Athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics

At the 1908 Summer Olympics held in London, England, 26 athletics events were contested, all for men only. A total of 79 medals (27 gold, 27 silver, 25 bronze) were awarded.

Athletics at the Games of the IV Olympiad
Host stadium (shown in 1908)
No. of events	26
← 1904 1912 →

Each nation was allowed to enter up to 12 competitors in most of the events. In the team races (the medley relay and the 3 mile team race), each nation entered one team. The medley relay was run by four athletes, with four alternates allowed. In the 3 mile team race, five athletes from each nation ran with only three counting.

The competition was restricted to amateurs, and was held under the rules of the British Amateur Athletic Association.

Medal summary

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Reggie Walker  South Africa	10.8 OR	James Rector  United States	(10.9)	Robert Kerr  Canada	(11.0)
200 metres details	Robert Kerr  Canada	22.6	Robert Cloughen  United States	22.6	Nate Cartmell  United States	22.7
400 metres details	Wyndham Halswelle  Great Britain	50.0	none awarded		none awarded
800 metres details	Mel Sheppard  United States	1:52.8 WR	Emilio Lunghi  Italy	1:54.2	Hanns Braun  Germany	1:55.2
1500 metres details	Mel Sheppard  United States	4:03.4 OR	Harold Wilson  Great Britain	4:03.6	Norman Hallows  Great Britain	4:04.0
5 miles details	Emil Voigt  Great Britain	25:11.2 OR	Edward Owen  Great Britain	25:24.0	John Svanberg  Sweden	25:37.2
Marathon details	Johnny Hayes  United States	2:55:18.4 WR	Charles Hefferon  South Africa	2:56:06.0	Joseph Forshaw  United States	2:57:10.4
110 metres hurdles details	Forrest Smithson  United States	15.0 WR	John Garrels  United States	15.7	Arthur Shaw  United States	15.8
400 metres hurdles details	Charles Bacon  United States	55.0 WR	Harry Hillman  United States	55.3	Jimmy Tremeer  Great Britain	57.0
3200 metres steeplechase details	Arthur Russell  Great Britain	10:47.8	Arthur Robertson  Great Britain	10:48.4	John Eisele  United States	11:00.8
Medley relay details	United States William Hamilton Nate Cartmell John Taylor Mel Sheppard	3:29.4	Germany Arthur Hoffmann Hans Eicke Otto Trieloff Hanns Braun	3:32.4	Hungary Pál Simon Frigyes Wiesner József Nagy Ödön Bodor	3:32.5
3 miles team race details	Great Britain William Coales 14:41.6 Joe Deakin 14:39.6 Arthur Robertson 14:41.0	6 pts	United States George Bonhag 15:05.0 John Eisele 14:41.8 Herbert Trube 15:11.0	19 pts	France Joseph Dreher 15:40.0 Louis de Fleurac 14:56.0 Paul Lizandier 15:56.6	32 pts
3500 metres walk details	George Larner  Great Britain	14:55.0 WR	Ernest Webb  Great Britain	15:07.4	Harry Kerr  Australasia	15:43.4
10 miles walk details	George Larner  Great Britain	1:15:57.4 WR	Ernest Webb  Great Britain	1:17:31.0	Edward Spencer  Great Britain	1:21:20.2
Long jump details	Frank Irons  United States	7.48 m OR	Daniel Kelly  United States	7.09 m	Calvin Bricker  Canada	7.08 m
Triple jump details	Tim Ahearne  Great Britain	14.92 m OR	Garfield MacDonald  Canada	14.76 m	Edvard Larsen  Norway	14.39 m
High jump details	Harry Porter  United States	1.90 m OR	Géo André  France	1.88 m	none awarded
			Con Leahy  Great Britain
			István Somodi  Hungary
Pole vault details	Edward Cook  United States	3.71 m OR	none awarded		Edward Archibald  Canada	3.58 m
					Clare Jacobs  United States
	Alfred Gilbert  United States
					Bruno Söderström  Sweden
Standing long jump details	Ray Ewry  United States	3.33 m	Konstantinos Tsiklitiras  Greece	3.235 m	Martin Sheridan  United States	3.23 m
Standing high jump details	Ray Ewry  United States	1.57 m	John Biller  United States	1.55 m	none awarded
			Konstantinos Tsiklitiras  Greece
Shot put details	Ralph Rose  United States	14.21 m	Denis Horgan  Great Britain	13.62 m	John Garrels  United States	13.18 m
Discus throw details	Martin Sheridan  United States	40.89 m OR	Merritt Giffin  United States	40.70 m	Bill Horr  United States	39.45 m
Hammer throw details	John Flanagan  United States	51.92 m OR	Matt McGrath  United States	51.18 m	Con Walsh  Canada	48.51 m
Javelin throw details	Eric Lemming  Sweden	54.83 m WR	Arne Halse  Norway	50.57 m	Otto Nilsson  Sweden	47.11 m
Greek discus details	Martin Sheridan  United States	37.99 m	Bill Horr  United States	37.32 m	Verner Järvinen  Finland	36.48 m
Freestyle javelin details	Eric Lemming  Sweden	54.44 m WR	Michalis Dorizas  Greece	51.36 m	Arne Halse  Norway	49.73 m

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	16	10	8	34
2	Great Britain	7	7	3	17
3	Sweden	2	0	3	5
4	Canada	1	1	4	6
5	South Africa	1	1	0	2
6	Greece	0	3	0	3
7	Norway	0	1	2	3
8	France	0	1	1	2
	Germany	0	1	1	2
	Hungary	0	1	1	2
11	Italy	0	1	0	1
12	Australasia	0	0	1	1
	Finland	0	0	1	1
Totals (13 entries)		27	27	25	79

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 held at the 1904 Games were both absent. An 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.

Calendar

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Event competitions

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Event finals

July	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th
100 metres								●	●	●
200 metres									●	●	●
400 metres									●	●	●		●
800 metres								●	●
1500 metres	●	●
110 metres hurdles											●	●	●
400 metres hurdles								●	●	●
3200 metres steeplechase					●	●
Medley relay												●	●
3 miles team race		●	●
5 miles			●			●
marathon												●
3500 metres walk		● ●
10 miles walk				●	●
Long jump										●
Triple jump													●
High jump									●
Pole vault												●
Standing long jump								●
Standing high jump											●
Shot put				●
Discus throw				●
Hammer throw		●
Javelin throw					●
Greek discus						●
Freestyle javelin			●
July	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th

Participating nations

446 athletes from 20 nations competed. Argentina and Turkey were the only two nations not to compete in athletics.

Australasia (9)  Austria (3)  Belgium (6)  Bohemia (3)  Canada (27)  Denmark (8)  Finland (15)  France (19)  Germany (21)  Great Britain (126)

Greece (12)  Hungary (20)  Italy (13)  Netherlands (20)  Norway (11)  Russian Empire (1)  South Africa (9)  Sweden (33)  Switzerland (1)  United States (89)