Olympics - Sweden and the Games 3

The thorny question of professionalism also raised its head. The star athlete of the Games was Jim Thorpe, who won both the pentathlon and the decathlon as well as performing well in individual events. The Swedish king told him he was the greatest athlete in the world, Tsar Nicholas gave him a jewel-encrusted chalice and he was also presented with a bronze bust of Sweden’s Gustav V, but he was stripped of his medals when it became known he had played minor league baseball in North Carolina for a small sum of money. It was not until long after he had died in poverty that he was officially reinstated. Replicas of the medals were given to his family and there is a memorial plaque to him at the old Olympic Stadium in Stockholm.

The impressive red-brick venue, still in use, was constructed in two years, financed by lotteries as the Riksdag (Parliament) was doubtful about the project. The cost was far greater than originally estimated, so little has changed in that respect too. There was no Olympic Village. The US contingent lived on the boat they came to Stockholm in, while most others stayed at small hotels or rented private rooms.

There were also two tennis events, one indoors, the other out. Both were held before the official opening of the Games, indoors at the beginning of May, outdoors in late June. The covered court tournament attracted a stronger entry as the other one clashed with Wimbledon. There was disappointment for the Swedes in the outdoor mixed doubles final, won by a German pair. The home players would undoubtedly have given a better account of themselves had Sigrid Fick not smashed her partner’s face instead of the ball early in the match. According to the official report of the Games, the incident ‘seemed to put him off his game, for his play fell off tremendously’.

The soccer tournament was popular, with eleven teams, all from Europe, taking part. Britain beat Denmark 4-2 in the final in front of a crowd of 25,000. Eleven of the side’s 15 goals in the tournament were scored by Harold Walden, who later became a popular music-hall comedian. The most remarkable feat, however, came from Gottfried Fuchs of Germany, who scored ten goals in one match, against Russia.
(More to come)