Olympic Rewind: Looking back at the Paris 1924 Summer Olympics
The start of a new series in the leadup to this summer's Olympic Games.
Ahead of Paris 2024 this summer, I’m launching a new series here at True North — Olympic Rewind. In this series we’ll dive into past editions of the Olympic Games, highlighting the top Canadian athletes and stories.
Stay tuned for more parts of this series. In the leadup to Paris 2024 in particular, I’ll feature the summer Olympics ending in the number four — Tokyo 1964, Los Angeles 1984, and Athens 2004. Let me know if there are other Olympics you really want to see after that, but I plan to go through many of them in the future!
To start this series off, let’s take a trip back one hundred years to Paris 1924, the last time the Olympics were held in the French capital before the coming games this summer.
Highlights:
Canadian athletes sent: 65
Opening ceremony flag bearer: Hector Phillips (Athletics)
Medal tally: Four (three silver, one bronze)
Place on medal table: Tied for 20th with Austria
Medallists:
Silver:
Canada’s first medal in Paris came on July 7, in the men's team clay pigeons event. Six athletes from each competing country fired at 100 clay discs each, and were given a score out of 100. The bottom two scores from each country were removed, giving the teams a potential maximum score of 400. The United States took gold with a score of 363, while Canada and Finland tied for second with 360 — with the Canadians earning the silver medal via a tiebreaker. George Beattie and Robert Montgomery each scored 92 points for Canada, followed by Samuel Vance (89), John Black (87), William Barnes (85), and Samuel Newton (73).
One of two rowing medals for Canada at Paris 1924 came in the men’s eight event on July 17. It was the third time Canada had medalled in the men’s eights event, and they reached the podium again in the two following Olympics in 1928 and 1932. After finishing second to the United States in their heat, Canada had to go through the repechage for a second chance at making the final, which they won, beating Argentina by five seconds for the fourth and final spot in the medal race. In the final, they lost to the United States by about 16 seconds, but won the silver medal — beating Italy by three-quarters of a boat length, and the powerhouse Great Britain by 1.25 lengths. Canada’s squad consisted of Arthur Bell, Robert Hunter, William Langford, Harold Little, John Smith, Warren Snyder, Norman Taylor, William Wallace, and coxswain Ivor Campbell. The American gold medal-winning team included, among others, James Stillman Rockefeller of the famous Rockefeller family, as well as Ben Spock — a best-selling author and the first American Olympian to run for President when he did so in 1972.
Canada won a second rowing silver medal on July 17, 1924, in the coxless fours. Canada were represented by a team from the Vancouver Rowing Club, featuring Colin Finlayson, Archie Black, George MacKay, and Bill Wood — sometimes referred to as the Paris Four. Only four countries — Canada, France, Great Britain, and Switzerland — competed in the event, so everyone made the final, but they still raced heats. In the heats, Canada set the world record against Switzerland in a time of 6:31.0, while Great Britain beat France in a time of 6:43.0. Despite Canada’s superior time in the heats, it was the British who won the final and the gold medal in 7:08.6, with Canada finishing a few seconds back at 7:13.0. With the silver, the Paris Fours were the first team of BC origin to win an Olympic medal. That event took place on the Seine River, which is where the opening ceremonies for Paris 2024 will take place this summer.
Bronze:
Canada’s only bronze medal at Paris 1924 was won by Douglas Lewis, in the welterweight boxing event. Lewis, born in Toronto in 1898, beat Sweden’s Edvard Hultgren by decision in the opening round before beating Giuseppe Oldani in the second round as the Italian was disqualified for repeatedly holding the Canadian to slow down the fight. Lewis beat American Hugh Haggerty by decision in the quarterfinal, but lost the semifinal to the eventual gold medallist from Belgium, Jean Delarge, by decision. Lewis was set to fight Paddy Dwyer for the bronze medal, but the Irish boxer forfeited. After the Olympics, Lewis boxed professionally, fighting to a 23-8-2 career record.
Other Notable Performances
The following athletes reached the top five in their respective events, narrowly missing out on the Olympic podium.
4th place:
David Johnson (Athletics, 400m)
4x400m relay team (Athletics)
Leslie Black (Boxing, Middleweight)
Robert Montgomery (Shooting, Trap)
5th place:
Victor Pickard (Athletics, Pole Vault)
Harry Henning (Boxing, Middleweight)
John "Jock" MacGregor (Boxing, Flyweight)
Samuel Rennie (Boxing, Flyweight)
The Edmonton Grads — Unofficial Olympic Champions
Officially, the 1924 Summer Olympics was the first time Canada failed to win a gold medal at the games. Unofficially, however, Paris 1924 was a key part of one of Canada’s greatest sporting dynasties.
Women’s basketball was only an exhibition sport in Paris, and was not an official Olympic sport until the 1976 summer games in Montreal. The 1924 tournament was won convincingly by the Edmonton Grads, an amateur team playing out of the Alberta capital, and one of the most dominant Canadian sports teams of all time.
The Grads won 96.2% of their games between 1912 and 1940, with a record believed to stand at 502 wins and 20 losses against teams from across North America and overseas. They swept four consecutive tournaments at the Olympic Games from 1924 to 1936, winning every single Olympic match they played, but none of them have been recognized officially due to the sport’s demonstration status. The team also won 19 national basketball titles, as well as the Underwood North American championship title seventeen years in a row during their history.
In 1940 the team disbanded, due to factors including the Royal Canadian Air Force using Edmonton Arena for use during World War Two, and the inability to attract teams from overseas to play them during the war, among other things.
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