The 1924 Paris Olympics were the sixth and final Olympics hosted by Baron de Coubertin, the founder of modern sports. He has every reason to be satisfied with his job. The French government enthusiastically supported the enterprise, providing a budget of 20 million francs and a new stadium. The Olympic rituals – the lining up of the nations, the rings, the oaths, the gold, silver and bronze medals – have been set.
Above all, the Olympics remained the exclusive domain of amateur sporting gentlemen (nobles, university students, and military officers), whose performances were hailed by the Baron as “displays of manliness.”
But there’s a problem. At the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, the public turned away from the amateur efforts of gentleman athletes, swimmers, gymnasts, and other athletes. The exclusion of women led to the creation of an entirely new movement, which has hosted its own Women’s Olympic Games every year since 1921. Olympic Games. Professional sports—baseball, boxing, cycling, and football—create spectacle and celebrity that Olympians cannot match.
The significance of the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris was that in all these areas it provided a sporting counterattack to growing challenges.
Women account for less than 5% of the 3,000 athletes in Paris, and are only allowed to compete in swimming, diving and tennis. But they made headlines for the first time and reshaped perceptions of women and sport.
For example, American Sybil Bauer broke the men’s 440-yard backstroke world record before the Paris Olympics, and there were calls across the country for her to challenge men’s swimmers at the Olympics. Although that didn’t happen, she won the women’s gold medal and broke the Olympic sprint record.
Her compatriot Helen Wills won tennis singles and mixed doubles gold medals and won 12 Wimbledon titles, becoming the first female athlete to achieve lasting international fame.
There are a lot of gentleman athletes in the Olympics, but now they have challengers. Harold Osborn came from a family of farmers in rural Illinois, and his gold medals in the high jump and decathlon established him as an Olympic athlete. American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller was born in Romania and grew up in the ghettos of Chicago before winning three gold medals in Paris and rising to prominence in Hollywood after Tarzan brought him to Beverly Hills.
British athletes Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, who won the 100m and 400m championships respectively, broke the pattern of British aristocratic track and field. Although Abraham had a privileged middle-class background, including the army and Oxbridge, he was Jewish and therefore a victim of prejudice. Liddell came from a lower-ranking clergy, and his hardline Protestant Sabbatarianism made him an odd man.
Paris also invited the first global celebrities to compete in the Olympics: Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi and the Uruguayan football team. The former ran 6 races in 7 days, most of which set new records, and won 5 gold medals.He has been described by global media as the first superhuman athlete sports mirror Declared: “Pavo Rumi transcends the limits of humanity.” The Uruguayan has wowed the world of football with his passing rhythm and balletic balance, and is hailed across the globe as not just an athlete but an artist. Gazzetta dello Sport Report About their “musical phrasing” and “stylistic perfection”.
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Today, the Olympic movement faces greater challenges than it did in 1924: declining television ratings, a lack of interest among the world’s youth, and continuing urban and environmental disasters. Today’s athletes are more diverse, equally superhuman, and equally accomplished at their best. Whether that will be enough for Paris II to save the Olympics remains to be seen, but I doubt it.
