1904 Summer Olympians compete in tug-of-war.
The following events make for the strangest Olympics on record:
- Initially meant to be held in Chicago, the 1904 Summer Olympic organizer worked in President Roosevelt to move the event to St. Louis, stating that no person would make the trip to Chicago, considering the World Fair was already set im St. Louis. The event was then moved to St. Louis.
- Due to the new land-locked event location, most other countries were unable to participate. Out of 600 contestants, 580 were American.
- World's Fair games were intermixed with Olympic games, including Gaelic football, Indian club swinging, Tug-of-War, among others.
- The event included "Anthropology Day" which aimed to prove white physical superiority by paying indengenious persons, some already human exhibits, to compete in events, and chart the data.
- The Marathon event itself was full of strange occurences, namely the fact that most runners never even completed the race!
- A runner began hemorraging internally due to large amounts of swallowed dust, stirred up by automobiles on the trackl
- The race 'winner' was disqualified when it was discovered he drove for a portion of the marathon.
- The runner-up was given a mixture of strychnine raw egg, and brandy throughout the race. He finished in three and a half hours. Upon learning he had won the race, the runner collapsed and had to be revived by a team of doctors.
- Another racer had only just arrived in town by way of hitchhiking. Having no time to eat or change, the starving racer proceeded to eat fruit from trees along the race path, took a nap mid-race to curb his stomache cramps, and came in fourth overall.
- Two African tribesman, also part of the human exhibit, entered the marathon. While was was chased off the course by a dog, both completed the race, taking ninth and twelfth place, while becoming the first Africans to participlate in an Olympic event.
- Six medals were won by an American gymnast with a wooden leg.
- The record for gold medals was set, when came in first in three different sports: wrestling, weight lifting, and Tug-of-War.