Events
The 1908 Games were the first to feature race walking, with two different events held. Two different forms of javelin throwing also appeared, introducing the new throwing apparatus to the programme. The 60 metre short sprint was dropped from the programme, as was the middle hurdle distance. Steeplechasing was done at 3200 metres instead of the 2500 metres that had been included at the previous two editions; the team race also had its distance shortened. A short track relay event was added. The multi-discipline triathlon and decathlon events that had been experimented with at the 1904 Games were both absent, as was the 56 pound weight throw. An unusual event featuring the discus, which had become a staple of Olympic athletics, was held in which throwers had to follow a very specific throwing style. Overall there was one more event on the 1908 programme, than there had been in 1904.
New:
- 3200 metre steeplechase
- Medley relay
- 3 mile team race
- 5 miles
- 3500 metre walk
- 10 mile walk
- Javelin throw
- Greek discus
- Freestyle javelin
Removed:
- 60 metres (1900–04)
- 200 metre hurdles (1900–04)
- 2500 metre steeplechase (1900–04)
- 4 mile team race (1904)
- Triathlon (1904)
- Decathlon (1904)
- Standing triple jump (1900–04)
- 56 pound weight throw (1904)
Read more about this topic: Athletics At The 1908 Summer Olympics
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“All strange and terrible events are welcome,
But comforts we despise.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The great events of life often leave one unmoved; they pass out of consciousness, and, when one thinks of them, become unreal. Even the scarlet flowers of passion seem to grow in the same meadow as the poppies of oblivion.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Whatever events in progress shall disgust men with cities, and infuse into them the passion for country life, and country pleasures, will render a service to the whole face of this continent, and will further the most poetic of all the occupations of real life, the bringing out by art the native but hidden graces of the landscape.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)