1912 Summer Olympics

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The 1912 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad, were celebrated in 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden. For the first time, competitors in the Games came from all five continents symbolized in the Olympic rings. It was also the last time that solid gold medals were awarded; modern medals are usually gold coated silver. The main arena was Stockholms Olympiastadion.

A winter sports week for the 1912 Games featuring figure skating were rejected by organizers because they wanted to promote the Nordic Games, a quadrennial sporting event, instead.

Highlights

Francisco Lázaro, a Portuguese runner died from the heat while running the marathon, the first athlete in the history of the modern Olympics to die during competition.
American Jim Thorpe won the pentathlon and the newly created decathlon. He was disqualified because of violation of principles of amateurism, but was reinstated in 1982.
Swedish marksman Oscar Swahn became the oldest Olympic gold medalist (up to that time), at the age of 64, in the deer-shooting event.
Women's events in swimming and diving were introduced.
Sweden, as the host country, refused to allow boxing events.
Future World War II General George S. Patton took part in the first modern pentathlon competition. Modern pentathlon was the idea of Pierre de Coubertin.
In athletics, electronic timing devices were first used.
For the first time the Serbian athletes took part. They were the representatives of Kingdom of Serbia and were sent by the Serbian Olympic Club: sprinter Dušan Milošević, who ranked third in the 100 m qualification group and marathon runner Dragutin Tomašević, who finished in 37th position.
Ewart Douglas Horsfall won his first two gold medals for Great Britain in rowing. He has widely been considered Britain's greatest rower prior to Steve Redgrave.

Medals awarded

Demonstration sport

Participating nations

28 nations competed in Stockholm.

Medal count

These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1912 Games.

1		25	19	19	63
2	(host nation)	24	24	17	65
3		10	15	16	41
4		9	8	9	26
5		7	4	3	14
6		5	13	7	25
7		4	2	0	6
8		4	1	4	9
9		3	2	3	8
9		3	2	3	8

External links

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Last updated on Friday March 07, 2008 at 11:59:20 PST (GMT -0800)
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