Photos from the Last Paris Olympics—100 Years Ago
A glimpse of notable moments from the 1924 summer Olympics in Paris.
The 2024 Summer Olympics will mark the third time that Paris has hosted the Games. The first time was in 1900, and the last time was a century ago in 1924.
There are about twice as many sports at the 2024 Paris games as there were a century ago. In 1924, there were 17 sports, 126 medal events, and 3,089 athletes in 1924 (May 4-Jul. 27). This year, there will be 32 sports, 329 medal events, and about 10,500 athletes (Jul. 26-Aug. 11).
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]In 1924, Team USA boasted the highest medal count. Among the winners was American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, who racked up three Olympic gold medals. But he arguably made a bigger splash as the actor: He played Tarzan in 12 films.
Female athletes boasted a strong showing at the 1924 Olympics. Lucy Morton became the first British woman to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming. Tennis star Hazel Wightman was an Olympic gold medalist in women’s doubles and also in mixed doubles, where she shared the honors with Titanic survivor Richard Williams. Wightman’s women’s doubles partner Helen Wills also won a gold medal for women’s singles. (Tennis didn’t reappear at the Olympics until the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.)
Ahead of the 1924 Olympics, TIME put James Stillman Rockefeller, grandnephew of Standard Oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller and the U.S. Olympic crew captain, on the July 7, 1924, cover of the magazine. As TIME waxed poetic about the stakes: “Now he led them forth—the bronze-skinned ones—to conquer the oarsmen of the world, as warlike Menelaus led the bronze-greaved Argives against Troy of old. Would his heart and theirs be stout enough? Could he counsel and exhort them to his Nation’s glory?” It ended up being a prescient choice. Rockefeller’s team cruised their way to a gold medal.
In track and field, Lee Barnes was just 17 years old when he won a gold medal in pole vaulting, right before starting his freshman year of college. Finnish runner Ville Ritola set the world record for the 10,000 m and became the only athlete to win six athletics medals in a single Olympic games. (Athletics is a series of running events.)
But the most famous track story to come out of the 1924 Paris Olympics is the story of Jewish runner Harold Abrahams facing off with devout Christian runner Eric Liddell that inspired the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire. Abrahams had to deal with rampant antisemitism, and Liddell refused to compete in any game that took place on a Sunday because it’s the Sabbath. Despite these challenges, their rivalry turned into a friendship, and they each went on to win gold medals for Great Britain—Abrahams in the 100-m sprint and Liddell in the 400-m race. In the 200-m race, Liddell got a bronze medal while Abrahams placed sixth.
Not all of the 1924 Olympic competitions involved sports. There was the “Pentathlon of the Muses” which boasted categories like literature, painting, sculpture, and architectural plans, and medals were awarded based on how well they related to sports and the ideals of the Olympics. The legendary composer Igor Stravinsky judged music submissions for the Games that year, but no medals were awarded in that category. Athletes could also enter the artistic competitions. Alfred Hajos, who won two gold medals in swimming in 1896, nabbed a silver for “town planning” in 1924.
The 1924 Paris Olympics also introduced some of the rituals that have become commonplace in Olympic games. For the past 100 years, the closing ceremony has involved raising of the International Olympic Committee flag, the flag of the host country, and the flag of the next host country. The 1924 games also were the first to be broadcasted live over the radio, and now live Olympics broadcasts are standard.
Below is a glimpse of notable moments from the 1924 summer Olympics in Paris:
