The Olympians
“As the athletes dispersed many of us who watched them felt that we were never likely to look upon so splendid a set of men again.” – Theodore Cook, Official Olympic report.
On the afternoon of Saturday July 25th 1908, after twelve days of intense sporting activity, the stadium Games came to a close when the Closing and Awards ceremony was held. No fewer than one thousand three hundred and twenty trophies and cups, medals and diplomas, were awarded to a great host of athletes and officials. Even the participants in the demonstration events were not forgotten, and they received their commemorative medals. Since by now King Edward had refused to have anything more to do with the Games, it fell to Queen Alexandra to make the presentation of the gold medals. As the band of the Grenadier Guards struck up “See, the Conquering Hero Comes”, the new Olympic champions advanced across the grass to the Queen to receive their gold medals and a sprig of oak leaves from Windsor forest tied in red, white and blue ribbons. The South African 100 metre sprint champion led the procession and as the rest followed one after another the official Olympic Report declared that “the spectators realised that they were looking at the finest procession of athletes which had ever passed before a Queen”.
It was a relaxed, festive and happy occasion, with the tensions of the previous days over. Even the rains had stopped and the weather was bright and warm. To cheers and laughter, Lord Desborough was presented with his commemorative medal by his wife. Johnny Hayes had received the marathon trophy to warm applause, and he was carried shoulder high on a table around the stadium by his jubilant team-mates. And then it was the turn of Dorando Pietri to receive his special cup from the hands of the Queen to “salvoes of cheers which must have been heard miles away” (The Sporting Life).
The final official banquets were held, the tributes paid and the flowery speeches made. The athletes, dignitaries and officials departed, and the great stadium soon turned to other uses. Memories too would fade, and feuds were eventually forgotten. But for a short space of time, the hopes and aspirations, and triumphs and failures, of many people became inextricably linked with the drama and glory of the London Olympiad. It is to some of those people that we now turn.
On the first Sunday of the 1908 Games, Ethelbert Talbot, the Bishop of Pennsylvania, had given a sermon at St Paul’s cathedral in which he uttered the words that became symbolic of the Games – “What is important in these Olympic Games is not to win as to take part”. The words are often inaccurately attributed to de Coubertin. However, he was so impressed with them that he expanded upon them later to make his famous remark that “What is important in life is not victory but the battle. What matters is not to have won, but to have fought well.”
The portraits that follow are of nine men and one woman who “fought well” at the London Olympics, and indeed throughout their lives. Not all won gold medals, and one, Lord Desborough, although a remarkable sportsman and himself a former Olympian, did not actually compete in London. Several of them were to die tragically young. But all were heroes, and all achieved fame at some time, however fleeting, and the story of their lives and achievements deserves to be told.