A tug of war competition was held August 31 and September 1 at Francis Field in St. Louis, Missouri, as part of the

1904 Summer Olympics The 1904 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the III Olympiad and also known as St. Louis 1904) were an international multi-sport event held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from 29 August to 3 September 1904, as part of an extended s ...

. Thirty athletes participated from six teams across three countries, and six games were played. Four

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

teams took the top four places, followed by Greek and

South African __NOTOC__ South African may relate to: * The nation of South Africa * South African Airways * South African English * South African people * Languages of South Africa * Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...

teams unplaced.

Background

Tug of war was first held during the

1900 Olympics The 1900 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1900, link=no), today officially known as the Games of the II Olympiad () and also known as Paris 1900, were an international multi-sport event that took place in Paris, France, from 1 ...

, when it was won by a mixed team from Scandinavia, featuring three Danish and three Swedish athletes. For the 1904 games in St. Louis, six teams entered. Four of the teams were representing the host nation, the United States, while there were also teams from Greece and South Africa. For the United States, the

Milwaukee Athletic Club The Milwaukee Athletic Club (often referred to as The MAC), is a private, social and full-service athletic club. History Eight young men founded the Milwaukee Athletic Club on September 18, 1882, for the express purpose of "developing of the b ...

entered a team, the Southwest Turnverein of St. Louis entered two teams, and the

New York Athletic Club The New York Athletic Club is a private social club and athletic club in New York state. Founded in 1868, the club has approximately 8,600 members and two facilities: the City House, located at 180 Central Park South in Manhattan, and Travers ...

were the final entrant. A team from the Pan-Hellenic Athletic Club represented Greece, while South Africa was represented by the Boer Team. The contests were held on turf ground with no shoes on, over a period of five minutes. If within that five minutes, a team succeeded in pulling the other team across a line from their starting position, they were deemed to win. Otherwise, the team that had pulled their opponents closest to the line after five minutes would be the winner. Three local judges were selected to officiate in the competition; Clark Hetherington of the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

, and John Meyers and Myles McDonough, both of St. Louis.

Results

August 30 was the first day of the tug of war competition. The two quarterfinal matches and the first semifinal match (between the two teams who had had byes in the quarterfinals) were held. The rest of the competition was conducted on 1 September.

Quarterfinals

Losers were eliminated.

Semifinals

The losers were sent to the repechage, to play each other for the chance to play the loser of the final for second place.

Final

The winner received the gold medal, while the loser had to play the winner of the repechage in the silver medal match.

Silver medal semifinal

The winner of this match played the loser of the final for the silver medal.

Silver medal match

The New York team did not appear for the silver medal match, resulting in the silver medal being awarded to the Saint Louis No. 1 team.

Bronze medal match

The New York team also did not appear for the bronze medal match, resulting in the bronze medal being awarded to Saint Louis No. 2.

Final standings

Participating nations

6 teams of 5, for a total of 30 athletes, competed. The host team had four teams, and two other nations each sent one. * * *

Rosters

;

Patrick Flanagan
Sidney Johnson
Oscar Olson
Conrad Magnusson
Henry Seiling ; Southwest Turnverein of St. Louis No. 1 Max Braun
August Rodenberg
Charles Rose
William Seiling
Orrin Upshaw ; Southwest Turnverein of St. Louis No. 2 Oscar Friede
Charles Haberkorn
Harry Jacobs
Frank Kugler (GER)

Charles Thias Charles Henry Robert Thias (November 15, 1879 – November 19, 1922) was an American tug of war athlete who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. In the 1904 Olympics he won a bronze medal as a member of ''Southwest Turnverein of Saint L ...

; New York Athletic Club Charles Chadwick
Charles Dieges
Lawrence Feuerbach
Sam Jones
Jim Mitchel ; Boer Team

Pieter Hillense Pieter is a male given name, the Dutch form of Peter. The name has been one of the most common names in the Netherlands for centuries, but since the mid-twentieth century its popularity has dropped steadily, from almost 3000 per year in 1947 to ...

Pieter Lombard Pieter is a male given name, the Dutch form of Peter. The name has been one of the most common names in the Netherlands for centuries, but since the mid-twentieth century its popularity has dropped steadily, from almost 3000 per year in 1947 to ...

Johannes Schutte Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Yeh ...

Paulus Visser Paulus is the original Latin form of the English name Paul. It may refer to: Ancient Roman * Paul (jurist) or Julius Paulus (fl. 222–235 AD), Roman jurist * Paulus (consul 496), politician of the Eastern Roman Empire * Paulus (consul 512), ...

Christopher Walker ; Pan-Hellenic Athletic Club Dimitrios Dimitrakopoulos

Nikolaos Georgantas Nikolaos Georgantas ( el, Νικόλαος Γεωργαντάς, February 27, 1880 ( OS)/March 12, 1880 ( NS) – November 23, 1958) was a Greek athlete who competed mainly in the discus throw. Biography He was born in Steno, Arcadia. He comp ...

Anastasios Georgopoulos
Periklis Kakousis
Vasilios Metalos

Medal table

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tug Of War At The 1904 Summer Olympics 1904 Summer Olympics events 1904s 1904 in tug of war