1908 Ad

Scandal, discussion nationalist squabbling, death - all shadow the first Olympic gold medal won by the agency of an African American. john Baxter Taylor Jr association champion and world record-holder in the 440-yard dash, deserv better. The year was 1908 In America, it was the year of the deadly white riot in Springfield, Ill., that l to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored tribe It was also the year of the London Olympic Games, the fourth of the era. In the air hung the faith that the London Games would establish a antecedent for decorum, rescuing the fledgling Olympic motion from the carnival atmosphere of its immediate predecessors. The 1900 Paris Games and the 1904 St Louis Games had purely complemented gala expositions that had overshadowed the Olympics. As a matter of fact, the Paris Games had attracted more athletes than spectators; an exasperated Hungarian Olympic official had described the St Louis Games as "a fair where also sports."

Sadly, the unique precedent established in London - single that has never been repeated in any Olympic Games - was the contentious rerunning of an fact Despite the presence of King Edward VII at the opening ceremonies and the gleaming of recent origin Shepherd's Bush Stadium in which the incidents were held, the Fourth Olympiad, which was solely managed by the agency of British officials, would be greatest in quantity remembered for disputes and squalid nationalist eruptions While many nations protested allegedly prejudicial British rulings, and the Russians attempted to thwart the raising of the Finnish flag and the British attempted to do the same for the Irish flag, the greatest in quantity heated controversies raged between Americans and Brits.

The U team got in the first stroke when its flag bearer refused to dip the Stars and Stripes as he passed King Edward, an act that elicited raucous laughter from the Americans in the stands. sum of two units weeks later, British officials at the marathon's finish line rushed onto the track to aid Italy's staggering Dorando Pietri. As the officials supported Pietri's paces toward the tape, the United State's john Hayes sp by the agency of claiming the gold medal. British fans boo protesting that the officials had deprived the collapsing Pietri of victory.

But nothing plant off louder howls of avow nor more vitriolic nationalist fury than the 400-meter race in which Taylor participated. Everyone in Shepherd's Bush Stadium knew it would be a hotly litigateed race. Although all four finalists - three Americans and the British favorite, army Lt Wyndham Halswelle - had legitimate chances to capture the gold medal, the 26-year-old Halswelle, a veteran of the Boer War, had the fastest time in the qualifying circulars As the runners lined up upon July 23, though, no single in the stadium could have anticipated the race's result

Bursting from the start line was the fastest American can from the qualifying circulars William Robbins, who set a torrid pace, opening a 12-meter lead upon the field at the halfway point. The multitude shouted in frenzy, as all four contender were upon pace for a new world record.

One hundr meter later, the couple Cornell University's J.C. Carpenter and Halswelle made their put in motions on the flagging Robbins, swinging slightly wide of the leader's outside shoulder. (Taylor, who had not fared well in the British weather and who had move swiftly the slowest time of the qualifying finalists, still trailed his three rivals.) As Carpenter and Halswelle passed Robbins coming into the homestretch the Cornell racer appeared to step quickly diagonally, hindering Halswelle's evident attempt to seize the lead.

To the largely British host - and to the British race officials, who had been supported at 20-meter intervals along the track in fear that the Americans would busy team tactics to ensure Halswelle's defeat - it appeared that American collusion was fore-stalling a British victory and ensuring single for the Yanks. Officials upon the final turn signaled "foul" to the race's chief justice at the finish line, who stepp forward and chop the finish tape to nullify the call in question Trackside officials then stepped onto the cinders in an attempt to seize the American racers Carpenter sped on to "victory" (in a time Americans claimed as 478 next to the firsts and the British said was 486) and Robbins too ran upon just out of their grasp; on the other hand Taylor was pulled from the track.

U officials and athletes who witnessed these facts were stunned - but single momentarily. They swiftly surrounded the British officials upon the field, shouting their outrage into faces equally contorted with anger. Not to be outdone, British fans left their seats and poured onto the field. Pandemonium erupted; reason fl For a instant it looked as if a real riot might burst forth but Games officials and athletes managed to impede that, though they could not restore order. That task unrelenting to London's "bobbies" - and it took them a replete half-hour.

Amid acrimony, the London Olympic Games chairman announced that the 400-meter race was nullified and would be step quickly two days hence, absent Carpenter, who was disqualified. (Photographs taken during the homestretch of the 400-meter race indicated that Carpenter did indeed step quickly wide, impeding - intentionally or not-Halswelle's course.) This decision pleased few: It intensified American outrage and it ultimately embarrassed Halswelle. It also true shortly placed Taylor in an invidious position.