ST. LOUIS — Did you know St. Louis convinced Chicago to give up the 1904 Olympics? The Missouri Historical Society says it's true.
"Chicago had been officially chosen to host the Olympics in 1904," said Amanda Clark with Missouri Historical Society. "But the organizers of the 1904 World's Fair here in St. Louis pushed back and said, 'You know we don't want to have competing international athletic events and ours is going to be so amazing that it's going to eclipse what you're doing there in Chicago so you might as well let us have it.'"
These days, the Games last about two and a half weeks. Back then, it went five months from July through November. Just as the athletes today are incredible, so were the ones back then.
"George Eyser. He is one of the definitely more interesting individuals of the Olympic Games that year. He won six medals including one in pole vaulting, one in parallel bars, rope climbing and he had a wooden leg," explained Clark.
Today, we see new sports being added like skateboarding, surfing, sport climbing and karate. In 1904, some were a bit more old school.
"In the 1904 Olympics, there were several sports we no longer consider Olympic sports. But I think the best one is tug-of-war," said Clark. "There is several different teams and several of them were actually represented by local St. Louis Turnverein. One of those Turnverein members, Frank Kugler, he was one of the only Olympians to ever win three medals in three different sports at one Olympics."
You can still visit some of the places where the 1904 events were held in St. Louis.
"There are several places throughout St. Louis that you can go to today and see where they held different Olympic sports. Creve Coeur Lake, that's where they held the rowing competition. Rowing has actually been held at Creve Coeur Lake since the mid-1800s," said Clark.
"You can go to Glen Echo County Club where they played the golf. You can go to Forest Park where they held several different sports. And then you can go to Washington University to Francis Field and to the gymnasium."