For seven days in April 1896, 241 athletes from 14 countries competed in 43 different events at the inaugural modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
[1] There was no official U.S. Olympic team in 1896. The United States sent 14 athletes competing in three different sports, but they won the most medals for their country in these games: 11.
[2] This delegation was largely comprised of student-athletes from athletic clubs in New England—most prominently the Boston Athletic Association.
Taking a break from cruising the eastern Mediterranean, USS
San Francisco anchored at the port of Piraeus to allow sailors to attend the games. Assigned to the European squadron in 1895, it was the flagship for the squadron, a symbol of American nationalism. Throughout the games, the U.S. Navy sailors cheered for the American athletes from the stands at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. Their presence was noted at the time by the French founder of the games, Pierre de Courbetin.
The American delegation dominated at these games in track and field, and the sailors made themselves heard throughout these events. John B. Connelly recalled the sailors standing at attention at the first raising of the American flag at the games in honor of his victory in the triple jump event.
[3]
“Most of the crew of the U.S.S. San Francisco were massed in the stadium bowl. Like one man they arose and stood at attention. The eighty thousand spectators in the seats were rising. . . . The thought next came to me that our National Hymn was for my winning my event. . . . I went floating, not walking, floating across the stadium arena on waves that sounded like a million voices and two million hands cheering and applauding.”
—James B. Connolly
They also cheered heartily for Robert Garrett, who won another four medal for the United States, including first place in shot put and in discus throw.
[4] In celebration of the performance of the American athletes in these games, Rear Admiral Thomas O. Selfridge, commander of the European squadron in 1896, hosted them on board
San Francisco.
[5]
Selfridge later described the second day of the games in his memoirs, writing that the “Princeton athletes” performed well, “so much so that some officers from the San Francisco gave them a ‘roaring blowout’ at Pireus to celebrate the
American victory.”[6]
Two years later,
San Francisco was recalled from its European duty station as tensions increased between the U.S. and Spain over Cuba.
[7]
[2] First place winners did not receive gold medals. First place winners received a silver medal, an olive branch, and a diploma. Gold medals were not awarded at the games until 1904.
[3] James B. Connolly, “The First Olympic Champion,”
Journal of Olympic History, January 2000, 18. This essay was first published as a chapter in James B. Connolly,
Sea-Borne; Thirty Years Avoyaging (Garden City: NY: Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., 1944). Note: Connolly won the first medal for the American delegation at the 1896 Olympic Games. He also won second place in the high jump event and a third place in the long jump event.
[4] Pierre de Coubertin, “The Olympic Games of 1896,”
Century Illustrated, November 1896, 39–53.
[5] Ellery H. Clark, Jr. “U.S. Navy and the Revival of the Olympic Games, in “Discussion, Comments, Notes,” U.S. Naval Institute,
Proceedings, April 1956. Note that this author Commander Ellery H. Clark, Jr., USNR, was the son of one of the athletes that participated in these games, Ellery H. Clark.
[6] Thomas O. Selfridge,
What Finer Tradition: Memoirs of Admiral Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr, Rear Admiral, U.S. N. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1924), 284.