The the 27th April 1908 was the last time London hosted the Olympics at White City, although it wasn’t quite as big as the 2012 Olympics.
London wasn’t really supposed to be hosting the Olympics in this year as Rome was the chosen city, but 2 years earlier in 1906 the city of Naples had been devastated by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The money destined for the games, was therefore diverted and Rome pulled out.
London took-up the Olympic flame and in a remarkable piece of organisation, it managed to organise and host the games in just 2 years compared to the 8 years it takes today.
Most of the events were held in the White City Stadium, which was built very quickly for the games. The running events took place around the outer track, with the swimming pool and wrestling & gymnastics arena’s in the middle.
The London Olympics also changed the distance of the marathon to 26 miles from the original 25 as Princess Mary requested it ran below the nursery of Windsor Castle, and thus had to be slightly extended. This is why marathons now cover the slightly odd distance of 26 miles 385 yards.
Many of the events we would recognise to this day such as the marathon, 400 meters race, swimming races and diving etc. But deer shooting has long since disappeared from the Olympic events list.
Pictured above is Dorando Pietri, who many see as the winner of the first 26 mile marathon, although due to exhaustion and being assisted to get up from the track was technically disqualified. However Queen Alexandra next day awarded him a gilded silver cup, which is the only time this has happened in Olympic history.
