Francis Olympic Field hosted a number of occasions, together with soccer and the marathon, at the 1904 Olympics. (Bri Nitsberg | Managing Photo Editor)
One hundred and twenty-two years in the past, the third-ever Olympic Games occurred on Francis Olympic Field. In two years, St. Louis will once more play a function in internet hosting the Olympics, with Energizer Park, house of St. Louis City SC, internet hosting soccer matches for the 2028 Summer Games.
In early February, the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games Committee introduced that St. Louis shall be one among six extra venues outdoors of host metropolis Los Angeles, that can host soccer matches in the group and knockout phases of the Olympic Games. St. Louis is joined by New York City, Columbus, Nashville, San Jose, and San Diego.
St. Louis is one among three American cities (together with Los Angeles and Atlanta) to have hosted the Summer Olympic Games. The 1904 St. Louis Olympics had been the third-ever video games in the trendy period, they usually occurred partially on WashU’s campus. St. Louis will be part of Los Angeles, Paris, London, Tokyo, and Athens as the solely host cities to host occasions in a number of summer time Olympic Games.
The announcement comes amid a time of rising soccer tradition in Missouri. St. Louis City SC has gained growing recognition since its creation in 2023, whereas neighboring Kansas City has already scheduled matches for this 12 months’s upcoming FIFA World Cup.
Today, WashU’s Francis Field is the oldest still-in-use Olympic facility in the world. In 1904, Francis Field held occasions in 11 sports activities, together with archery, soccer, and wrestling, whereas Francis Gymnasium (now the Sumers Recreation Center) hosted boxing and fencing.
The present Olympic Games are far totally different from the video games that St. Louis beforehand held. The 1904 competitors was far smaller, with simply 15 international locations represented, and held along side the 1904 World’s Fair. The St. Louis video games additionally left behind a sophisticated and troubling legacy, together with “anthropology days” the place indigenous individuals from round the world had been pressured to take part in sports activities for the amusement of Americans, amongst different shows of racist caricatures of overseas cultures.
According to political science professor Zachary Bowersox, who has performed analysis on the Olympics and teaches the course “Sports, Policy, and Politics,” the 1904 Olympics had been “the worst Olympics of all time” due to each racial prejudice and their poor execution of events. The Marathon was an particularly egregious instance of horrible planning, happening throughout the hottest a part of the day, on a dusty street, with minimal water provide. Only 14 of 32 runners completed. The athlete initially declared the winner was later disqualified for hitching a experience throughout the race.
Bowersox made it clear that whereas he expects a few of the historical past of the 1904 Games to be celebrated, different components could also be minimized.
“The last thing you want is people bringing up … the segregation of the audience or anthropology days,” he mentioned. “Yes, we’re going to celebrate [Francis] Field. Talk about that history. [But] how much of the Olympic experience of 1904 do we celebrate?”
Bowersox additionally defined that he expects sure info about the 1904 Games to be omitted in any commemoration of the Games.
“There’s probably going to be some commercial interest … in keeping the story and the narrative sanitized,” he mentioned.
Hosting an Olympic Games throughout a number of cities can be a comparatively new phenomenon, nevertheless it has turn out to be more frequent lately as cities are reluctant to entrance the value of infrastructure for the complete competitors.
Bowersox sees this multi-city Olympic mannequin as a pattern that can develop in the future and permit cities like St. Louis to acquire some financial profit with little threat.
“This could be a solution for St Louis or other small cities, or even larger cities that just don’t take on the whole cost, as a scaled way to engage the Olympics,” he mentioned. “ [It could] reduce burden, but also potentially provide a scaled financial return,” he mentioned.
The Olympic Committee has but to launch particulars about the timing and specifics of the matches. More particulars are anticipated to come this April.