Athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the Games of the IV Olympiad
Host stadium (shown in 1908)
No. of events	26
←  1904 1912  →

At the 1908 Summer Olympics held in London, England, 26 athletics events were contested, all for men only. A total of 79 medals (27 gold, 27 silver, 25 bronze) were awarded.

Each nation was allowed to enter up to 12 competitors in most of the events. In the team races (the medley relay and the 3 mile team race), each nation entered one team. The medley relay was run by four athletes, with four alternates allowed. In the 3 mile team race, five athletes from each nation ran with only three counting.

The competition was restricted to amateurs, and was held under the rules of the British Amateur Athletic Association.

Medal summary

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Reggie Walker   South Africa	10.8 OR	James Rector   United States	(10.9) [a]	Robert Kerr   Canada	(11.0) [b]
200 metres details	Robert Kerr   Canada	22.6	Robert Cloughen   United States	22.6	Nate Cartmell   United States	22.7
400 metres details	Wyndham Halswelle   Great Britain	50.0	none awarded		none awarded
800 metres details	Mel Sheppard   United States	1:52.8 WR	Emilio Lunghi   Italy	1:54.2	Hanns Braun   Germany	1:55.2
1500 metres details	Mel Sheppard   United States	4:03.4 OR	Harold Wilson   Great Britain	4:03.6	Norman Hallows   Great Britain	4:04.0
5 miles details	Emil Voigt   Great Britain	25:11.2 OR	Edward Owen   Great Britain	25:24.0	John Svanberg   Sweden	25:37.2
Marathon details	Johnny Hayes   United States	2:55:18.4 WR	Charles Hefferon   South Africa	2:56:06.0	Joseph Forshaw   United States	2:57:10.4
110 metres hurdles details	Forrest Smithson   United States	15.0 WR	John Garrels   United States	15.7	Arthur Shaw   United States	15.8
400 metres hurdles details	Charles Bacon   United States	55.0 WR	Harry Hillman   United States	55.3	Jimmy Tremeer   Great Britain	57.0
3200 metres steeplechase details	Arthur Russell   Great Britain	10:47.8	Arthur Robertson   Great Britain	10:48.4	John Eisele   United States	11:00.8
Medley relay details	United States  (USA) William Hamilton Nate Cartmell John Taylor Mel Sheppard	3:29.4	Germany  (GER) Arthur Hoffmann Hans Eicke Otto Trieloff Hanns Braun	3:32.4	Hungary  (HUN) Pál Simon Frigyes Wiesner József Nagy Ödön Bodor	3:32.5
3 miles team race details	Great Britain  (GBR) William Coales 14:41.6 Joe Deakin 14:39.6 Arthur Robertson 14:41.0	6 pts	United States  (USA) George Bonhag 15:05.0 John Eisele 14:41.8 Herbert Trube 15:11.0	19 pts	France  (FRA) Joseph Dreher 15:40.0 Louis de Fleurac 14:56.0 Paul Lizandier 15:56.6	32 pts
3500 metres walk details	George Larner   Great Britain	14:55.0 WR	Ernest Webb   Great Britain	15:07.4	Harry Kerr   Australasia	15:43.4
10 miles walk details	George Larner   Great Britain	1:15:57.4 WR	Ernest Webb   Great Britain	1:17:31.0	Edward Spencer   Great Britain	1:21:20.2
Long jump details	Frank Irons   United States	7.48 m OR	Daniel Kelly   United States	7.09 m	Calvin Bricker   Canada	7.08 m
Triple jump details	Tim Ahearne   Great Britain	14.92 m OR	Garfield MacDonald   Canada	14.76 m	Edvard Larsen   Norway	14.39 m
High jump details	Harry Porter   United States	1.90 m OR	Géo André   France	1.88 m	none awarded
			Con Leahy   Great Britain
			István Somodi   Hungary
Pole vault details	Edward Cook   United States	3.71 m OR	none awarded		Edward Archibald   Canada	3.58 m
					Clare Jacobs   United States
	Alfred Gilbert   United States
					Bruno Söderström   Sweden
Standing long jump details	Ray Ewry   United States	3.33 m	Konstantinos Tsiklitiras   Greece	3.235 m	Martin Sheridan   United States	3.23 m
Standing high jump details	Ray Ewry   United States	1.57 m	John Biller   United States	1.55 m	none awarded
			Konstantinos Tsiklitiras   Greece
Shot put details	Ralph Rose   United States	14.21 m	Denis Horgan   Great Britain	13.62 m	John Garrels   United States	13.18 m
Discus throw details	Martin Sheridan   United States	40.89 m OR	Merritt Giffin   United States	40.70 m	Bill Horr   United States	39.45 m
Hammer throw details	John Flanagan   United States	51.92 m OR	Matt McGrath   United States	51.18 m	Con Walsh   Canada	48.51 m
Javelin throw details	Eric Lemming   Sweden	54.83 m WR	Arne Halse   Norway	50.57 m	Otto Nilsson   Sweden	47.11 m
Greek discus details	Martin Sheridan   United States	37.99 m	Bill Horr   United States	37.32 m	Verner Järvinen   Finland	36.48 m
Freestyle javelin details	Eric Lemming   Sweden	54.44 m WR	Michalis Dorizas   Greece	51.36 m	Arne Halse   Norway	49.73 m

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	16	10	8	34
2	Great Britain	7	7	3	17
3	Sweden	2	0	3	5
4	Canada	1	1	4	6
5	South Africa	1	1	0	2
6	Greece	0	3	0	3
7	Norway	0	1	2	3
8	France	0	1	1	2
	Germany	0	1	1	2
	Hungary	0	1	1	2
11	Italy	0	1	0	1
12	Australasia	0	0	1	1
	Finland	0	0	1	1
Totals (13 entries)		27	27	25	79

Events

The 1908 Games were the first to feature race walking, with two different events held. Two different forms of javelin throwing also appeared, introducing the new throwing apparatus to the programme. The 60 metre short sprint was dropped from the programme, as was the middle hurdle distance. Steeplechasing was done at 3200 metres instead of the 2500 metres that had been included at the previous two editions; the team race also had its distance shortened. A short track relay event was added. The multi-discipline triathlon and decathlon events that had been held at the 1904 Games were both absent. An event featuring the discus, which had become a staple of Olympic athletics, was held in which throwers had to follow a very specific throwing style. Overall there was one more event on the 1908 programme than there had been in 1904.

Calendar

●

Event competitions

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Event finals

July	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th
100 metres								●	●	●
200 metres									●	●	●
400 metres									●	●	●		●
800 metres								●	●
1500 metres	●	●
110 metres hurdles											●	●	●
400 metres hurdles								●	●	●
3200 metres steeplechase					●	●
Medley relay												●	●
3 miles team race		●	●
5 miles			●			●
marathon												●
3500 metres walk		● ●
10 miles walk				●	●
Long jump										●
Triple jump													●
High jump									●
Pole vault												●
Standing long jump								●
Standing high jump											●
Shot put				●
Discus throw				●
Hammer throw		●
Javelin throw					●
Greek discus						●
Freestyle javelin			●
July	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th

Participating nations

446 athletes from 20 nations competed. Argentina and Turkey were the only two nations not to compete in athletics.

Australasia  (9)   Austria  (3)   Belgium  (6)   Bohemia  (3)   Canada  (27)   Denmark  (8)   Finland  (15)   France  (19)   Germany  (21)   Great Britain  (126)

Greece  (12)   Hungary  (20)   Italy  (13)   Netherlands  (20)   Norway  (11)   Russian Empire  (1)   South Africa  (9)   Sweden  (33)   Switzerland  (1)   United States  (89)

Notes

1. Estimated from 1.5 ft distance behind winner
2. Estimated from "close behind" distance behind 2nd place

References

• Cook, Theodore Andrea (1908). The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report. London: British Olympic Association.
• De Wael, Herman (2001). "Athletics 1908". Herman's Full Olympians. Archived from the original on 27 September 2006. Retrieved 23 July 2006.
• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Archived from the original on 14 June 2006. Retrieved 23 July 2006.

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