The 1908 Summer Games in terms of their scope, the number of guests and athletes surpassed all the previous Olympics. They became the first Games in which representatives of Turkey, Russia, Iceland and New Zealand took part.
Four cities vied for the right to host the Summer Olympics in 1908 - Milan, Berlin, Rome and London. The Germans were the first to abandon their claims, since the National Olympic Committee was unable to agree on the holding of the event with the government. The IOC decided in favor of Italy, but the representatives of Rome and Milan could not agree on which city is more worthy of the Olympics. So London, which was not initially planned to host the Games, became the only option.
The 1908 Summer Olympics attracted 2008 athletes from 22 countries, including the Russian Empire for the first time. This exceeds the number of participants in all previous modern Olympic Games combined. For example, only 241 people took part in the Games in 1896. With Italy abandoning the Olympics just a year before the event, London had to hastily build a huge White City stadium that could accommodate 100,000 spectators.
Places were prepared for competitions in the following sports: figure skating, trap and bullet shooting, polo, tennis on open and indoor courts, sailing, racket, same de pom, powerboat, boxing, rowing, wrestling, field hockey, artistic gymnastics, archery, football, fencing, rugby, cycling, lacrosse, diving, swimming, athletics, water polo and tug of war. Women participated in three types of competitions - figure skating, tennis and archery.
The competition started on April 27, and the Opening Ceremony was only held on July 13. Because of this annoying overlap, by the time the Games opened, 25 sets of medals had already been played. The first place according to the results of the IV Olympiad was taken by its owners - the British by a large margin. They won 56 gold, 51 silver and 38 bronze medals. Athletes from the United States received 23 gold and 12 silver and bronze medals. The third were the Swedes with 8 gold, 6 silver and 11 bronze medals.
