22 July 2024
By Greg Denieffe
Greg Denieffe takes an insouciant look at two Parisian Olympics separated by a century.
The end of an era beckons on Friday, 2 August 2024. By the close of play, around one p.m. local time, the last four Olympic lightweight rowing (actually sculling) champions will have received their medals, and the nae-sayers will have had their way.
It took 100 years for lightweight rowing to gain access to the Olympic programme. In 1996, the centennial games, three events (LM4-, LM2x & LW2x) for lightweights were raced at the Atlanta Games. The fours had their swansong in Rio in 2016, and the doubles will fall on their sculls in Paris.
Considering the sports that have been added to the Olympic programme – breaking (breakdancing) added for 2024, and flag football added for 2028 – there are no prizes for guessing what the priority of the IOC is now. And let me tell you, they will not stop there; already, they have allowed the rowing course for 2028 to be shortened to 1,500m, and I predict that if the only option were 500m sprints, then World Rowing would still not walk away. Round up the usual suspects.
One thing for sure is that the poster for the 2024 Games will not trouble the adjudicator (me) of the best Olympic posters of all time. On the one hand, it has several nice features: the inclusion of rowing on the Seine, the designation in Roman numerals, and the correct use of Jeux de la XXXIII Olympiade. On the same hand, it pleases me to see that it has annoyed the French far-right, who prefer bare-chested, saluting, white, male, sangs purs. National Rally (RN) lawmaker Nicolas Meizonnet complained that the omission of the French tricolour and a cross from the Hôtel des Invalides was the result of le wokisme, a bugbear of France’s far-right. On the other hand, whilst I don’t dislike illustrator Ugo Gattoni’s design, it is too busy for my taste. I picked my favourite posters in 2015 – see: I, For One, Love Roman Numerals – and nothing from the last three Games has tempted me to change my mind.
Paris has hosted the Olympic Games twice before, in 1900 and 1924. In 1900, the rowing events were held on the Seine between the Courbevoie Bridge and the Asnières Bridge. They were the subject of my 2016 article, The Birth of Modern Olympic Rowing. When the Games first returned to Paris, the world had changed, but the rowing world had stayed the same.
Consider these statistics:
Rowing events – 4 in 1900 and 6 in 1924.
Countries – 8 in 1900 and 14 in 1924.
No. of boats – 32 in 1900 and 45 in 1924.
Competitors – 108 in 1900 and 181 (filling 195 seats) in 1924.
At 502, the 2024 Games has fewer competitors than Tokyo (526) and Rio (547), and with qualification now a requirement, these numbers do not tell the true growth in the sport in the last 100 years. Sixty countries, plus two neutral athletes, have qualified 198 boats to race for 14 gold medals. These numbers include the versatile Moroccan, Majdouline El Allaoui, who qualified through the African Qualification Regatta (AQR) and is a natural lightweight and a beach sprint rower. Morocco gained her independence from France in 1956 and competed in the Olympics for the first time in 1960.
Also qualified for Paris through the AQR is an Irish-Ugandan who will never have to say, “I’m no good at being noble.” Kathleen Noble, the daughter of Irish missionaries, took one of five African continental qualification places and will race at her second Olympic Games for the land of her birth.
The 1924 Games saw the first-ever Olympic Village for athletes. It consisted of temporary wooden huts along the Boulevard de Valmy, situated close to the main stadium, Stade de Colombes. The daily charge for a bed was 30 francs per person, on top of this it was 25 francs for food, laundry, electricity and showers. Three meals a day were provided at a dining hall, with lunch and dinner also including alcohol.
This year, the main athletes’ Village is located on the banks of the River Seine in Saint-Denis in the north of Paris. The Village will provide accommodation for the majority of the athletes competing at the Olympic and Paralympic Games and will then convert to a modern neighbourhood with schools, supermarkets, green spaces and offices, all designed to meet the long-term living needs of 6,000 residents. The total cost was around €2 billion (£1.7 billion), will house up to 15,000 people, and staggeringly, will serve 40,000 meals per day (no mention of free bière or vin rouge).
Switzerland had a tremendous regatta in 1924, winning two gold and three bronze medals. She finished second on the medal table to the U.S.A. who also collected five medals (2 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze). The first postage stamp issued to commemorate rowing at the Olympics did not arrive until 1928. A Cinderella stamp is a label that resembles a postage stamp but is not issued for postal purposes by a government administration. Switzerland is a multilingual country with two (French (F.S.S.A.), and German (S.R.V.) of her four national languages used on the Cinderella. The Monaco 2024 issue is slightly misleading by depicting John B. (Jack) Kelly in what looks like a single scull. He and his cousin, Paul Costello, actually won gold in the double sculls in Paris 100 years ago. Of course, three-time Olympic gold medallist Kelly (2x 1920 & 1924, and 1x 1920) has family connections with Monaco through his daughter Grace, whilst the overshadowed (IMO) Costello, also a three-time Olympic champion (2x 1920, 1924 & 1928), skipped the 1932 Olympics to get married and went on to be a car salesman. It’s still the same old story, a fight for love and glory.
In January 1924, [James] Ramsay MacDonald became the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He got the job through the back door; the Conservatives lost their majority in the House of Commons in the previous month’s General Election but tried to continue in power leading a minority Government. After they lost a vote of confidence, the King sent for MacDonald and he accepted the job, knowing full well his time would be limited. It was – he didn’t even see out the year. The 2024 General Election has again returned a Labour Prime Minister, and I expect Keir Starmer to survive longer than MacDonald and far longer than Olympic lightweight rowing.
The Olympic Regatta 13 – 17 July 1924
Rowing at the 1924 Summer Olympics took place in the town of Argenteuil which lies on the banks of the Seine eleven kilometres northwest of Paris. Two events, the coxless pairs and fours, returned to the programme and brought the total number to seven, a number that would remain the same until 1976 when the program was expanded to include women.
Single Sculls
Eight scullers from eight countries contested this event. In 1924, the repêchage system (every crew gets a second opportunity to progress) was introduced, and for eventual winner Jack Beresford of Great Britain, it is just as well that it was. The three heat winners: Arthur ‘Ted’ Bull (Australia), Josef Schneider (Switzerland) and William Gilmore (USA), advanced to the final. The second-placed scullers got another chance in the ‘rep’, where Berresford clinched his place in the final ahead of Constant Pieterse (Netherlands) and Marc Detton (France). In the final, Bull led with 200m to go but failed to finish the race. Gilmore, who beat Beresford by 3.8 seconds in the heat, took the silver medal ahead of Schneider.
1st Jack Beresford (GBR) 7:49.2.
2nd William Gilmore (USA) 7:54.0.
3rd Josef Schneider (SUI) 8:01.0.
I’ve long been interested in Jack Beresford and have contributed several pieces about him on HTBS: Hitler Oaks, Jack Beresford – The Early Years, Bedford School B.C. v Shrewsbury School B.C., and finally, Jack Beresford – In His Own Words. However, today, I want to share a wonderful photograph of him from 1972. My question to HTBS readers is this: what is he drinking, a Baby Guinness or an Irish Coffee?
Double Sculls
Seven countries entered this event, but two (Belgium and Italy) withdrew before racing began. Having introduced a repêchage system, the organisers failed to apply it fairly. As mentioned above, John B. Kelly and Paul Costello (USA) defended their Olympic title, beating France and Hungary in a semi-final before winning the final ahead of France, Switzerland and Brazil, who had earlier raced a meaningless heat to qualify for the final, followed the French over the line in that order.
1st John Kelly & Paul Costello (USA) 6:34.0
2nd Marc Detton & Jean-Pierre Stock (FRA) 6:38.0.
3rd Rudolf Bosshard & Heini Thoma (SUI) NTT.
Coxless Pairs
Paris being Paris, and in an effort to outdo the comical organisation of the coxed fours event in 1900, the “Comité de Farce” left no stone unturned. Five countries entered crews, but the U.S.A. and Switzerland withdrew. Still, two heats went ahead, with France beating Great Britain in the first, and the Netherlands rowing over in the other. Britain was allowed a repêchage and, of course, qualified for the final. However, injury forced them to withdraw, leaving the Dutch pair to beat their hosts in the final. No bronze medal was awarded in this event.
1st Teun Beijnen & Willy Rösingh (NED) 8:19.4.
2nd Maurice Monney-Bouton & Georges Piot (FRA) 8:21.6.
Coxed Pairs
Five countries entered, and all five raced. The misuse of the repêchage system was worse in this event than it had been in the singles. In the first heat, France finished ahead of the U.S.A., with both qualifying for the final. Belgium, who were third, was eliminated. In the second heat, Switzerland beat Italy in another meaningless race as both crews qualified for the final. Switzerland repeated their victory over Italy in the medal race, with the U.S.A. picking up the bronze.
1st Édouard Candeveau, Alfred Felber & Émile Lachapelle (cox) (SUI) 8:39.0.
2nd Ercole Olgeni, Giovanni Scatturin & Gino Sopracordevole (cox) (ITA) 8:39.1
3rd Leon Butler, Harold Wilson & Edward Jennings (cox) (USA) NTT.
Coxless Fours
With only four countries entered, the organisers could have raced a straight final but chose to split the crews into two heats, with all crews qualifying for the final. The Great Britain four dominated the medal race, beating Canada by almost 10 seconds. Switzerland took the bronze medal ahead of the host country.
As in Paris 1900, there was an Irish-born gold medallist in rowing. Terence Sanders, stroke of the Great Britain four was born in County Cork in 1901. As well as his Olympic success, Sanders won five times at Henley: The Visitors’ in 1922; The Stewards’ in 1922, 1923 and 1924; and The Grand in 1929. In 2011, the Tipperary Star published the following article claiming Sanders as a Tipp man, Ballinacourty being less than five kilometres inside the county boundary with Limerick and 15 kilometres from that with Cork.
1st Maxwell Eley, James MacNabb, Robert Morrison & Terence Sanders (GBR) 7:08.6.
2nd Archibald Black, George MacKay, Colin Finlayson & William Wood (CAN) 7:18.0.
3rd Émile Albrecht, Alfred Probst, Eugen Sigg & Hans Walter (SUI) NTT.
Coxed Fours
Along with the eights, this event was the best supported, with ten countries taking their place on the starting line. The crews were split into four heats – two three-boat races and two two-boat races – if you were unlucky enough to be drawn in the former, there was a chance of elimination as third-place finishers were not allowed into the repêchage. Spain and Poland were the countries to miss out.
The heat winners: the U.S.A., France, Italy and the Netherlands, qualified for a five-boat final. They were joined by Switzerland, who won the repêchage ahead of Great Britain, Hungary, and Belgium. The British crew, members of Weybridge Rowing Club, deserve special mention. They were affiliated to the National Amateur Rowing Association (NARA) and barred from competing in ‘Amateur’ as defined by the Amateur Rowing Association (ARA) events and Henley Royal Regatta. NARA members included ‘mechanics, artisans and labourers’ who were not considered to be amateurs under the stricter definition used by the ARA. Under IOC rules, they were eligible and the ARA organised trials between representatives of both governing bodies to select the British rowing team. Thames Rowing Club (ARA) beat Weybridge R. C. in the eights race, and Jack Beresford, himself a Thames R. C. member, easily overcame his opponent, G. Roberts of Oxford House Rowing Club. The Weybridge four was selected without a trial race.
The Weybridge crew was: Vince (AKA Victor) Boveington, Bernard Croucher (aircraft fitter); Thomas Monk (police officer); John Townend (electrician), and cox, Harry Barnsley (son of a Thames waterman).
The Dutch, who beat Switzerland in the heat, led the race for the first half but then dropped out through exhaustion, failing to complete the 2,000m. Switzerland took the lead and went on to win gold, followed by France and the U.S.A., who finished only two metres behind the French. The four Suisse rowers also won bronze medals in the straight four, whilst the cox won two gold medals (see coxed pair above).
1st Switzerland 7:18.4
2nd France 7:21.6
3rd United States of America NTT.
We will take a break at this point and return tomorrow with the story of the eights event.
Play the “Marseillaise.”