Kelly. After 56 years, he came to Mexico City for the Games of the XIX Olympiad as a guest of honor. Kelly was 83 at the time. He was the oldest of all the champions of the past Olympics who came to the capital of Mexico. Reminiscing about distant years, the veteran told reporters: - And Avery Brundage, although he is now the president of the IOC, did not run well in our time ... At the Games in Stockholm, which brought Kelly a gold medal, Brundage took fifth place in athletics pentathlon competitions.

Many excellent results were shown in Stockholm. For example, in the 800 meters run, five people broke the world record at once!

But the most sensational was the performance of the American athlete Jim Thorpe.
And it's not just the two gold medals he won. Most importantly, these medals were won in the most difficult types of the program - pentathlon and decathlon - with a significant advantage over their competitors. Presenting the American Indian with a laurel wreath, King Gustav V of Sweden said he considered him the greatest athlete of all time. In the pentathlon, Thorp excelled in the long jump, the 200m and 1500m and the discus throw. And only in the javelin throw he took third place.
If athletics is called the "queen of sports", then the decathlon is undoubtedly the crown of the "queen".
With his performance in Stockholm, Jim Thorpe proved that he was truly the greatest athlete of his time. Here are the results shown by him at the Royal Stadium: 100 meters run - 11.2 seconds; long jump - 6 m 79 cm; high jump - 1 m 87 cm; shot put - 12 m 89 cm; 400 m run - 52 .2 sec; 110 m hurdles run - 15.6 sec; discus throw - 36 m 98 cm; pole vault - 3 m 25 cm; javelin throw - 45 m 70 cm; 1500 m run - 4 min 40, 1 sec.
With 8412 points, Thorpe was 690 points ahead of nearest rival Swede Hugo Wieslander. If you recalculate Thorpe's result according to the current table, it turns out that he is 1075 points more than the winner of the 1920 Olympics, and 102 points more than the winner of the 1924 Olympics!
The Royal Stadium welcomed the hero of the V Olympiad standing up. Jim Thorpe was the most popular man in Stockholm in those days. When he returned home, all of America applauded him. Jim was happy.

How could the poor Indians, Jim's parents, back in Oklahoma, even dream about it when Jim was born in 1889?! They called him Wa-Tho-Huk, which means "Sparkling Path". It was only later that he was given the name Jim Thorpe, for ease of pronunciation. From an early age, Jim loved to run and jump, like all the boys in the world. No boyish games took place without his participation. Most of all, he loved to go round wild ponies and run a race with them.

It's time to learn. At school, the coaches did not give a pass to a developed, physically strong boy: some dragged him to football, others to basketball or swimming. So Jim did a little of everything: he played football, basketball, baseball, lacrosse well, swam well, took part in school athletics competitions.

Thorpe's huge sports talent helped him continue his education - first he went to college, and then to the university. He studied in Pennsylvania at Carlile University. There he became seriously interested in athletics and a year later he was included in the US Olympic team, went to Stockholm and brought back two gold medals.

Yes, Jim was happy! But not everyone in America liked the glory of the young Indian. Proponents of racism and discrimination were outraged by the enthusiastic reception given by the American people to the hero of Stockholm. They forgot that in the Swedish capital, Jim Thorpe defended the colors of the American flag and the United States anthem was played in honor of his victories. The phenomenal successes of the two-time Olympic champion were an all too striking refutation of their racist theory of racial superiority of whites.

And not even a year later, a note by a certain Charles Clancy appeared in the press, in which he reported that two years before the Olympics, Jim Thorpe played baseball as part of some semi-professional team and received money for it. Too hastily, three members of the U.S. Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) executive bureau, on behalf of the U.S. Olympic Committee, wrote to the Swedish Olympic Committee announcing Thorpe's professional disqualification and requesting a review of the ranking order in all Olympic competitions in which Thorpe competed.

In their ardent desire to debunk the great Native American athlete, the US Olympic Committee went so far as to lose two gold medals to the United States. Their racist gut triumphed over patriotism. Jim Thorpe strongly protested against the disqualification: - I did play baseball during the summer holidays of 1909 and 1910 in the North Carolina team, as well as my other colleagues, who are considered amateurs to this day. But I didn't play for money. I just really like this game. When I returned from Stockholm, I was offered thousands of dollars to become a professional athlete. But I refused, because I never aspired to profit.

Thorpe tried to resist, to protest, but to no avail. His gold medals were taken away from him and handed over to the IOC for presentation to the athletes who took second places. The members of the Olympic Committee were not embarrassed by the refusal of the Swedish decathlete X. Wieslander to accept the gold medal. “I value my silver too much,” Wislander said, “to allow myself to accept someone else's gold medal. Thorpe won, not me.
But despite a large number of protests from progressive athletes and the public, Thorp was disqualified for life and his name was struck off the lists of Olympic champions. And this is only because some people in America did not like the growing popularity of the representative of the native inhabitants of the country. The unfair disqualification decision and deprivation of Olympic medals caused Jim a deep wound. He tried to fight for some time, but in vain. Until 1928, he continued to play sports, playing in professional baseball and football clubs, and then he began to drink and finally gave up sports.

It was hard to recognize the world's strongest athlete in a pitiful drunk man. Close friends gave Jim a small bar on one of the busy streets of Los Angeles. People came here to drink a glass of beer, a glass of whiskey and soda, to look at the hero of Stockholm, to listen to his stories. He willingly recalled his Olympic triumph, spoke with sadness and bitterness about the medals taken away. He even wrote a book about it, but there was no publisher for it.
In 1952, Jim became seriously ill and died the following March.
His last words were: "Give me back my medals!"
In 1973, sixty years after the most unfair action - the disqualification of the greatest Native American athlete, justice prevailed: in the bulletin of the Amateur Athletic Union of the USA, a message appeared that Jim Thorpe had been reinstated as an amateur. But the recovery came too late. Jim Thorpe hoped for this all his life and did not live to see this joy for twenty years.

Wrestling competitions aroused great interest at the V Olympiad. 180 wrestlers from 17 countries participated in them. At that time, there was no International Wrestling Federation, there were no uniform rules, the number of wrestlers from one country was not limited. Therefore, for example, 24 Finns, 5 Swedes, 2 Russians reached the semi-final...

According to the accepted position, the fight lasted one hour. If during this time the judge did not fix the touch, the winner was determined by points. Meetings in the semi-finals and finals were held until a complete victory. Because of this, there were several very long fights.

Featherweight German G. Gerstacker and finn K. Koskelo fought for two hours and three minutes.
Light Heavyweight Swede A. Algren and finn I. Beling fought for six hours.
But the record for the duration was set in heavyweight in the meeting of the representative of Russia M. Klein with a Finn A. Asikainen. It lasted 10 hours! Max Klein won. This record was set in the semi-finals, and when Klein reached the final, he could no longer fight at full strength: he was exhausted. The organizers of the competition were counting on this.

The Swedish stewards appointed the best and, if possible, equal opponents in pairs, and when, after an hour of struggle, the winner was not revealed, both were counted by defeat. Thus, the best wrestlers could not reach the final, and the Swedish athletes, appointed against obviously weak opponents, defeating them (mostly thanks to a peculiarly interpreted points system), got into the final.
  Max Klein, the winner of many hours of phenomenal fight, was not even allowed to rest before the final, despite the fact that the representative of the Russian team, General Voeikov, submitted an official request to the organizers.

The refusal was motivated by the need to finish the competition before the award ceremony, which was supposed to take place at the same stadium where the wrestlers competed. Meanwhile, a number of competitions took place after the awards ceremony, and one of the pairs - the Swede A. Algren and the Finn I. Beling - fought just at the time when the awards were held at the stadium.

Another injustice was committed against another Russian wrestler - August Picker, who had one victory and no defeat. He was considered the loser for the wrong reception he allowed. Even if the decision of the judges was fair, it is still impossible to understand and justify the fact that Pikker was disqualified until the end of the competition. There was no such provision in any of the rules.

A lot of protests were caused by competitions not only in wrestling, but also in other sports: tennis, equestrianism, fencing, rowing ... Protests were filed by individual participants, coaches, team representatives, and in fencing the protest was declared by an entire organization - the National Fencing Union of France .

There were so many dissatisfaction that the International Olympic Committee instructed one of its active members, Baron von Weningen, to collect all the comments and suggestions, consolidate them into a single report and submit it to the IOC session for consideration. Von Weningen successfully completed this work, and in 1913 this document was published in many countries.

In Russia, it was published in the same year in a translation into Russian under the title "A set of comments and proposals for improving the organization of the Olympic Games. A report to the International Olympic Committee, compiled on its behalf by a member of the International Olympic and German government committees, Baron von Weningen."

This curious 56-page document contains many serious criticisms of the organizers of the 5th Olympiad. The organizers certainly deserved these remarks.

There was such an incident at a shooting competition. In the midst of the competition, it began to rain heavily. All athletes continued to compete in the open air, under streams of water, but for the Swedes they quickly made a special canopy, and athletes from other countries were simply not allowed under this canopy. As a result, in eighteen types of shooting exercises, the Swedes won seven gold, six silver and four bronze medals.

The Swedish team featured two twin brothers, Wilhelm and Erik Carlberg. They performed brilliantly - together they were able to win four gold and four silver medals in team competitions in shooting from a small-caliber rifle, revolver and dueling pistol, and one of the brothers, Wilhelm, also managed to win an individual championship in shooting from a small-caliber rifle at 25 meters at a disappearing target . A similar incident in Olympic history was repeated half a century later: the twin brothers from the USSR national team Boris and Evgeny Mayorov became champions in hockey.

The Swedish masters of shooting at the "running deer" have also increased their collection of Olympic medals Oscar and Alfred Swann- three gold and one bronze medal they won at the Games of the V Olympiad.

Shooters from Russia received two medals. The duel pistol shooting team consisting of N. Melnitsky,A. Kashe,P. Voiloshnikova And G. Panteleimonova, third place in shooting at tossed pigeons was taken by Harry Blau.
He scored 91 points out of 100, 5 points behind the champion. In the last lap, Blau shot the best - 49 out of 50.

Even at the London Olympics, the Swedes proposed to include equestrian competitions in the program, but the British did not agree with this proposal. Naturally, equestrian sports were included in the program of the V Olympiad. The program consisted of dressage, individual and team competitions for the Prize of Nations, field trials (triathlon). From Russia in the competition were Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, captains Rodzianko And Ekimov, lieutenants Pleshkov, Zagorsky, Rummel, Selikhov. In the competition for the Prize of Nations, the Russian team was fifth. In the higher riding school, Captain Ekimov, on his horse Tritonych, took ninth place. The Swedish equestrians were the first in both personal and team competitions.

Spectators had the right to expect more from Russian athletes: shortly before the Olympics, Russian officers successfully performed at competitions in London. But hopes for success in Stockholm did not come true. It seemed that the horses were tired, overworked, and acted very sluggishly. The Swedish press paid too much attention to Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, who participated in the competition, but could not shine with anything.

For the first time, modern pentathlon competitions were held in Stockholm, in which 32 athletes from 10 countries participated. The documents of the Organizing Committee preserved the names of the first Russian pentathletes: Eimelaens, Almqvist, Borislavsky, Hoenthal, Nepokupnoy, Vilkman. The first Olympic champion among the "knights of the five qualities", as the pentathletes were later called, was a senior lieutenant of the Swedish royal guard Gustaf Liliehek.

Yachtsmen in Stockholm competed for the championship in four classes of ships. The champions were: in the "12 m" class - Norwegian Alfred Larsen on the yacht "Magda IX", in the "10 m" class - Swede Nils Asp on the yacht "Kitty", in the "8 m" class - Norwegian Thoralf Glad on the yacht "Typhoon" ", in the "6 m" class - the Frenchman Auguste Tube on the yacht "Mac-Mish". The bronze medalist in the 10m class was the representative of Russia Alexander Vyshnegradsky on the yacht Gallia II.

Swimming competitions were distinguished by very high results - Olympic records were set in all types of the program, many of which exceeded world records. At the shortest distance, the performance of a young Hawaiian became sensational Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, who is also considered the "father" of modern surfing.

A year before the Stockholm Olympics, the National Olympic Committee of the United States received a letter from one of the officers of the naval forces stationed in the Hawaiian Islands. The officer reported that he saw a young man in Honolulu who, in his opinion, is the fastest swimmer in the world. The next ship, sailing from Honolulu to the United States, brought the young Hawaiian to San Francisco.

His first training confirmed the opinion of a naval officer. Kahanamoku defeated all his competitors, while captivating the audience with such a refined crawl technique that was not known in America before him. Already in the preliminary 100-meter freestyle swim at the 5th Olympics, the exotic swimmer broke the world record of Charles Daniels, then confidently won all the classification competitions, the semi-finals and the final. In the semi-finals, Duke Kahanamoku showed a brilliant result, which became a new world record - 1 minute 02.4 seconds.

Some historiographers of the Olympic Games took the name of the Hawaiian for the title ("Duke" - prince) and wrote in reference books: "Prince Paoa Kahana-moku". In fact, he has a double name - Duke Paoa. A few days after the Stockholm success, he started in Hamburg, where he again set a world record in his favorite distance - 100 meters freestyle - 1 minute 01.6 seconds. After the brilliant victories of the Hawaiian athlete, American swimmers went to Honolulu to study the Hawaiian swimming technique and look for new talents for the upcoming Olympics.

Kahanamoku himself had to wait eight years for the next Olympic start. But even in 1920, he was again out of competition at his crown distance. Only at the 1924 Games did he have to be content with a silver medal: the era of Johnny Weissmuller began.

At the IOC session, held in Paris in 1906, it was decided to hold an art competition at the Olympic Games, following the ancient tradition. For the first time such a competition was organized in Stockholm. The works of architecture, painting, sculpture, music and literature presented at the competition were dedicated to the Olympic movement.

Gold awards were given to the Plan for the Construction of a Modern Stadium by the Swiss architects Henri Monod and Alphonse Laverriere, the Olympic Triumphal March by the Italian composer Ricardo Barthelemy, the canvas by the Italian painter Giovanni Pellegrini "Winter Sports", the sculpture "Wanderer from America" ​​by Olympic champion in shooting Walter Winans from USA. In the literature section, the gold medal was awarded to G. Horod and M. Eshbach for "Ode to Sport", but these were not the authors of the ode, Pierre de Coubertin was hiding under this pseudonym. One of the greatest Olympic historians, Dr. Ferenc Meze from Hungary, wrote about this:
"With the German-French pseudonym, Coubertin probably wanted to express the Olympic idea, which brought together even countries that were not on friendly terms with each other".

In the unofficial team standings, the first place was taken by the athletes of Sweden - 136 points. The Swedes also won the most medals - 24 gold, 24 silver and 17 bronze. Finland did an excellent job finishing fourth in the overall standings. Finnish athletes have received 9 gold, 8 silver and 9 bronze medals, far more than major sports powers such as France and Germany.

The award ceremony was held at the Royal Stadium on 17 July. Three "platforms" were installed on the football field. Athletes lined up behind them in three groups - according to the won medals: gold, silver, bronze. Herold loudly shouted out the names of the athletes who took the first three places in this sport. The winners approached the corresponding platform, where they were awarded medals: the Swedish king Gustav V - gold, the crown prince - silver, the prince - bronze.In addition to medals, 20 challenge prizes were awarded: for example, for victory in saber fencing - the prize of the city of Budapest; the winner of individual competitions in gymnastics - the prize of the city of Prague; for the victory in athletics pentathlon - the prize of the Swedish king, in decathlon - the prize of the Russian emperor ... After the closing ceremony of the Games, the final reception was held at the stadium, to which all athletes, coaches and officials were invited. all participants of the banquet. share at this banquet, Coubertin said: - The last word spoken at these Games should be dedicated to the flourishing of the next Olympics. The efforts of the authorities and the power of money are still far from sufficient for the success of the Games. It takes perseverance, patience, perseverance. First of all, it is necessary to have an accurate and clear idea of ​​the goals of sport, its humane significance. May the coming Olympics, like its predecessors, contribute to the cause of the general welfare and improvement of mankind! May it be celebrated by all the peoples of the world in joy and harmony!