The global spectacle that is the modern Summer Olympics games can obscure the troubled early years experienced by the international sporting event. Though the first Olympiad held in Athens in 1896 proved an inspiration, the games held in Paris in 1900 and St. Louis in 1904 were poorly organized and overshadowed by the international expositions to which they were appended. While the 1906 “intercalated” games in Greece were more successful, the prospects for future games were so dismal that Rome, the site originally selected for the IV Olympiad, backed out, diverting the resources for the game instead to rebuilding Naples after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that April.

Among those who visited Naples in the aftermath of the eruption were two Englishmen, Theodore Andrea Cook and William Grenfell, Lord Desborough, who were traveling to Athens to participate in the Olympic contest there. Their involvement would prove integral to the relocation of the 1908 games to London after Rome’s withdrawal, as upon their return home they used their social connections, particularly their relationship with King Edward VII, to offer London as a substitute. As Rebecca Jenkins details in her engaging study, this proved critical to the development of the Olympics into the event with which the world is familiar today. This she does by offering not just an account of the games but of the events surrounding them and how they reflected the broader debates over athleticism and sportsmanship – ones that would exert a lasting influence over the Olympics and athletics more generally.

The London Olympics that Jenkins describes is one that is both familiar and strange to the modern observer. Even though barely a decade had passed since the original games in Athens, national rivalries already overshadowed what was intended as a friendly sporting competition. In London the main conflict was between the British and the Americans, who were determined to show up their hosts. While much of this was driven by American egotism and the anti-British sentiments of the Irish Americans who figured prominently among the ranks of the participating athletes, what proved more influential in the long run were the conflicting visions of athletic competition held by the two sides. As firm believers in the gentlemanly amateur tradition the British looked down upon the win-at-all-costs attitude demonstrated by the American athletes and organizers, while the Americans believed that the British were exploiting amateurism and their status as the hosts to undercut the undeniably superior performances of the American contenders.

This conflict played out over the course of the London Olympics. After summarizing the controversial opening ceremonies – when the American flag-bearer refused to lower the flag in deference to the king – Jenkins focuses her narrative on the key contests between the British and American athletes. From her retelling of the tug-of-war between the Americans and a team of Liverpool policemen, the 400-meter relay that was re-run after allegations of lane-crossing by one of the American runners, and the marathon that famously ended with the Italian Dorando Pietri being helped across the finish line by the British umpires, she shows the pettiness and bitterness that too often characterized the games. Nor was this simply a matter of athletic pride, for as Jenkins illustrates the competition between the two teams was depicted by many contemporaries as a microcosm of the shift taking place in the world more generally, with the brash upstart power from across the Atlantic demonstrating its vibrancy against Britain’s tired and faltering empire.

Yet for all of the ill-will between the two sides and the bitterness fanned by newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic, Jenkins sees the 1908 Olympics as vital to the history of the games. Not only did the success of the IV Olympiad demonstrate the viability of such events, but Jenkins notes how the organizers established many of the aspects of the games that have become indelible parts of the modern Olympics, such as standardizing the rules for international competition and requiring athletes to attend as part of national teams. Her focus predominantly on the contests in the Olympics that contribute to her argument, however, comes at the expense of a more all-encompassing summation of the London games. A more comprehensive account might have also strengthened her argument for their legacy to the development of that multinational competition, as well as providing the sort of all-encompassing history of the first London Olympics that a curious audience deserves. ( )

A vivid account of the 1908 Olympics and in particular of the first clash between the "play to win" mentality of the American team, and the assumed superiority of gentlemanly amateurism of the British. That the games took place at all seems mildly surprising given the overall air of marginal competence surrounding its organisation. And yet these games were important for 2 reasons that Jenkins brings home clearly. Firstly they marked the beginning of true competitiveness in international sport - with more bad blood than fraternity between competitors - and provided visible evidence of the decline of the old order.. Secondly, they marked the first time - with the tragic heroic fate of the Italian marathon runner Dorando - that sport genuinely that the Olympics captured the general popular imagination.

A lively enjoyable account ( )