1908: it's not just the year of the first London Olympics. General Motor is born and Henry Ford produces the first model of the Ford T while Thomas Selfridge dies in Virginia, who went down in history for being the first victim of a plane crash. In Austria, Emperor Franz Joseph proclaims the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, triggering the prodromes that will lead to the First World War. In Italy in October Camillo Olivetti opens the first typewriter factory in Ivrea. On December 27, the Corriere dei Piccoli sees the light. Not 24 hours pass until at 5.21 of the following day, it's a Monday, the earth shakes due to one of the most shocking earthquakes that razes Reggio Calabria and Messina to the ground, killing about 130 thousand victims. A huge tragedy that in Italy closes a year in which the most popular event had become the mishap at the Olympics of an Emilian marathon runner, Dorando Pietri, who had been disqualified at the London Games in a race in which he had won, exhausted enough to risk his life but still first.
That disqualification will also be his fortune: Arthur Conan Doyle will write in the Daily Mail: "This defeat will give the little Italian more celebrity than a thousand victories". And the famous writer was not wrong. Queen Alexandra of England gives him a cup full of pounds, then, at the end of the Olympics, Pietri is called to America where they cover him with dollars to participate in numerous competitions. He also has the opportunity to confront Johnny Hayes, the London Olympic champion. The great event takes place on November 25th at Madison Square Garden in New York: Hayes against Pietri in the marathon on a track set up for the occasion. And the Italian thus has the opportunity to take revenge by beating his great rival. Pietri will still run until 1911 pocketing extraordinary sums for those times, even if the greatest feat of his short career remains that of having entered the Olympic legend without ever winning a medal.
But it's not just Pietri's disqualification that fuels controversy at the Olympics that London, with an immense expenditure of resources, organizes for the first time in 1908. The symbol of the games and the architectural pride of the English is the White City Stadium, the largest built until then, an arena that houses the track for cycling, one for athletics and the swimming pool, capable of holding 150 people, 68 seats, built in a very short time. Among the novelties there is also the first Olympic village. The athletes who compete rise to over two thousand, while new rules are set for participating. Instead of registering on a personal level as was the case in the first editions, the athletes must do so through the Olympic committee of their own nation. This is to limit the number of participants from the same nation in each single race, a number which is fixed at 12 athletes.
For Baron De Coubertin, disappointed by the two previous editions in Paris (1900) and Saint Louis (1904), there were all the conditions for London to be an ideal and reassuring venue for the games, even if in truth the Baron's first choice was fall on Rome but the Italian government with Giolitti as premier had answered no due to budget problems (the same reasons - history repeats itself - that led Monti in recent months not to sponsor the candidacy of the Eternal City for the 2020 Games). But precisely in the solemn inauguration of April 27, De Coubertin realizes that he has been too optimistic. Finnish athletes parade without a flag rather than marching under the Russian banner. Quite a few Irish representatives desert the games at the last moment because they refuse to be part of the English representative. The Olympic spirit has to deal with the interference of politics and with the nationalistic ferment that is spreading throughout Europe. But it is nothing in the face of the dismay De Coubertin feels when passing in front of the royal box, the US flag bearer, Ralph Rose, does not lower the flag, as the standard bearers of the other national teams had done: "The US flag - Rose will later explain with hard pride – bows down to no king on earth.”
A diplomatic incident involving the two strongest sporting nations of the Games. Not a good start. A gesture that will also have repercussions on the competitions as the judges - all strictly British including King Edward VII himself in the monarch's favorite sports - probably resentful of the attitude of US athletes, will damage them conspicuously with disputed arbitration decisions to say the least. Sensational what happens in the 400-metre race on a track not yet divided into lanes. The finalists are three Americans and one Englishman, Windham Halswelle. White City Stadium is a bedlam. The starter kicks off and two Yankees, William Robbins and John Baxter Taylor try to disturb the British to allow the third American, Carpenter, to win undisturbed. The teamwork succeeds, but the complaint presented by the English is accepted: the judges decide to disqualify Carpenter, who is actually the only one who hasn't done anything, and to have the match repeated. The Americans don't fit in and so only Halswelle shows up at the start of the encore race, completing his solitary runway and naturally going on to win the gold medal. It is the easiest and most inglorious gold of the 56 that the English will conquer who, over the six months – the 1908 Olympics lasted so long – also win in football, water polo, polo, tug of war, hockey on grass and on ice. English is also the swimming star Henry Taylor, who imposes himself in the 400m and 500m freestyle.
But despite the hostile environment, the Americans, despite losing the 100 meters won by the South African Walker, are full in the athletics competitions. They win 15 out of 27. In the memory remains that Bible waved in the hand by Forrest Smithson who runs and wins the final of the 110m hurdles. And the winner of the marathon, the one made famous by Pietri's disqualification, is also American. A result also fruit of the anti-American attitude of the English who in this case scored a sort of own goal. Let's see why. It's July 24th. The controversy over the 400m race is still on fire. In front of Windsor Castle at 14.33 pm the Princess of Wales will kick off the marathon. The finish after 42,195km is at the main stadium in front of the royal box, where King and Queen Alexandra sit.
A young pastry boy competes for Italy who arrives from Carpi precisely on the days when his native Romagna looks with magical attraction to the brand new Grand Hotel in Rimini, which was inaugurated on 1 July, rather than at the Olympics. His name is Dorando Pietri. He wears scarlet shorts and a white number 19 shirt. The English are strong at the start but it's notably hot in London and the British pacesetters, having run out of beer, are joined and separated by the South African Jefferson. He too goes strong but doesn't last. Pietri begins to climb up the group and in the last 10 km he forces the pace. At the 39th km the Italian reaches and detaches Jefferson. But the terrible and destructive crush is around the corner for the Italian too: the effort and the strychnine sulphate taken during the match – there was no doping control – were fatal for him. He enters White City Stadium with a clear advantage but his eyes are now out of their sockets, like a zombie, contorted with fatigue. He takes the wrong direction, proceeds in a zig-zag, staggers and falls. He gets up but collapses again four times. Then an employee on the track, who looks like a bullhorn, is certainly an Englishman, fearing that the American Hayes could reach Pietri and win the gold, lifts Pietri and supporting him by the arm, accompanies him until he crosses the finish line.
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The American team obviously presents an appeal and obtains the disqualification of the Italian for the help received from the competition judges. The irregularity is clear but the story of the little man who collapses at a breath from the dream moves everyone. De Coubertin, commenting on the outcome of Pietri's marathon, launches his famous "the important thing is not to win but to participate". He, Dorando Pietri, says in the Corriere della Sera: «I am the one who won and lost the victory». For Italy, the first gold, which vanished with Pietri, will come in gymnastics with Alberto Braglia, a Modenese who works in a bakery. The second will be won by Enrico Porro, a Milanese, in the Greco-Roman wrestling in the lightweight category.
