In 1904, St. Louis hosted the Olympics as an adjunct to the World's Fair already scheduled to take place there, with the events spreading out over a four-and-a-half month period. Boxing, dumbbells, freestyle wrestling and the decathlon made their Olympic debuts, and gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded for the first time in sports including roque, lacrosse, tug-of-war and the "plunge for distance" diving competition. It was the first Olympics held in the New World, and served as something of a coming-out party for America as a global power, having recently seized the Philippines, Puerto Rico, etc., during the Spanish-American War.
Oh. And on August 12-13, 1904, the Olympics hosted "Anthropology Days," organized by America's leading anthropologists and sports figures, in which ~2000 "native peoples" from around the world were gathered together to compete in contests of speed, skill and endurance in order to determine which were the most "civilized". Via the Indian School Journal:
There were wild-eyed Ainus, heavy-bearded and gorgeously clad; great, tall lumbering Patagonians; stockily built Moros; slender, tawny-skinned Syrians; long-haired Cocopas, wild and savage of aspect; and last but by no means least, pupils of the Indian School, clad in the conventional athletic habiliments of the white man.Events included spear throwing, archery, mud fighting and pole climbing. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered the events under the headline, "Pygmies Outdo Savage Athletes; Little Black Men From The African Jungles Excel In Tribesmen's Games."
Baron de Coubertin, the founder of the Modern Olympics, believed this was only a temporary setback: Such events, he said, "will, of course, lose their appeal when black men, red men and yellow men learn to run, jump and throw, and leave the white men behind them."
The St. Louis Public Library has more pictures, and the Post-Dispatch has more on the anthropology exhibitions at the Fair.
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