The OlyMADMen database

The data on these pages are according to the data on the OlyMADMen Database.

However, that database has a different objective than my lists:
The MADMen try to give information on events and athletes, as accurately as they know.
My site attempts to give an answer to the question "how many athletes competed at the Olympics?". In several cases, this difference means that the two will differ in the given totals.

There are five categories of differences:

Included Sports and Events

In determining the exact nature of the Olympic events, the prime rule is that all events are considered that were included in the official program. This includes a small number of events that would not be termed Olympic if they were contested later. Examples are the sport of Motorboating in 1908 (motorized sports are no longer acceptable) and the Swimming event 100 m for Sailors in 1896.

However, there are no official programs for the Olympic Games of 1900 and 1904. Those were held as part of World Fairs and a great number of sporting events were held in Paris and St. Louis, some without any connection or mention of Olympic Games. In deciding which of these events are Olympic and which aren't, Bill Mallon uses four criteria:

All of these criteria are correct and logical, and are needed to be able to exclude events which are undoubtedly non-Olympic, but the interpretation of some of the criteria has Mallon exclude some events which I believe should be kept.
In particular, the "international" criterium is often cause for trouble, especially in 1904, where many events were held with no other competitors than Americans. Of course the distance to St. Louis is an explanation for the absence of European competitors. And even Bill Mallon concedes that events can be termed Olympic without any entries from beyond the organizing country. Boxing in 1904 is a prime example.
In previous editions of the database (and in Mallon's set of books), a number of swimming events were deemed non-Olympic because the Germans that were present in St. Louis were not allowed to enter those events. In particular the Relay and Waterpolo were thusly affected. However, the reason for the non-admittance of the Germans was due to the fact that they did not represent a single club (as did the other entrants), but were a national team. The same rule was applied throughout the 1904 Olympics, and some international teams did participate in team events. It is not perfectly clear if the "Pan-Hellenic Athletic Club" and the "Boer team" in the Tug of War were truely composed of members of a same club, but it was clear to all that the Germans were not of just one club but rather a national selection. When this was pointed out to Mallon, he relented and those events are now considered by all as Olympic.
The same cannot (yet) be said of the 1904 Basketball event. That event as well was contested by US teams only. Considering that there must have been very little basketball played outside of the USA in 1904, this is not very surprising. But the Basketball tournament was of a much higher standard than the Football one, which had just three teams, two from St. Louis and one from Canada.

Another point of contention could be the "professional" one. It is undoubtably so, that the IOC did not want professionals to compete at the Olympic Games. Yet they decided to make an exception for Fencing masters. These made their living from the sport, but only by teaching it, not by their actual play. Could it not be said that other exceptions might have been given if asked?

1900

Although there is no specific Official Report of the Olympig Games as such, there does exist an official report on the Sports sections of the Universal Exposition. This mentions 12 sections, of which the last two are explicitely mentioned as being national. These sections held separate meetings during 1899 in order to establish the program, which was completed in early 1900 as:
  1. Athletic Games (Jeux athléques). In total, 19 sports were considered. On 27 May 1899, a list of 15 games was established, to which Pelota and Lacrosse were added at later stages:
    1. Running (Courses à Pied), and:
    2. Athletic Competitions (Concours athlétiques) - see Athletics
      The program also included three days for professionals, which we consider being non-Olympic
    3. Rugby Football - see Rugby
    4. Association Football - see Football
    5. Cricket - see Cricket
    6. Lawn Tennis - see Tennis
      Also on the program were handicapped tournaments and a tournament for professionals (non-Olympic)
    7. Croquet - see Croquet
    8. Jeu de Boules - disregarded by Mallon as not being "international". I would like to see this being reconsidered.
    9. Jeux de Paume (Longue-Paume, Balle au Tamis & Courte-Paume) - the Longue-Paume is disregarded by Mallon as not being "international". I would like to see this being reconsidered. The Courte-Paume was not held because only one club practiced this sport.
    10. Golf - see Golf
    11. Pelote Basque - see Pelota Basque.
      There was a tournament for professionals, and two for amateurs, one of which had one participant (two Spanish athletes), the other none.
    12. Hockey - was put on the program but did not take place
    13. Baseball - was put on the program but did not take place
    14. Lacrosse (Crosse Canadienne) - was put on the program but did not take place
    15. Walking (Marche),
    16. Boxing (Boxe et Canne) and
    17. Wrestling (Lutte) were originally accepted, but dropped on 3 November 1899
    18. Skating (Patinage) was also considered, and
    19. Weightlifting (Poids) was not accepted because it was monopolized by professionals.
  2. Gymnastics (Gymnastique). On 26 May 1899, three competitions are proposed:
    1. the 26th Federal Festival of the French Gymnastics Union (cleary not to be considered Olympic)
    2. A competition from the Gymnastics Association of the Seine (idem)
    3. An international competition - see Gymnastics
  3. Fencing (Escrime) - see Fencing
    1. Foil (Fleuret)
    2. Épée
    3. Sabre
  4. Shooting (Tir) The program would include seven parts:
    1. An international competition in target shooting (Tir à la cible) which doubled as the 7th national championship - see Shooting
      Only the two international team contests are considered (with individual rankings also given). Many other events are considered purely national championships.
    2. A rifle competition (Fusil de Chasse), on clay pigeons.
      Two events were held, a national and an international one. Of course only the international one is to be considered Olympic. - see Shooting
    3. (Live) Pigeon Shooting (Tir aux Pigeons) - disregarded because professional (and for a huge prize)
    4. Archery (Tir à l'arc et à l'arbalêtre) - see Archery
      Mallon disregards the events for Crossbow, in which only French archers participated. However, these events were also open to all, and one sentence in the Official report specifically says that foreign entrants came for the "arc seulement, aucun pour l'arbalêtre" (none for the crossbow). I would like to see the crossbow reinstated as Olympian.
    5. Cannon Shooting (Tir au Canon) - event only open to French military personnel, so obviously not Olympic.
    Falconry (Fauconnerie) had also been on a preliminary program
  5. Equestrianism (Sport Hippique) The program included two sports:
    1. Equestrianism (Concours Hippique) - see Equestrianism
    2. Polo (Polo Hippique) - see Polo
  6. Cycling (Vélocipédie). There would have been two competitions, but the Military one was later discarded - see Cycling
  7. Motor Sport (Automobilisme). Mallon excludes these because the drivers were paid by the car manufaturers and should be considered professionals. Also, the events had large entry fees and substantial prize money.
    1. Tourism
    2. Motorcycles
    3. Speed
    4. Delivery Vehicles
    5. Lightweight
    6. Heavyweight
  8. Aquatics (Sport Nautique); Five sports featured on the program:
    1. Rowing (Aviron) - see Rowing
    2. Sailing (Yaghting à Voile) - see Sailing
    3. Motorboating (Bateaux à moteurs méchaniques) disregarded by Mallon because of the sizeable prize money.
    4. Swimming (Natation) (including Waterpolo) - see Aquatics
      There were a few events for professionals.
    5. Line Fishing (pêche à la ligne). There were prizes according to the number of fish caught, but no general classification, so this cannot be called a sporting event.
  9. Life Saving (Sauvetage). The program included:
    1. A competition of Fire hose pumps
    2. A competition of Life Saving Swimming
    3. A competition of Land rescue
    Although these were international competitions (the French not even participating) and there were amateur and professional teams, this event is usually disregarded as non-Olympian.
  10. Aeronautics (Aérostation)
    1. Four committees were installed to consider Ballooning
    2. a fifth to consider Pigeon Flying
  11. Military Exercises - only National
  12. School Competitons - only National

1904

The case for Basketball

Mallon does not believe that Basketball should be included among the "Olympic" events.
Mallon uses four criteria to determine whether or not an event, held in 1904, should be considered "Olympic" (in fact, he uses the same criteria for 1900). One of these criteria is "international". This is quite necessary for 1900, since many a French national championships were actually held under an "Olympic" banner. Also in 1904, there were some national championships held in St. Louis, and these are correctly discarded by Mallon.
It should be noted that Mallon does not believe that there have to be actual competitors from more than one country in order to satisfy the condition he sets. There are a number of sports in St. Louis where non-Americans were allowed to enter, but they simply chose not to do so. Only in one (Cycling) did Mallon find foreign entrants, but the German team that was entered finally did not make it to St. Louis. In Archery, Boxing and Wrestling, all competitors were Americans.
In his book, Mallon calls the Waterpolo and Relay Swimming events non-olympic, because they did not contain international competition, and in fact, a German team was not allowed to enter those events. However, the German teams were not excluded because of Nationality, but because they were considered to be an "all-star" team.
There were a number of team sports and events held in 1904. In all cases, the foreign teams that competed (4 Canadian teams, one Greek and one South African) are listed under a club name. All the American teams that competed are similarly listed as clubs. This was the common way of competition in team sports at the time. It is quite acceptable to have some regulations against "All-star" teams under those conditions, just as there are regulations nowadays that make only national teams eligible for the Olympics, and not Real Madrid or the New York Rangers, who have many nationalities on their teams.
Which is why I urged Bill Mallon to include Waterpolo among the Olympic events, something which he indeed did.
Similarly, the Roque competition, of just four Americans, was excluded in the book but included since then in the database.
But this still leaves us with the Basketball. It should be noted that at that time, Basketball was hardly played outside of the USA. So it should not be strange to see no international teams taking part. But within the USA, this tournament was really nation-wide. There were six teams from four states: Buffalo and New York, NY, Chicago, Ill, Los Angeles, Cal, and two from St.Louis, Missouri. The Buffalo Germans have been inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame. I see no reason to exclude the Basketball event from Olympic consideration.

Unknown Competitors

When counting the competitors, it is immaterial whether or not we know their actual names. In counting the unknown competitors, I have followed Mallon's books

These are the unknown competitors in the Olympics:

1896

1900

For Athina 1896, I have consistently counted the full number of competitors, known and unknown. For Paris 1900, I want to continue that practice, but this is more difficult, especially in Equestrianism and Sailing. Mallon does count the unknown coxes in Rowing. Since I want to count the true numbers, known and unknown, I must make guesstimates for the 2 sports aforementioned.

1904

There are a small number of unknown participants in St. Louis :

1908

There are three unknown participants in London :

1912

There are three unknown participants in Stockholm :

1924 Winter

There are 139 unknown participants in Chamonix :

1948 Summer

Competitors Wrongfully considered Olympians

Some Persons are listed in the database and counted as Olympians, while for different reasons I believe they should not be counted:

1900

1912

1920

1928

1932

1936

1948

Double Counts

The OlyMADMen attempt to give information as accurately as they can. When some element of the identity of a competitor is unknown, they are unlikely to extrapolate. On the other hand, my attempt is to give as accurately as possible the number of Olympians. In some cases, the Database has two records, when logic dictates that they belong to the same actual person. I have then merged the two competitors into one. This is most notable for 1900:

1900

Other Possible errors in the Database

There are a number of other things that should be looked into, and that may require additional adaptations to these pages (and to Bill Mallon's book)

Missing Competitors

The following competitor is missing from the database:

1900

Summary of all changes

1896

1900

General changes:
  1. We are in agreement on the sports that are included.
  2. I have added 241 unknown competitors: That is
  3. The OlyMADMen database counts seven Archers (6 Dutch and 1 French), that I don't recognise as Olympians.
  4. The OlyMADMen have Vigneulles and Wignolle, who they suspect are the same. I have considered them indeed the same and arrive at one less Jumping Equuestrian.
  5. I believe two French Fencers were counted double.
    There are two sailors called Texier, and a swimmer of the same name. I presume they are one and the same and have omitted the swimmer as a separate competitor.
  6. A. Berger has to be added to the list of Olympians.
  7. The OlyMADMen assign to individual competitors their true nationality, but team members receive the nationality of the team they compete on. Two competitors are then counted twice:
    Charles Sands is an American, but he is also counted as French as a golfer;
    Stan Rowley is Australian, but also counted as British (for the team race).
    That is why the table adds up to 1228 athletes, while the total participant count is given as 1226 athletes.
  8. That is a total of 241 unknowns, 10 incorrect additions (7 archers, 2 fencers, Texier) and 1 incorrect deletion, which means my list has 241+1-10=232 more athletes than the OlyMADMen's.
  9. 1226+232=1458
By sport: By Team:

1904

1906

We are in agreement as to the number and identity of all competitors. However,

1908

1912

1920

1924 Winter

1924 Summer

1928 Winter

1928 Summer

1932 Winter

1932 Summer

1936 Winter

1936 Summer

1948 Winter

1948 Summer

1952 Winter

1952 Summer

1956 Winter

1956 Equestrian

1956 Summer

1960 Winter

1960 Summer

1964 Winter

1964 Summer

1968 Winter

1968 Summer

1972 Winter

1972 Summer

1976 Winter

1976 Summer

1980 Winter

1980 Summer

1984 Winter

Written 2016-10-31 - last modified 2023-11-20

This page is part of the site "Full Olympians" by Herman De Wael. See here for a full Introduction.