They have become a real failure.
It is well known that when Pierre de Coubertin revived from oblivion, the Olympic games, the runaway success of the first Olympic games in 1896 in Athens brought the sport to a new level. But few people know that the next Game was a complete failure, barely leaving the Olympic movement on the half-empty page of history.
The second Olympiad was held in Paris from may to October, 1900, simultaneously with the world exhibition, where were presented the latest achievements – diesel engine, the escalator, sound cinema and telephone.
Now in addition to the usual sports took place in Paris race ballooning, car racing, trap shooting at live pigeons. At the Games in Paris for the first time participated sportsmen-women. It was the first Olympics for team of the Russian Empire.
Sporting achievements was lost by the extravagance and importance of the world exhibition, which was visited by 50 million people. The competition lasted for six months and suffered from poor organization. Performances of different types of sports and judging conducted numerous organizations without a unified leadership. It got to the point of absurdity – many athletes come to the competition, timed to coincide with the Exhibition, did not even know that they participate at the Olympic games.
Next, the third, the Olympic games 1904 in St. Louis (USA) was actually dramatically. It is considered the worst in the history of the Olympic games. It was carried out simultaneously with the next world exhibition. Cutting-edge advances such as cars, airplanes, electricity, again pushed the sport to the margins of attention.
In St. Louis the problems of the Paris Olympic games are not simply repeated and aggravated. It was the first time the Games were held outside Europe, and only 12 countries took part in the competition. The journey to America in those days was time-consuming and costly and without having the sponsorship did not come from the best European athletes. As a result, in half of the sports, all the participants were exclusively from the United States. This ill-fated Olympics did not become a place of competition in different countries. Here teams of colleges and even schools.
However, and here were their heroes. Gymnasts Anton heida and George Acer won six medals each, the latter did it in one day and with denture semeste left leg.
Another shame of St. Louis became the “Anthropological days.” They were the organizers of the world exhibition without the approval of the Olympic Committee. The natives – the indigenous people of the Philippines, GUAM and Patagonia, as well as American Indians and pygmies competed in “athletic” competitions such as mud wrestling, throwing stones, climbing on the pole, javelin-throwing, archery, tug of war. They were simple people who came from the colonies and not previously engaged in sports.
Based on the results of the “Anthropological days,” the organizers said about the physical superiority of the Anglo-American race on the basis of “scientific” tests of speed, endurance and strength “savage” versus “civilized people”.
The founder of the Olympics, Baron Coubertin criticized the event, calling embarrassing and inhuman. He came to St. Louis, because he believed that the world exhibition undermines the seriousness of the Olympic games. The Frenchman admitted that after two such failures, called “Fair games of 1900 and 1904”, Olympias barely survived. It was decided not to continue to combine Games and entertainment events.
