Classic Olympic Images from the Post The Saturday Evening Post

International rivalries became a new hurdle in the Olympic games.

Amid the celebration of the 30th Olympiad, it’s worthwhile recalling the 1908 London Olympics, and and how it changed the international games.

The Fourth Olympiad was the first truly international Olympic games held outside of Greece. It was the first Olympics to include winter events and women’s gymnastics. It introduced the rule that prohibited individual competitors; only members of national teams were allowed to participate.

And it was at the London Olympics that international squabble first began to intrude.

The feuding began at the opening ceremony, when the British Olympic committee failed to fly a U.S. flag over the stadium. The American athletes saw this and were furious. When the U.S. flag bearer marched past King Edward and the royal family, he refused to dip his flag in salute.

The British officials responded to this insult with a gesture intended to “restore the importance of the monarchy.” They changed the route of the marathon so that it would begin at Windsor Castle, directly beneath the windows of the Royal Nursery, and end at the royal box where the King awaited the winner. The fact that the new route  added another 195 meters to the race didn’t seem important. (In fact, this precedent caused the Olympic committee to change the 25-mile marathon to a 26-mile event.)

Opening ceremonies, April 27, 1908.

Soon the complaining and protests began. After the Americans lost to England in the tug-of-war, they protested that the British team’s shoes were illegal. The United States also protested the pole-vault regulations, the official medal count, and the set-up of the 800-meter and the 1,500-meter race. And American runners were outraged when the British disqualified the American winner of the 400-meter race for foul play.

Fans from the United States added to the situation: Throughout the games, they displayed what the British felt was raucous, partisan cheering and generally poor sportsmanship. It was particularly noticeable at the finish of the marathon, as the Post reported:

When the Italian had fallen and Hayes, the American, had won, several more Americans came in, pretty fresh, then some runners of other nationalities, and, finally, an Englishman arrived.

The Americans were very sore over the treatment they had received, they had heard nothing for days but boasts that an Englishman could win the Marathon, and when the English runner finally did appear, way back in the nick, an immense American, leaning far out of his box, bellowed through a megaphone:

“Welcome to our fair city!”

Dorando Pietri struggling to the finish line with a little help from his friends.

The marathon is a story in itself. The leader was Italian Dorando Pietri who entered the stadium within sight of the finish line, but collapsed repeatedly. Two British officials stepped forward and ‘helped’ Pietri across the finish line. It might not have been an intentional effort to prevent the American Johnny Hayes from winning, but the American team didn’t see it that way. The Irish-American Athletic Club protested vehemently. Pietri was disqualified. Hayes won the gold.

The American team complained so often about biased British judges that the International Olympic Committee made a ruling—another first!—that future games would use judges from several different countries in future games.

Today it’s surprising to read of the intense, often bitter rivalry between Britain and America. But in the early 1900s, America’s sudden emergence as a colonial power in the Pacific challenged Great Britain’s global dominance.

Americans were still considered by many (including the future King George V) as rude and overbearing. Many in England didn’t like the American women who were marrying English lords for their titles. And Americans didn’t like the $220 million of U.S. wealth that accompanied these brides to England to shore up their noble husband’s estates.

Johnny Hayes, American gold medalist, when he was still trying to catch up with Pietri

Many Americans felt it was patriotic to dislike the British, even 120 years after the Revolution. Irish-Americans, who made up a sizeable portion of our immigrants, had more recent grievances with the United Kingdom. And now that the United States saw a possibility of becoming a global power, it needed to show it was the equal of England, and would tolerate no hint of American inferiority.

So it’s not surprising to find an occasional slap at Britain in Post editorials, like “The Desire to Win” from 1905. The editors said Britain’s sportsmanship, like its military, had become decadent because it was no longer interested in “excelling in all things, small as well as great.”

Then, shortly before the London Olympics, the English Olympic committee announced it would closely examine the qualifications of American athletes to ensure they were truly amateurs. The Post’s editors responded with a blistering editorial:

This is a proper and timely advertisement of a promise to do full duty. We hope [it indicates] the committee’s courageous intentions regarding entries from its own country.

Certainly American sportsmen trust the English committee will give its home athletes a more thorough inspection, as to their ethical qualifications, than has been the case in any previous competition of an international character.

Some Americans have taken this announcement of the English committee as a bit of mud-slinging, but, if so intended, as I doubt, it may be overlooked as another Swettenhamism.*

*This refers to a recent dispute in Jamaica. When a hurricane struck the island, the admiral on a U.S. Navy vessel sent marines ashore to protect the property of Americans. The island’s British governor, Alexander Swettenham, issued a harsh criticism, which asked how America would like Royal marines landing in New York to protect British property. He was soon ordered to issue an apology, but Americans remained incensed for months afterward.

Americans who are familiar with the athletic conditions of the two countries will not take very seriously any covert attack by Englishmen, who are hardly in a position to indulge in the smallest character-besmirching foray.

Well-informed Britishers know, to their sorrow, the depth of their athletic degradation. Outside of the Oxford and Cambridge Universities, track athletics in England reek with professionalism and dishonesty. There is an athletic association which pretends to govern the amateur sport of Great Britain, but it has proved wholly incompetent. The bookmakers rule at track meets, and their corrupting influences upon certain (and the best, athletically speaking) grades of non-university athletes have swept over the half-hearted efforts of the governing body.

If the London Olympic committee lives up to its advertised intention, the English team will have few prominent athletes outside of those who are numbered on the university lists.

The situation is different in America, where the Amateur Athletic Union holds the lines in a firm grasp. Here track athletic laws are made comprehensive and are honestly enforced, which is more than can be said for England. We have our troubles, it is true, now and again—and man is not infallible on either side of the Atlantic.

It will be well, if for the protection of its own athletes, the American Union scans with careful eye the list of English non-university entries.

Johnny Hayes and Humphrey O'Sullivan

1908: The Olympics Get Political. And Commercial. The Saturday Evening Post

Siblings Diana and Steven Lopez will represent the USA in the London 2012 Summer Olympics. They are shown here wearing sponsor Ralph Lauren’s signature U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Closing Ceremony Parade Uniforms.

In celebration of the upcoming 2012 Olympic games, the Post caught up with members of a very impressive family who will represent the red, white, and blue in London this July. It will be nothing new to the Lopez siblings—Jean, Mark, Diana, and Steven—as at least one member of the family has been taking home medals in taekwondo for the better part of two decades.

In 1995, the oldest sibling Jean won silver at the World Championships. He retired in 1998—after winning medals at more than 30 competitions—to focus on coaching his brothers and sister.

When the sport officially became part of the Olympics in 2000, younger brother Steven qualified and took home the gold. He repeated that accomplishment in 2004 and won bronze in 2008.

Joining Steven in 2008, Diana and Mark jumped into the family act by taking home a bronze and silver medal, respectively.

All four will be present this year–Jean as coach, Mark as both a training partner and alternate, and Diana and Steven as competitors. The Post was able to catch up with Diana and Steven for this Web exclusive interview:

On what it’s like to be in the Lopez family:

Diana: Growing up with 3 older brothers, I always had to be competitive just to be on the same mat. I always pushed myself really hard to be competitive. And my family is very competitive—whether it’s soccer, volleyball, video games, we all want to win. But it’s all friendly. We want what’s best for one another at the end of the day.

Something that we always remember is where our parents came from–Nicaragua–which is a third world country. We were born in Houston. My parents always told us never to take anything for granted and taught us how to be humble and grounded. And the future looks bright: my niece Alyxandra just turned 13 and is a junior champion in her own right. If the younger members of our family want to continue, they’ll have Olympic champion aunts and uncles to help. We’re the perfect family to help guide and push them to reach their goal.

Steven: We push each other. There’s a healthy competitiveness. When my brother made the national team at 17, I said ‘I’m going to be younger and better,’ and I made it at 15. I did it for him, because he always had aspirations, but he didn’t have an opportunity (the first year taekwondo was an Olympic sport it did not have a competition in Jean Lopez’s weight class). It’s a difficult, lonely, and hard road to be the best, and when you have teammates who are your siblings, it makes it easier. You all make the same sacrifices, and it’s a huge advantage because we’re traveling together so we always have home court.

On what motivates them:

Diana: It’s my own personal drive and will to keep going. We only have a short amount of years. I’m 28, and this is the time where I should be driving to be the best. I learned from my parents. They have a great work ethic, and they were always working hard for what was best for me.

Steven: I think largely it’s love of the sport; the joy in training. That hasn’t changed. I’ve been doing this for 28 years, and at times you don’t feel like waking up and training, but I still love the sport and want to compete at the Olympic level and to be the best. Being on that first place podium is one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever felt.

An Olympic Family Act The Saturday Evening Post

It is a balmy fall day just a few weeks post-Beijing Olympics. Inside the historic Hilton Hotel on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, guests and fans are swirling in a frantic frenzy like worker bees preparing the hive for its queen.

Milling around the hallways are the biggest and best names of last summer’s Olympic games: NBA’s Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd and WBNA’s Lisa Leslie; pitcher Jennie Finch; decathlete Bryan Clay; volleyball queens Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh; swimmers like Jason Lezak and Aaron Peirsol; tae kwon do’s Steven Lopez and Mark Lopez; and the women’s water polo team. The excess of athletic star power is the result of Oprah’s season kickoff show at the nearby Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. Of the more than 150 athletes brought in for the show, most have ended up here.

Included in the mix is 41-year-old Dara Torres, the record-setting five-time Olympic athlete who made news for competing in the 2008 Olympics as the oldest swimmer in the history of the games. Torres stands nearly six-feet tall. Her striking pixie-cut hair, megawatt smile, and toned frame are the essence of athletic power. Her left wrist and hand are bandaged in a brace — the result of her smashing her hand into the pool wall during one of her three silver-medal races where she tried to out-touch her nearest competitor, Germany’s Britta Steffen, in the 50-meter freestyle, only to lose by 1/100th of a second.

“I was bummed I lost by a fingernail,” she says. “But it was just an awesome feeling to be back there, having that adrenaline rush to be competing and racing the best in the world.”

At this particular moment, Torres is concerned about getting a table at the now-packed Pavilion, a casual hotel-based restaurant that has a long line trailing into the hallway. With Torres is a posse of friends and trainers, including Anne Tierney, one of Dara’s two personal stretchers. Our group is told there aren’t any available tables. Taking control of the situation, Torres wanders through the restaurant. Seeing a few empty spots, she returns and implores the hostess to combine a few tables. Within a minute or two, we are seated.

Torres starts scanning the menu. Around her neck are two chains she wears for good luck when traveling. On one is a pair of her father’s World War II dog tags. The other — a necklace with an angel — is a good luck charm.

“All I ate while I was in China was McDonald’s,” Torres says with a laugh while ordering a sandwich with fries.

Beyond Beijing

These days, Torres is concerned with being a mother to her 2½-year-old, Tessa Grace, and trying to make a living through post-Olympic endorsements.

“You just have to find a balance, like any working mom,” she says. “At first it was hard. My biggest fear was doing my training and being away from my daughter. You just have to realize you have to do your thing and also be a mother.”

The fifth of six children and oldest of two girls, Torres spent her youth in California. As a Beverly Hills teenager, she attended Westlake, a private girls’ school in Los Angeles. A self-proclaimed tomboy, Torres ran around in tube socks playing soccer with her older brothers. Years later, she earned 28 All-American swimming honors at the University of Florida.

She competed in her first Olympics in 1984 at the age of 17, followed by stints in 1988, 1992 and 2000. It was after her third Olympics that Torres became the first athlete model in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. She also spent time swimming with sharks and jumping out of planes while hosting “Extreme Step,” a segment of the Discovery Channel’s former science and technology show The Next Stop.

After a seven year-drought from competitive swimming, Torres started training for the Olympics in the spring of 1999. In five months, she dropped her time to best the previous world record she’d set in the 50-meter freestyle more than 15 years earlier. At the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney, Torres, then a 33-year-old, competed as the then-oldest member of the U.S. Olympic Swim Team, winning five medals — three individual bronze and two golds on relays. Befitting her past, Torres took time off once again, opting to commentate for NBC at the 2004 games in Athens, instead of being in the pool.

“You have to do it when you are ready,” she says. “At that time, I was glad I wasn’t swimming.”

Torres was taking time off from swimming when, after struggling to have a baby, she became pregnant. Torres and her partner, David Hoffman, gave birth to their daughter in April 2006. Torres didn’t waste any time trying to get back into shape. Her well-documented comeback started just hours after giving birth.

“I was a little too embarrassed to ask before I gave birth,” Torres says.

But Torres says she promised one of her coaches she would swim a week and a half later, to help him garner publicity for a meet. Lying in the hospital with her newborn daughter, Torres stopped the doctor after he congratulated her.

“He started to leave, and I grabbed his white lab coat,” she says.

After telling him she wanted to work out again, Torres says he told her she could go to the weight room the next day but would have to wait six weeks to do anything aerobic. But when she ran into her doctor in the gym a week and a half later, he told her she could start swimming again.

Now, Torres spends much of her time at her home in Parkland, Florida. Her daughter enjoys watching Torres swim — even if it means Torres’ friends rewind their TiVo many times over.

“She says, ‘Oh I want to watch Mommy on TV. Play it again, play it again,’” Torres says.

As for the medals, at first Torres’ daughter didn’t want anything to do with them.

“Because she’d say, ‘Those are Mommy’s,’ but then when I started showing them to other people, she started taking them and putting them on herself,” Torres says with a laugh.

Torres says the 2012 Olympics in London are a possibility, but it also depends on how her body handles the next few years. At the time of this interview, Torres was one week post-shoulder surgery to correct a rotator cuff problem that has bothered her since 2000. She also had knee surgery last year and a bone spur removed from her shoulder. Still Torres plans on continuing to swim.

Torres’ key to keeping fit is working her core, especially her abdominals. With her trainers, Tierney and Steve Sierra, Torres recently released a workout video — Resistance Stretching — the cover photo shot in Torres’ daughter’s playroom. The video gives useful tips on increasing flexibility and strength while removing muscle tension.

“She resists while we stretch her,” says Tierney, who has trained other Olympians like gymnast Nastia Liukin. “It’s not like she is just lying there. She is kicking down as we are taking her leg above her head, so she’s working the entire time. It’s about creating strength in your entire range of motion.”

Torres, despite all of her success, is still amazed by all the attention she’s received, calling it a “surprising ride.”

“I’m so used to kids coming up and asking me for autographs, and now I have middle-aged people coming up to talk to me,” she says. “I like hearing their stories. I hope what I’ve done has helped inspire other people to do things they thought they were too old to do.”

Dara Torres: Life in the Fast Lane The Saturday Evening Post