1924 Summer Olympics Explained

Host City:	Paris, France
Nations:	44
Athletes:	3,089 (2,954 men, 135 women)
Events:	126 in 17 sports (23 disciplines)
Opening:	5 July 1924
Closing:	27 July 1924
Opened By:	President Gaston Doumergue^[1]
Stadium:	Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir
Summer Prev:	Antwerp 1920
Summer Next:	Amsterdam 1928
Winter Prev:	Chamonix 1924
Winter Next:	St Moritz 1928

The 1924 Summer Olympics (French: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (French: Jeux de la VIII^e olympiade) and officially branded as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The opening ceremony was held on 5 July, but some competitions had already started on 4 May. The Games were the second to be hosted by Paris (after 1900), making it the first city to host the Olympics twice.

The selection process for the 1924 Summer Olympics consisted of six bids, and Paris was selected ahead of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Prague, and Rome. The selection was made at the 20th IOC Session in Lausanne in 1921.^[2] The cost of these Games was estimated to be 10,000,000 F (equivalent to in). With total receipts at 5,496,610 F (equivalent to in), the Olympics resulted in a hefty loss despite crowds that reached up to 60,000 in number daily.^[3] The United States won the most gold and overall medals, having 229 athletes competing compared to France's 401.

Highlights

• The Uruguay national football team won the gold medal in football, which was recognized as a world championship by FIFA.
• The opening ceremony and several sporting events took place in the Olympic Stadium of Colombes, which had a capacity of 45,000 in 1924.
• This VIII Olympiad was the last one organized under the presidency of Pierre de Coubertin.
• The "Flying Finns" dominated the long-distance running, while the British and Americans dominated the shorter events. Paavo Nurmi won the 1500 m and 5,000 m (which were held with only an hour between them) and the cross-country run. Ville Ritola won the 10,000 m and the 3,000 m steeplechase while finishing second to Nurmi in the 5,000 m and cross country. Albin Stenroos won the marathon, while the Finnish team (with Nurmi and Ritola) was victorious in the 3,000 m and cross-country team events.
• The British runners Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell won the 100 m and the 400 m events, respectively. Liddell refused to compete in the 100-meter dash because it was held on a Sunday, and he was an observant Christian. Their stories were depicted in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire. In addition, Douglas Lowe won the 800-metre competition.
• DeHart Hubbard became the first African-American to win an individual gold medal in the Long jump.
• The marathon distance was fixed at 42.195km (26.219miles), from the distance run at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.
• The 1924 Olympics were the first to use the standard 50 m pool with marked lanes.
• Dual-sport athlete Johnny Weissmuller won three gold medals in swimming and one bronze in water polo.
• Harold Osborn won gold medals and set Olympic records in the high jump and the 1924 Olympic decathlon. His 6' 6" high jump remained the Olympic record for 12 years, while his decathlon score of 7,710.775 points also set a world record and resulted in worldwide press coverage recognizing him as the "world's greatest athlete."
• Fencer Roger Ducret of France won five medals, of which three were gold.
• In gymnastics, 24 men scored a perfect 10. Twenty-three scored it in the now-discontinued rope climbing event. Albert Seguin scored a ten here and a perfect ten on the side vault.
• The Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger) was used for the first time at the Olympics. It had been used before by the, a French sporting federation whose founding members included Pierre de Coubertin.^[4] De Coubertin took the motto from his friend Henri Didon, a Dominican priest who had coined the phrase during a speech before a Paris youth gathering of 1891.^[5]
• Ireland was given formal recognition as an independent nation in the Olympic Movement in Paris in 1924, and it was at these games that Ireland made its first appearance in the Olympic Games as an independent nation.
• Originally called Semaine des Sports d'Hiver ("Week of Winter Sports") and held in association with the 1924 Summer Olympics, the sports competitions held in Chamonix between 25 January and 5 February 1924 were later designated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the I Olympic Winter Games. (1924 Winter Olympics)
• These were the first Games to have an Olympic Village.
• The Art competitions at the 1924 Summer Olympics were the first time that the Olympic Art competitions were contested seriously, with 193 entries in five categories. A total of 14 medals were awarded, though none were given in the music category.^[6]

Sports

126 events in 23 disciplines, comprising 17 sports, were part of the Olympic program in 1924. The number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.

Demonstration sports

• • • La canne
• ^[7]

Jeux de L’Enfance

The Jeux de L’Enfance, a program of youth sports competitions and activities, were held by Olympic organizers alongside the Games in cooperation with the YMCA.^{[8] [9]} The following future Olympic sports were exhibited:

Venues

Seventeen sports venues were used in the 1924 Summer Olympics. Stade de Colombes served as the final venue for the 1938 FIFA World Cup between Italy and Hungary.

width=40%	Venue	Sports	width=10%	Capacity	Ref.
		598	^[10]
		2,216	^[11]
	Shooting (600 m free rifle individual and team)	395	^[12]
	Modern pentathlon (riding)	Not listed.	^[13]
		8,922	^[14]
	Shooting (trap shooting, including team event)	41	^[15]
		541	^[16]
	Shooting (trap shooting, running target)	420	^[17]
	Modern pentathlon (shooting), Shooting (25 m rapid fire pistol, running deer)	82	^[18]
	Sailing	389	^[19]
		8,023	^[20]
	Polo	7,836
	Football	10,455	^[21]
		60,000	^[22]
	Football	5,145	^[23]
	Football	8,110	^[24]
		10,884	^[25]
	Cycling (track)	12,750	^[26]

Participating nations

A total of 44 nations were represented at the 1924 Games. Germany was still absent, having not been invited by the Organizing Committee.^[27] China (although it did not compete), Ecuador, Ireland, Lithuania, and Uruguay attended the Olympic Games for the first time, while the Philippines competed for first time in an Olympic Games as a nation (though it first participated in the 1900 Summer Olympic Games). Latvia and Poland also attended the Summer Olympic Games for the first time (having both appeared earlier at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix).

In these games we have the return of these nations: Austria, Bulgaria, Cuba, Haiti, Hungary, Mexico, Romania and Turkey

At the time, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Ireland were all dominions of the British Empire. India was also part of British Empire, but was not a dominion. For other sovereign states (i.e. United States, France, Brazil, Japan, etc) and the international community as a whole (i.e League of Nations) the term dominion, used internally in the British Empire, was very ambiguous, meaning "something between a colony and state". It was only years later with the Statute of Westminster 1931 that this ambiguity would be dispelled.

And Philippines was an unincorporated territory and commonwealth of the United States.

• China also took part in the Opening Ceremony, but its four athletes (all tennis players) withdrew from competition.^[28]

Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees

IOC Letter Code	Country	Athletes
FRA		401
GBR		239
USA		229
ITA		200
BEL		172
NED		153
ESP		129
SWE		108
FIN		90
DEN		89
HUN		89
ARG		77
SUI		75
TCH		70
CAN		65
POL		65
NOR		62
ROM		51
AUT		49
EST		44
LAT		41
IRL		39
YUG		37
AUS		36
EGY		33
TUR		31
URU		31
POR		30
RSA		30
GRE		26
BUL		24
LUX		22
LTU		13
MEX		13
BRA		12
CHI		11
CUB		9
JPN		9
HAI		8
IND		7
MON		7
ROC		4
NZL		4
ECU		3
PHI		1
Total	3,089

Medal count

See main article: 1924 Summer Olympics medal table. These are the nations that wonmedals the 1924 Games.

• Pierre de Coubertin—founder of the IOC & father of the modern Olympics movement—personally awarded 21 gold medals to members of the 1922 British Mount Everest Expedition including 12 Britons, 7 Indians, 1 Australian and 1 Nepalese.^{[29] [30]}

Legacy

The 1924 Summer Olympics was the second edition of the Summer Olympics to be held in Paris. 100 years later, the city has hosted the games once again with the 2024 Summer Olympics, marking its third time, becoming the second city ever to host the Summer Olympics three times (after London, which hosted the 1908, 1948, and 2012 Games). Paris 2024 also marks the centenary of Chamonix 1924, which in turn marks the centenary of the Winter Olympics; making Paris 2024 the sixth Olympic Games hosted by France (three Summer Olympics and three Winter Olympics), and the first French Olympics since the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville.

Notable debuts of participating countries for the Paris 1924 Olympics include Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Philippines, Poland, Romania, and Uruguay; all of which celebrated their centenary participation at the 2024 Summer Olympics back in Paris.

One venue from the 1924 Games is slated to be used in 2024. The extensively renovated and downsized main stadium, known since 1928 as Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, will host field hockey.

The last surviving competitor of the 1924 Summer Olympics was Croatian swimmer Ivo Pavelić, who died on 22 February 2011 at the age of 103; he competed for Yugoslavia, which Croatia was part of at the time. ^[31]

Continuation of Jeux de L’Enfance, games for youth sports and competition, from the Paris 1924 was embodied through the creation of Youth Olympics Games inaugurating in Singapore with the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics with 3,600 athletes aged 14–18 from 204 nations competing in 201 events in 26 sports.

See also

• Chariots of Fire

External links

• • Book: Les Jeux de la VIII^e Olympiade Paris 1924 – Rapport Officiel . M. . Avé . Comité Olympique Français . Librairie de France . Paris . fr . 30 June 2018 . The Games of the VIIIth Olympiad Paris 1924 – Official Report . https://web.archive.org/web/20080410085129/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf . 10 April 2008 . dead .
• 1924 medal winners – from CBS
• Picture of the Olympic Stadium of Colombes
• Original footage of the opening ceremony of the 1924 Summer Olympics (by Polygoon)
• Olympic games handbook; containing official records of the seventh Olympiad

Notes and References

1. Factsheet - Opening Ceremony of the Games f the Olympiad. live . International Olympic Committee. 13 September 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160814215458/https://stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Reference_documents_Factsheets/Opening_ceremony_of_the_Games_of_the_Olympiad.pdf . 14 August 2016. 22 December 2018.
2. Web site: Past Olympic host city election results . . 17 March 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110124022022/http://www.gamesbids.com/eng/past.html . 24 January 2011 . dead .
3. Frank Zarnowski . Zarnowski . C. Frank . Summer 1992 . A Look at Olympic Costs . Citius, Altius, Fortius . 1 . 1 . 16–32 . 10 August 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170525062441/http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/JOH/JOHv1n1/JOHv1n1f.pdf . 25 May 2017 . dead .
4. The Official History of the Olympic Games and the IOC- Athens to Beijing, 1894–2008: David Miller (2008)
5. Web site: Opening Ceremony. International Olympic Committee. 23 August 2012. 3. 2002. 11 December 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111211010920/http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reports/EN/en_report_268.pdf. live.

   "Sport athlétique", 14 mars 1891: "[...] dans une éloquente allocution il a souhaité que ce drapeau les conduise 'souvent à la victoire, à la lutte toujours'. Il a dit qu'il leur donnait pour devise ces trois mots qui sont le fondement et la raison d'être des sports athlétiques: citius, altius, fortius, 'plus vite, plus haut, plus fort'.", cited in Hoffmane, Simone La carrière du père Didon, Dominicain. 1840 - 1900, Doctoral thesis, Université de Paris IV - Sorbonne, 1985, p. 926; cf. Michaela Lochmann, Les fondements pédagogiques de la devise olympique „citius, altius, fortius"

6. M. Avé, Comité Olympique Français, pp. 601–612
7. Web site: Demonstration sports : history at the Olympic Summer Games / The Olympic Studies Centre . Olympic World Library . 2024-01-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240119230639/https://library.olympics.com/doc/SYRACUSE/619826 . 2024-01-19 . live . 2024-01-27.
8. Web site: Barker . Philip . Did the first Youth Olympics really take place in Paris 100 years ago? . International Society of Olympic Historians – ISOH . 2015-03-03 . 2024-01-29.
9. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
10. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
11. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
12. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
13. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
14. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
15. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
16. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
17. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
18. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
19. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
20. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympic official report.
21. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Summer Olympics official report.
22. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
23. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Summer Olympics official report.
24. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Summer Olympics official report.
25. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
26. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf 1924 Olympics official report.
27. Book: Guttmann, Allen . The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games . 1992 . University of Illinois Press . Urbana and Chicago . 0-252-01701-3 . 38 . registration .
28. Book: Les Jeux de la VIII^e Olympiade Paris 1924 – Rapport Officiel . M. Avé . Librairie de France . Paris . fr . 16 October 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110505162957/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1924/1924.pdf . 5 May 2011 . 39 seulement s'alignérent, ne représentant plus que 24 nations, la Chine, le Portugal et la Yougoslavie ayant déclaré forfait. . dead .
29. News: Everest Olympic medal pledge set to be honoured . 26 March 2012 . Mark . Georgiou . 31 August 2012 . BBC News . 22 September 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140922145422/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17493939 . live .
30. News: My modest father never mentioned his Everest expedition Olympic gold . Ed . Douglas . The Guardian . 19 May 2012 . 31 August 2012 . London . 25 December 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181225173145/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/19/olympic-secret-everest-forgotten-hero+ . live .
31. Web site: Ivo Pavelić . Olympedia . 8 June 2021 . 8 June 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210608074800/https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/51732 . live .