1924 Summer Olympics

Games of the VIII Olympiad
	Emblem of the 1924 Summer Olympics
Host city	Paris, France
Nations	44
Athletes	3,089 (2,954 men, 135 women)
Events	126 in 17 sports (23 disciplines)
Opening	5 July 1924
Closing	27 July 1924
Opened by	President Gaston Doumergue
Stadium	Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir
	Summer ← Antwerp 1920 Amsterdam 1928 → Winter ← Chamonix 1924 St Moritz 1928 →

The 1924 Summer Olympics (French: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (French: Jeux de la VIII^e olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The opening ceremony was held on 5 July, but some competitions had already started on 4 May. The Games were the second to be hosted by Paris (after 1900), making it the first city to host the Olympics twice.

The selection process for the 1924 Summer Olympics consisted of six bids, and Paris was selected ahead of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Prague, and Rome. The selection was made at the 20th IOC Session in Lausanne in 1921.^[2] The cost of these Games was estimated to be 10,000,000F. With total receipts at 5,496,610F, the Olympics resulted in a hefty loss despite crowds that reached up to 60,000 in number daily.^[3] The United States won the most gold and overall medals, having 229 athletes competing compared to France's 401.

Highlights

The Uruguay national football team won the gold medal in football which is recognized as a world championship by FIFA.
The opening ceremony and several sporting events took place in the Olympic Stadium of Colombes, which had a capacity of 45,000 in 1924.
This VIII Olympiad was the last one organised under the presidency of Pierre de Coubertin.
The "Flying Finns" dominated the long-distance running, while the British and Americans dominated the shorter events. Paavo Nurmi won the 1500 m and 5,000 m (which were held with only an hour between them) and the cross country run. Ville Ritola won the 10,000 m and the 3,000 m steeplechase, while finishing second to Nurmi on the 5,000 m and cross country. Albin Stenroos won the marathon, while the Finnish team (with Nurmi and Ritola) was victorious in the 3,000 m and cross country team events.
The British runners Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell won the 100 m and the 400 m events, respectively. Liddell refused to compete in the 100-metre dash because it was held on a Sunday and he was an observant Christian. Their stories were depicted in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire. In addition, Douglas Lowe won the 800-metre competition.
The marathon distance was fixed at 42.195 km (26.219 mi), from the distance run at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.
The 1924 Olympics were the first to use the standard 50 m pool with marked lanes.
Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller won three gold medals in swimming and one bronze in water polo.
Harold Osborn won gold medals and set Olympic records in both the high jump and the decathlon at the 1924 Olympics. His 6' 6" high jump remained the Olympic record for 12 years, while his decathlon score of 7,710.775 points also set a world record and resulted in worldwide press coverage calling him the "world's greatest athlete".
Fencer Roger Ducret of France won five medals, of which three were gold.
In gymnastics, 24 men scored a perfect 10. Twenty-three of them scored it in the now-discontinued event of rope climbing. Albert Seguin scored a 10 here and also a perfect 10 on side vault.
The Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger) was used for the first time at the Olympics. It had been used before by the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques, a French sporting federation whose founding members included Pierre de Coubertin.^[4] De Coubertin took the motto from his friend Henri Didon, a Dominican priest who had coined during a speech before a Paris youth gathering of 1891.^[5]
Ireland was given formal recognition as an independent nation in the Olympic Movement in Paris in 1924, and it was at these games that Ireland made its first appearance in an Olympic Games as an independent nation.
Originally called Semaine des Sports d'Hiver ("Week of Winter Sports") and held in association with the 1924 Summer Olympics, the sports competitions held in Chamonix between 25 January and 5 February 1924 were later designated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the I Olympic Winter Games. (1924 Winter Olympics)
These were the first Games to have an Olympic Village.
The Art competitions at the 1924 Summer Olympics were the first time that the Olympic Art competitions were contested seriously, with 193 entries in five categories. A total of 14 medals were awarded, though none were given in the music category.^[6]

Sports

The "Olympic Number" of *Life*, 10 Jul 1924.

126 events in 23 disciplines, comprising 17 sports, were part of the Olympic program in 1924. The number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.

Aquatics
- Diving (5)
- Swimming (11)
- Water polo (1)
Athletics (27)
Boxing (8)
Cycling
- Road (2)
- Track (4)
Equestrian
- Dressage (1)
- Eventing (2)
- Show jumping (2)
Fencing (7)
Football (1)
Gymnastics (9)
Modern pentathlon (1)
Polo (1)
Rowing (7)
Rugby union (1)
Sailing (3)
Shooting (10)
Tennis (5)
Weightlifting (5)
Wrestling
- Freestyle (7)
- Greco-Roman (6)

Demonstration sports

Jeux de L’Enfance

The Jeux de L’Enfance, a program of youth sports competitions and activities, were held by Olympic organizers alongside the Games in cooperation with the YMCA.^[8]^[9] The following future Olympic sports were exhibited:

Venues

Seventeen sports venues were used in the 1924 Summer Olympics. Stade de Colombes served as the final venue for the 1938 FIFA World Cup between Italy and Hungary.

Venue	Sports	Capacity	Ref.
Bagatelle	Polo	598	^[10]
Bassin d'Argenteuil	Rowing	2,216	^[11]
Camp de Châlons	Shooting (600 m free rifle individual and team)	395	^[12]
Fontainebleau	Modern pentathlon (riding)	Not listed.	^[13]
Hippodrome d'Auteuil	Equestrian	8,922	^[14]
Issy-les-Moulineaux	Shooting (trap shooting, including team event)	41	^[15]
Le Havre	Sailing	541	^[16]
Le Stade Olympique de Reims	Shooting (trap shooting, running target)	420	^[17]
Le Stand de Tir de Versailles	Modern pentathlon (shooting), Shooting (25 m rapid fire pistol, running deer)	82	^[18]
Meulan-en-Yvelines	Sailing	389	^[19]
Piscine des Tourelles	Diving, Modern pentathlon (swimming), Swimming, Water polo	8,023	^[20]
Saint-Cloud	Polo	7,836	^[10]
Stade Bergeyre	Football	10,455	^[21]
Stade de Colombes	Athletics, Cycling (road), Equestrian, Fencing, Football (final), Gymnastics, Modern pentathlon (fencing, running), Rugby union, Tennis	60,000	^[22]
Stade de Paris	Football	5,145	^[23]
Stade Pershing	Football	8,110	^[24]
Vélodrome d'hiver	Boxing, Fencing, Weightlifting, Wrestling	10,884	^[25]
Vélodrome de Vincennes	Cycling (track)	12,750	^[26]

Participating nations

A total of 44 nations were represented at the 1924 Games. Germany was still absent, having not been invited by the Organizing Committee.^[27] China (although it did not compete), Ecuador, Ireland, Lithuania, and Uruguay attended the Olympic Games for the first time, while the Philippines competed for first time in an Olympic Games as a nation (though it first participated in the 1900 Summer Olympic Games, also in this city). Latvia and Poland also attended the Summer Olympic Games for the first time (having both appeared earlier at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix).

Participating National Olympic Committees
Argentina (77 athletes) Australia (36) Austria (49) Belgium (172) Brazil (12) Bulgaria (24) Canada (65) Chile (11) Cuba (9) Czechoslovakia (70) Denmark (89) Ecuador (3) Egypt (33) Estonia (44) Finland (90) France (401) (host) Great Britain (267) Greece (26) Haiti (8) Hungary (89) India (7) Ireland (39) Italy (200) Japan (9) Latvia (41) Lithuania (13) Luxembourg (22) Mexico (13) Monaco (7) Netherlands (153) New Zealand (4) Norway (62) Philippines (1) Poland (65) Portugal (30) Romania (51) South Africa (30) Spain (129) Sweden (108) Switzerland (75) Turkey (31) United States (299) Uruguay (31) Yugoslavia (37)

China also took part in the Opening Ceremony, but its four athletes (all tennis players) withdrew from competition.^[28]

Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees

IOC	Country	Athletes
FRA	France	401
GBR	Great Britain	239
USA	United States	229
ITA	Italy	200
BEL	Belgium	172
NED	Netherlands	153
ESP	Spain	129
SWE	Sweden	108
FIN	Finland	90
DEN	Denmark	89
HUN	Hungary	89
ARG	Argentina	77
SUI	Switzerland	75
TCH	Czechoslovakia	70
CAN	Canada	65
POL	Poland	65
NOR	Norway	62
ROM	Romania	51
AUT	Austria	49
EST	Estonia	44
LAT	Latvia	41
IRL	Ireland	39
YUG	Yugoslavia	37
AUS	Australia	36
EGY	Egypt	33
TUR	Turkey	31
URU	Uruguay	31
POR	Portugal	30
RSA	South Africa	30
GRE	Greece	26
BUL	Bulgaria	24
LUX	Luxembourg	22
LTU	Lithuania	13
MEX	Mexico	13
BRA	Brazil	12
CHI	Chile	11
CUB	Cuba	9
JPN	Japan	9
HAI	Haiti	8
IND	India	7
MON	Monaco	7
ROC	Republic of China	4
NZL	New Zealand	4
ECU	Ecuador	3
PHI	Philippines	1
Total	3,089

Medal count

These are the nations that won medals the 1924 Games.

* Host nation (France)


Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	45	27	27	99
2	Finland	14	13	10	37
3	France*	13	15	10	38
4	Great Britain	9	13	12	34
5	Italy	8	3	5	16
6	Switzerland	7	8	10	25
7	Norway	5	2	3	10
8	Sweden	4	13	12	29
9	Netherlands	4	1	5	10
10	Belgium	3	7	3	13
11	Australia	3	1	2	6
12	Denmark	2	5	2	9
13	Hungary	2	3	4	9
14	Yugoslavia	2	0	0	2
15	Czechoslovakia	1	4	5	10
16	Argentina	1	3	2	6
17	Estonia	1	1	4	6
18	South Africa	1	1	1	3
19	Uruguay	1	0	0	1
20	Austria	0	3	1	4
20	Canada	0	3	1	4
22	Poland	0	1	1	2
23	Haiti	0	0	1	1
	Japan	0	0	1	1
	New Zealand	0	0	1	1
	Portugal	0	0	1	1
	Romania	0	0	1	1
Totals (27 entries)		126	127	125	378

Pierre de Coubertin—founder of the IOC & father of the modern Olympics movement—personally awarded 21 gold medals to members of the 1922 British Mount Everest Expedition including 12 Britons, 7 Indians, 1 Australian and 1 Nepalese.^[29]^[30]

Legacy

The 1924 Summer Olympics were the second edition of the Summer Olympics to be held in Paris. 100 years later, the city will host the 2024 Summer Olympics, marking the third time the city hosts the games. One venue from the 1924 Games is slated to be used in 2024. The extensively renovated and downsized main stadium, known since 1928 as Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, will host field hockey.

Last surviving competitor

The last surviving competitor of the 1924 Summer Olympics was Croatian swimmer Ivo Pavelić, who died on 22 February 2011 at the age of 103; he competed for Yugoslavia, which Croatia was part of at the time. ^[31]

Notes

^ "Factsheet - Opening Ceremony of the Games f the Olympiad" (PDF) (Press release). International Olympic Committee. 13 September 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
^ "Past Olympic host city election results". GamesBids. Archived from the original on 24 January 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ Zarnowski, C. Frank (Summer 1992). "A Look at Olympic Costs" (PDF). Citius, Altius, Fortius. 1 (1): 16–32. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
^ The Official History of the Olympic Games and the IOC- Athens to Beijing, 1894–2008: David Miller (2008)
^ "Opening Ceremony" (PDF). International Olympic Committee. 2002. p. 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 December 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2012.; "Sport athlétique", 14 mars 1891: "[...] dans une éloquente allocution il a souhaité que ce drapeau les conduise 'souvent à la victoire, à la lutte toujours'. Il a dit qu'il leur donnait pour devise ces trois mots qui sont le fondement et la raison d'être des sports athlétiques: citius, altius, fortius, 'plus vite, plus haut, plus fort'.", cited in Hoffmane, Simone La carrière du père Didon, Dominicain. 1840 - 1900, Doctoral thesis, Université de Paris IV - Sorbonne, 1985, p. 926; cf. Michaela Lochmann, Les fondements pédagogiques de la devise olympique „citius, altius, fortius"
^ M. Avé, Comité Olympique Français, pp. 601–612
^ "Demonstration sports : history at the Olympic Summer Games / The Olympic Studies Centre". Olympic World Library. 19 January 2024. Archived from the original on 19 January 2024. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
^ Barker, Philip (3 March 2015). "Did the first Youth Olympics really take place in Paris 100 years ago?". International Society of Olympic Historians – ISOH. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 628. (in French)
^ ^a ^b 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 528-9. (in French)
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 165-7. (in French)
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 565-6. (in French)
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 501-3. (in French)
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 222-3. (in French)
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 544-6, 549. (in French)
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 584, 587. (in French)
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 563-5, 568. (in French)
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 489, 548-9.
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 582-3, 587. (in French)
^ 1924 Olympic official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 438-40, 443-4, 499 (in French).
^ 1924 Summer Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 318, 320. (in French)
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 50-5, 96-7, 121, 152, 216, 222, 238, 248, 265, 318, 339, 375, 499, 503, 536. (in French)
^ 1924 Summer Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 318, 321. (in French)
^ 1924 Summer Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 318, 322. (in French).
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 182-3, 203-4, 255, 266, 400, 425, 507. (in French)
^ 1924 Olympics official report. Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine pp. 200-217. (in French)
^ Guttmann, Allen (1992). The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. p. 38. ISBN 0-252-01701-3.
^ M. Avé (ed.). Les Jeux de la VIII^e Olympiade Paris 1924 – Rapport Officiel (PDF) (in French). Paris: Librairie de France. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 May 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2012. 39 seulement s'alignérent, ne représentant plus que 24 nations, la Chine, le Portugal et la Yougoslavie ayant déclaré forfait.
^ Georgiou, Mark (26 March 2012). "Everest Olympic medal pledge set to be honoured". BBC News. Archived from the original on 22 September 2014. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
^ Douglas, Ed (19 May 2012). "My modest father never mentioned his Everest expedition Olympic gold". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
^ "Ivo Pavelić". Olympedia. Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.