MODERN OLYMPIC GAMES - 1912 Stockholm Olympiad
 
                       

The Games of the V Olympiad were held in Stockholm and the official opening ceremony was watched by 30 000 spectators.
The efficent and modern hosting was a model for the future. The main innovation was that the organizers introduced the use of unofficial electronic timing devices for the track events.The modern pentathlon, the women's events in swimming and diving made their debut in the Olympic program, but Sweden didn't allow boxing contests to be held in their country. After the Stockholm Games, the International Olympic Committee decided to limit the power of host nations in deciding the Olympic program. The course for the cycling road race was 320km, the longest race in Olympic history. In Greco-Roman wrestling, the middleweight

semifinal match between Russian Martin Klein and Finland’s Alfred Asikainen lasted eleven hours. Hannes Kohlemainen, from Finland, won three gold medals in long-distance running but the hero of the 1912 Games was Jim Thorpe, from the United States, who won the pentathlon event

record in the decathlon event. A highlight was that Otto Herschmann, the president of the Austrian Olympic Committee at that time, finished second in the team sabre fencing enent, which made him the only national Olympic committee president to win an Olympic medal.

 
 
 
     

Opening date:
5th May 1912
Closing date:
27th July 1912
Nations: 28
Sports: 14
Events: 102
Athletes: 2 407
Men: 2 359
Women: 48

Candidate cities: there were no candidate cities