By George R. Matthews

 America in 1904 used to be a country bristling with strength and self belief. encouraged via Theodore Roosevelt, the nation’s younger, lively, and athletic president, a activities mania rampaged around the kingdom. wanting to rejoice its heritage, and to demonstrate its athletic power, the USA hosted the area on the 1904 Louisiana buy Exposition in St. Louis. One a part of the World’s reasonable was once the nation’s first Olympic games.            Revived in Greece in 1896, the Olympic stream was once additionally younger and vigorous. in reality, the St. Louis Olympics have been merely the 3rd nowa days. even if the video games have been initially provided to Chicago, St. Louis wrestled them from her rival urban opposed to the desires of foreign Olympic Committee President Pierre de Coubertin. Athletes got here from 11 international locations and 4 continents to compete in cutting-edge amenities, which integrated a ten-thousand-seat stadium with health club apparatus donated via wearing items rich person Albert Spalding.            The 1904 St. Louis Olympics garnered basically compliment, and all agreed that the video games have been successful, enhancing either the profile of the Olympic flow and the status of the USA. yet inside many years, the video games of 1904 receded in reminiscence. They suffered a worse destiny with the booklet of Coubertin’s memoirs in 1931. His selective reminiscences, exaggerated claims, and fake statements grew to become the forgotten Olympics into the failed Olympics. This prejudiced account was once furthered through the 1948 booklet of An licensed historical past of the Olympic video games via invoice Henry, which used to be reviewed and recommended by way of Coubertin.            America’s First Olympics, by means of George R. Matthews, corrects universal misconceptions that begun with Coubertin’s memoirs and provides a clean view of the 1904 video games, which featured first-time African American Olympians, an eccentric and arguable marathon, and documentation by way of pioneering photojournalist Jessie Tarbox Beals. Matthews presents a good assessment of the St. Louis Olympics over a six-month interval, starting with the intrigue surrounding the move of the video games from Chicago. He additionally supplies exact descriptions of the key gamers within the Olympic flow, the occasions that have been held in 1904, and the athletes who competed in them. This unique account could be welcomed via background and activities lovers who're attracted to a brand new point of view in this misunderstood event.