The Fifth Olympiad

Official presentation brochure of the 1912 Summer Olympic Games in Stockholm.

King Gustaf V of Sweden inaugurated the Fifth Olympiad at the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm on July 6, 1912. In the following weeks, 2,380 competitors from 27 nations representing six continents participated in well-organized competitions in perfect weather conditions. The largest Olympics yet at the time, the Stockholm Games have thus gone down in history as the Sunshine Olympics, or "the Swedish Masterpiece." Since that achievement, and despite numerous attempts by other Swedish cities, Sweden has not yet managed to host the Olympic Games again. This work examines the 1912 Stockholm Olympics from a variety of perspectives, exploring the preparations, organization, competitions, participants, and spectators, as well as the continuing significance of the 1912 Games to Sweden and to the future of the Olympic movement.

On a summers day in June, two months to the day after the sinking of the Titanic, the United States Olympic team, smartly dressed in new uniforms and preceded by a brass band, makes it's way through cheering crowds and a blizzard of confetti to New York harbor. Awaiting them the flower bedecked SS Finland, chartered transport to Stockholm, Sweden, host of the 1912 games. Among it's members, twenty three year old All American football star Jim Thorpe and his coach Glen "Pop" Warner. From Hawaii, twenty year old record shattering waterman Duke Kahanamoku and competing in the modern Pentathlon of fencing, pistol marksmanship, steeplechase, cross country running and swimming, twenty five year old U. S. Army second lieutenant George S. Patton. Caught up in the excitement of the parade a young boy and his dog are swept aboard the Finland and impulsively stow away, finding shelter in one of the extra lifeboats kept on deck in response to the recent Titanic catastrophe. After the ship is underway, his discovery forces the Captain of the Finland to order his return to New York. However, Colonel M. Thompson, President of the American Olympic Association agrees to pay his fare and he is elected Mascot of the team. Sharing a cabin in third class with the athletes of color, sixteen year old Harry Naughton of Toledo, Ohio is witness to and narrates the competition, conflicts and friendships that manifest during the Atlantic crossing and the games of the fifth Olympiad. Aboard the floating gymnasium, across ballroom dance floors and finally in the Olympic arena, the dizzying heights and crushing lows of athletic competition are dramatized through the interaction of some of the most prominent men of the last Century. Fueled by the embryonic stirrings and first volleys of the civil rights and Suffragette movements, their stories combine to create a dynamic and universally resonant tale. Told with an eye for truth and a willingness to reevaluate his own prejudice, Harry invites us to join him as he embraces life, meets the King of Sweden and "finds the Olympics".

Britain has a long and distinguished history as an Olympic nation. However, most Olympic histories have focused on men’s sport. This is the first book to tell the story of Britain’s Olympic women, how they changed Olympic spectacle and how, in turn, they have reinterpreted the Games. Exploring the key themes of gender and nationalism, and presenting a wealth of new empirical, archival evidence, the book explores the sporting culture produced by British women who aspired to become Olympians, from the early years of the modern Olympic movement. It shines new light on the frameworks imposed on female athletes, individually and as a group, by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the British Olympic Association (BOA) and the various affiliated sporting international federations. Using oral history and family history sources, the book tells of the social processes through which British Olympic women have become both heroes and anti-heroes in the public consciousness. Exploring the hidden narratives around women such as Charlotte Cooper, Lottie Dod, Audrey Brown and Pat Smythe, and bringing the story into the modern era of London 2012, Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson, the book helps us to better understand the complicated relationship between sport, gender, media and wider society. This is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport history, Olympic history, women’s history, British history or gender studies.