The First London Olympics: 1908 [Hardcover]

Every Olympic Games has something that remains in the mind of generations. The London Games is recollected for the staggering movement of small Chaplin-looking Italian runner, Dorando Pietri, who won the marathon, but then was disqualified, as he had collapsed a few yards from the finishing line and received assistance from officials, so making the second runner, the US John Hayes from New York, the official champion. It became the first Games to be filmed. The public's memory in time, thus, became more homogeneous; what was remembered was only that which was actually filmed.

What does not get recalled was that the real venue should have been Rome, but due to the eruption of Mt Vesuvius two years previously causing severe damage and fatalities, the Italian organizers offered London the possibility as a quick fix. There was an element of luck when the Jewish Hungarian Imre Kiralfy, wishing to put on an Anglo-French Exhibition in Shepherd's Bush, offered Lord Desborough and the British Olympic Council a purpose-built oval arena the White City, built in ten months, complete with cement cycle, grass hurdle, and cinder running tracks, an open-air swimming pool, and promising a small profit where all three previous Olympic Games had run up heavy debts.

If the lack of advertising and the poor weather did not influence the flocking of the crowds when the track, field and swimming events got underway in July, the Games were repeatedly jinxed by small oversights, which the US team seemed intent in taking offence to and the US press magnates of Hearst and Pulitzer in stirring up nationalist fervour for a quicker buck. What lay in the background, however, and is the core of Rebecca Jenkins' thesis, was the British confirmed belief in upholding the amateur sporting tradition of "fair play" fostered in the public school, whereas in the US there was germinating a more sophisticated professional managerial élan with the will to win at all costs. As a new proud "free" forward moving nation since defeating the Spanish in Cuba in 1898, the US, pushed by its staunchly republican, anti-British Irish immigrant brethren, wished to stand up and be seen by all to be a great growing power in every field in particular with respect to the decadent and weakling class-ridden British Empire.

The protests, sarcastic comments and snubs, the author showed them at length on and off the tracks and in and out of the pools. Each chapter makes the incident the centre of attention: beginning with the US shot putter Ralph Rose's refusal to lower the US stars and stripes flag to the British monarch, Edward VII, at the opening ceremony; the US petty opposition to the rules advanced by the organizing committee in the tug of war competition (won by a team from the London police); their conviction of cheating when certain potential US winners were lumped together in heats against one another for a single spot in the final; the disqualification of the US Cornell University educated John Carpenter, winner of the 400m, and the refusal of the US team to partake in the re-run, giving a walkover to the London born Scot Lt Wyndham Halswelle, presented for almost 40 years in the US press as an example of "British tyranny" and "class-war" and the officer "a little tin god of the toffs"; the immediate offence with the proclamation of Pietri as marathon winner with the raising of the Italian flag, made much worse when Queen Alexander decided to award the Italian a special cup, all proving for the Americans the British's continued arrogance, their little dog behaviour with their denial to recognise the US youth as the rightful and official top dog. Consequently, Jenkins could easily have added a sub-title: Battle between the Two Super Powers, to its general title. Looking backwards, many of the pointless handbag arguments was a reflection of the non-standard state of the rules of sport across the world, the weak voice of the IOC, and in turn the freer hand allowed to the host nation, made worst when one or more irritated guests were prepared to make a public stand to question the then status quo.

Readers will read and see photos of strange demonstration sporting events, such as bicycle polo, and water polo which did not become full events, and fencing with the foil which did; of events like the 5 mile race, or the standing high jump, won at 5 ft 2 in by US Ray Ewry, that were removed soon after; about the oldest competitor, the youngest and the first black gold winners, or about the oddest 1,600 m relay; of the marathon culinary diets prior to the race; the use of "stimulants" like strychnine; how people viewed women's sports and what was more of interest when British gold winner Miss Eastlake-Smith won the tennis championship; of the geographic territories invited, like Bohemia, Finland, and Iceland which were still not sovereign states competing against the nations they were part of; about the infrastructural improvements which the games would bring to the metropolis; the balanced comments by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the British dailies; and most important, the author shows that the historical idea of the purpose of the modern Olympics should not be attributed to Lord Desborough, nor to James Sullivan, President of the US AAU two of the prominent heavyweight under the spotlight at the Games, not even to Baron Pierre de Coubertin, but to the Anglican Bishop of Central Pennsylvania during a sermon in St Paul's Cathedral.

The book has its limitations. Though presenting an account of certain the track and field events in London in the Summer Games, she excludes the array of sports normally held today during the same weeks in the Summer, such as football, boxing, and hockey treated then as the games held in "Winter" in October; nor does she cover rowing held at Henley or on yachting around the Isle of Wight. The author recommends sporting enthusiasts should turn to Bill Mallon & Ian Buchanan's The Olympic Games: Results for All Competitors in All events , with Commentary (2009). A sporting history, however, without a one page medal table, a table summary in an appendix of the events discussed throughout the volume, and perhaps a list of websites for any interested reader is in these days somewhat odd, and gives the impression as one is holding something which is a little incomplete or hurriedly finished. That is the greatest weakness and disappointment of this fairly promising historical account.

I think it is a fun tale about people and social history and the media. It has loads of pictures and cartoons and you don't have to have big muscles and an inclination to run long distances to appreciate it. Not one for the sports nuts - forsakes boring stats for amusing anecdotes about edwardian chaps. Much more my sort of thing.

The Austerity Olympics: When the Games Came to London in 1948

Jenkins' book is a delightful, readable, fasinating insight into the first Olympics held in London. Anyone interested in history, sport, London, politics or who just likes a good read, shoulod put it on their Christmas present list.