100 Years Ago: The U.S. Navy at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris

With the endorsement of the Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby, Rear Admiral Thomas Washington, chief of the Bureau of Navigation, encouraged all servicemembers in the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps to participate in the upcoming 1924 Olympic Games in Paris.[1] Any servicemember who wished to train was considered for temporary duty in connection with the Olympic tryouts, which started with regional tryouts in April 1924.

Tryouts were held across the country for all sporting events. The servicemembers and civilians competing for the Olympic rifle team gathered at Quantico, Virginia, for the national tryouts in May 1924. Among those selected to compete on the official team was the U.S. Navy’s Commander Carl T. Osburn. This would be his third consecutive Olympiad, building on his record of 10 medals during his previous participation in the 1912 and 1920 games.

The opening ceremony for the 1924 Olympics was scheduled for 5 July, but the summer games had already started on 4 May.[2] The U.S. rifle team had to depart ahead of many of the tryouts in other disciplines because their events were held in early June. Within two weeks of members, including Commander Osburn, being selected for the team, it departed from New York aboard SS President Harding, headed for France.[3] While the rifle team headed to France, the tryouts for other sports continued in the United States through June.

Some of the Navy personnel who had competed in the 1920 games had hopes of taking part again, but the competition with athletes from universities and athletic clubs across the country was fierce. The U.S. Navy not only planned to send a crew from the Naval Academy to the Olympic rowing trials, but also organized the champions of the 1920 team—all graduates of the Naval Academy—to form an “officers’ team.”[4] Both of the crews from the Naval Academy, the midshipmen and the graduates, prepared side by side in Annapolis, Maryland, for more than two months before the national competition in June.[5] Both teams were favored at Olympic tryouts, but the crews from Yale University defeated both of them.[6] After they failed to select for the U.S. Olympic Team, the officers were detached and returned to their respective commands.[7]

The Naval Academy boxing coach, Spike Webb, was chosen to take the national team to the Olympic Games. Although he brought a large contingent of midshipmen and ensigns to the tryouts, the committee picked the Navy athletes to serve as alternates after they lost a few close matches.

In the fencing tryouts, a group of midshipmen from the Naval Academy were selected to represent their country, including Ensigns Georg Calnan, Edwin Fullinwider, Alvin Becker, and Thomas Jeter. It was the second Olympic Games for both Calnan and Fullinwider, who had both competed in 1920.
The Navy members of the American Olympic team repeated their tradition of traveling in a Navy vessel to the games. They departed on 15 June 1924, headed to Cherbourg, France, aboard the battleship USS West Virginia (BB-48).[8]

The civilian athletes departed from New York at the same time. Given the experience aboard the decrepit SS Princess Matoika in 1920, this year’s team received somewhat better accommodations aboard a chartered steamship, SS America. A second ship, SS Homeric, followed a few days later, with more civilian athletes on board. During these games, a total of 299 U.S. athletes competed in 108 different events in 18 sports.

In the summer of 1924, the U.S. Navy was well represented among the crowds headed to Paris to watch the athletes participate in the Olympic Games. The midshipmen of the Naval Academy did not embark on their traditional summer cruise. They were assigned to the ships of Battleship Division 2, Scouting Fleet: Wyoming (BB-32), New York (BB-34), Texas (BB-35), and Arkansas (BB-33). They were scheduled to head to England and then to France, arriving in Brest on 26 June,[9] just in time for the opening of the Olympic Games in Paris. Liberty time was generous during this cruise, although the older battleships required the midshipmen to load coal into the ships’ fuel bunkers at each port call. USS Pittsburgh (CA-4) also arrived at Cherbourg in early July 1924.[10] Naval personnel from all of these ships were then granted shore leave to attend the games in Paris. Not every U.S. Navy sailor on shore leave in France that summer attended the games, but they knew they were happening.[11]

The ceremonial protocols first enacted in 1920 were repeated in 1924, including the raising of the Olympic flag and the official athletes’ oath. For the first time, all the athletes lived in an Olympic village near the stadium in Paris. Although the buildings were simple huts, they were furnished with both cots and actual mattresses, which was an improvement for the American athletes who had been attended the 1920 games in Antwerp, Belgium. The organization of the 1920 Olympiad had been haphazard and underfinanced, but it had brought the games back after World War I. Now, the 1924 Olympic Games signaled a new phase in the evolution of this international competition.[12]

The U.S. Navy was not represented as strongly as it had been in 1920, but the inclusion of the service’s personnel in various disciplines helped ensure the continued success of American Olympians that had begun with the 1896 inaugural games. The participation of the U.S. rifle team created a legacy that was unmatched for the next 48 years. Commander Osburn won his first four medals in 1912, six medals in 1920, and finally, one medal in 1924 for a total of 11 medals.[13] The silver medal he won in 1924 made him the most decorated American competitor. This record was unparalleled until 1972, when American swimmer Mark Spitz won his 11th medal.



— Kati A. Engel, NHHC Communication and Outreach Division, August 2024

Further Reading:
Captain Carl T. Osburn and the Olympic Tradition, Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC).
Dyreson, Mark. “Scripting the American Olympic Story-Telling Formula: The 1924 Paris Olympic Games and the American Media.” Olympic Perspectives, October 1996.