Stockholm Olympic Games, 1912
The 1912 Olympic Games were held in Stockholm, Sweden, between 5 May and 22 July 1912. Twenty-eight nations and 2,408 competitors, including 48 women, competed in 102 events in 14 sports.
Olympic Swimming 1912
(credit: public domain)Trivia
- The first women's swimming gold medal was won by the Australian Sarah 'Fanny' Durack, who won the 100m freestyle in 1912.
- Under Swedish law, boxing was not allowed at the 1912 Stockholm Games.
- Stockholm also hosted the equestrian events for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
- Japan made their debut at the 1912 Games, the first Asian country to participate at the Olympic Games.
- The first electronic automatic timing system was introduced for the athletics track events in 1912, which also included a photo of the winner as they crossed the finish line.
- The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912.
- The star of the 1912 Games was the American Indian Jim Thorpe, who won both the decathlon and pentathlon. However, in the following year it was discovered that he once played semi-professional baseball, and he was subsequently stripped of his gold medals (but reinstated in 1983).
- In Stockholm, 1912, Finland began its domination of long-distance running events, as Hannes Kolehmainen picked up three gold and a silver medal.
- The first death of an athlete at the modern Olympic Games was in Stockholm 1912. Portuguese runner Francisco Lazaro collapsed from sunstroke and heart trouble at the 29 km mark of the marathon, and died the next day. More about Olympic Deaths.
- Oscar G Swahn of Sweden won a gold medal for shooting when he was 65 years old (took a silver medal eight years later). He also qualified for the 1924 Olympics but withdrew without competing.
- Ralph Craig of the USA was 23 when he won gold medals in the 100m and 200m sprints in 1912. He returned to Olympic competition at the 1948 Olympics to compete in the yachting competition.
- George Patton, who went on to become US General George C Patton, was 5th in the modern pentathlon in 1912. His shooting let him down.
- Austrian Otto Herschmann won the silver in the team sabre fencing event. At the time he was the president of the Austrian Olympic Committee, becoming the only sitting national Olympic committee president to win a medal in the Olympics. Herschmann died in 1942 in a Nazi concentration camp.
- A wrestling bout in 1912 between Estonia's Martin Klein and Finland's Alfred Asikainen lasted 11 hours and 40 minutes before Klein finally won.
Related Pages
- List of sports at the 1912 Olympic Games
- Stockholm also hosted equestrian events for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
- Complete list of Olympic host cities
- Sweden at the Olympic Games.
- 1912: The Year in Sport
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