Olympic Games of 1920 (Summer)

The Event: First post–World War I Olympic Games

Date: April 20–September 12, 1920

Place: Antwerp, Belgium

In June 1914, the International Olympic Committee convened to finalize plans for the 1916 and 1920 Olympic Games. Later that month, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. World War I began shortly thereafter, and the 1916 Olympics were canceled. Following the war, world athletic leaders and Olympic officials met in Lausanne, Switzerland, to plan the 1920 Olympic Games, hoping also to provide a morale boost to the world following the devastation of the war.

Antwerp, Belgium, was chosen to host the 1920 Olympic Games as a way to honor the city for the destruction it endured during the war. Although not banned from the 1920 Games, wartime aggressors Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey were not invited to participate and did not attend.

With a relatively short time to prepare for the Games, Belgium had to construct athletic venues despite a lack of postwar funding and materials. When athletes first arrived in Antwerp in 1920, some venues had not been completed, and many athletes were housed in cramped quarters and slept on folding cots.

Olympic Firsts

The opening ceremony occurred on August 14, 1920, and was officiated by Belgian King Albert and his wife, Queen Elizabeth. During the opening ceremony, the Olympic flag, designed in 1914, was raised for the first time ever. The five interconnecting rings in the flag symbolize the five continents of the world that are unified through participation in the Games. The colors of the rings were chosen because at least one color appears in every national flag of every country in the world.

The Olympic oath was also recited for the first time at the 1920 Games. First written in 1914 by Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, considered by many the father of the modern Olympics, the oath is taken by an athlete of the host country, who, while holding a corner of the flag, promises on behalf of all the athletes to respect and abide by the rules that govern the Olympics. Belgian fencer Victor Boin recited the first Olympic oath, swearing to participate “in a spirit of chivalry, for the honor of our country, and for the glory of sport.”

Also at the 1920 opening ceremonies, hundreds of white homing pigeons were released for the first time in modern history. The birds were used in 1920 to commemorate those who had died on the side of the victors in World War I, but the tradition has come to symbolize peace among all nations.

American Olympic Committee Controversy

Considerable controversy emerged between American athletes and the American Olympic Committee (AOC). In November 1919, the president of the AOC, Gustavus Towne Kirby, announced the team that would be representing the United States in Antwerp. Due to time constraints, there were several transportation and lodging setbacks for the Americans. Postwar transportation, for example, was hindered by the availability of adequate ships that could cross the Atlantic Ocean. Olympic athletes who were in the military sailed to Belgium aboard a military cruiser and were accorded first-class accommodations, but the remaining 254 members of the U.S. Olympic team were transported onboard an aging transport ship, and the athletes felt the ship lacked adequate accommodations and training facilities.

Controversy ensued between the athletes and the American Olympic officials, and to express their dissatisfaction, almost all of the athletes onboard the ship signed a petition expressing their grievances about crowded sleeping quarters, poor ventilation, inadequate training facilities, and a rodent infestation.

Once in Antwerp, the American athletes were housed in a local YMCA and in a rundown primary school with folding cots to sleep on. Several athletes soon decided to move to a local hotel, despite a warning from American officials that the move would be considered an act of insubordination. Triple jumper Dan Ahearn was suspended from the team after moving to a hotel, and many other American athletes threatened to boycott the Games if they did not receive better living conditions and if Ahearn was not reinstated. The Olympic Committee eventually reinstated Ahearn, but the living quarters remained the same. None of the athletes refused to compete.

Medal Standings

At the time of the 1920 Olympics, winter and summer sports were combined into one Olympiad. (The first separate Winter Olympics was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France.) A total of 2,626 athletes (2,561 men and 65 women) from 29 countries participated in the Games, with the United States winning the most medals (95) and the most gold medals (41). Sweden compiled 63 medals; Great Britain, 44; Belgium and France, 42 each; and Finland received 34. Figure skating and ice hockey were introduced in 1920, with the United States winning the silver medal in ice hockey.

Athletic Achievements

Athletes from the United States dominated the 1920 Olympic Games. American runner Charles Paddock was expected to win both the 100-meter and 200-meter events, though he was upset in the 200-meter by fellow American Allen Woodring, a last-minute addition to the team. Paddock won a team gold medal for the 4 × 100 meter relay. Although American athletes had dominated the field events in the 1912 Olympics, their performance in 1920 was not as stellar, giving way to Finnish athletes who received gold medals in the decathlon, pentathlon, and shot put. Paavo Nurmi of Finland made his Olympic debut in 1920 by winning the gold in the 10,000-meter run and 8,000-meter team cross country events, as well as the silver in the 5,000-meter run. His countryman Johannes Kolehmainen set a world record in the marathon. Americans received gold medals in pole vault and high jump that year.

In swimming, the United States won 11 of 15 events, led by triple gold medalists Norman Ross and Ethelda Bleibtrey, who became the first American woman to win an Olympic swimming title. Duke Paoa Kahanamoku of Hawaii led an American sweep of the 100-meter swimming event, and American women swept the 400-meter freestyle and won gold in the 4 × 100 meter freestyle relay. American men and women won the springboard diving events, with fourteen-year-old Aileen Riggin winning a gold medal. In rowing, John Kelly Sr. won gold in single and double sculls, and the men’s teams received a gold medal in the eight oars with coxswain event.

Nedo Nadi of Italy won five gold medals in fencing, and Belgium won the gold medal in football (soccer) before 40,000 spectators. At age seventy-two, Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn earned a silver medal in team double-shot running deer event to become the oldest medalist in Olympic history.

Impact

Although the 1920 Olympic Games were organized within a short amount of time and the austere facilities were criticized by the American team, the Games provided the opportunity to revive the Olympic spirit with new traditions such as raising the Olympic flag, reciting the Olympic oath, and the releasing of white birds to symbolize peace among all nations during the Games.

Bibliography

Espy, Richard. The Politics of the Olympic Games. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. Historical account of the political, economic, social, and philosophical forces that have influenced the Olympic Games.

Guttmann, Allen. The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games. 2d ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. A study of the history of the modern Olympic Games.

Lucas, John. “American Preparations for the First Post World War Olympic Games, 1919–1920.” Journal of Sport History 10, no. 2 (1983): 30–44. Provides an account of the organizing of the American athletic representation at the 1920 Olympic Games.

Mallon, Bill, and Anthony Th. Bijkerk. The 1920 Olympic Games: Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2009. Results with commentary of every event in the 1920 Games.

Spivey, Nigel. The Ancient Olympics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Researches the first Olympics of ancient Greece by exploring the events, rules, and athlete training and diet of the time.