Prompted by something in the comments, cricket at the Olympics. Only done once, at the 1900 games.
only two countries competed, Great Britain and hosts France.
The French came second of course. But this:
The match….did not attract first-class status.
So, it was possible – in fact it happened to most of the team – that they were reigning Olympic champions, gold medal holders, for a however much of the century they lived and yet the’d still not played a fist class match. I rather like that….for the bloke who turned out in 1923 for Oxford V Cambridge has played first class cricket.
The first international cricket was US vs Canada in 1844. The match was played at the grounds of the St George’s Cricket Club in New York.
Didn’t GB win the baseball gold medal.
ah its was 1938 world championship – beat the USofA.
and it was 12-a-side
GB are the reigning Tug-of-War Olympic champions while the USA are the reigning 15-a-side rugby Olympic champions*.
*The USA winning the gold medal in 1924. The last time 15-a-side was played at the Olympics was 1936 with France beating Germany in the final but it was only given exhibition status.
Andrew C said:
“GB are the reigning Tug-of-War Olympic champions”
Yes, one of my favourite Olympic facts.
And it’s not even GB – it’s the City of London Police (not the Met, just the City, the Square Mile’s own police force).
@Richard T
Don’t understand why Tug of War isn’t a more popular sport. Doesn’t need much room or equipment, should appeal to anyone who fancies a bit of physical activity on a bit of grass next to a pub, requires teamwork.
One humerous exchange from an interview with cricketer Steve Waugh where the interviwer just didn’t get it….
Intervier – So why is your nickname Tugga?
SW – you know, Tugga Waugh
Interviewer – oh, so you used to do Tug of War?
At the 1912 Olympics, an expat British rower was rather disappointed that there was no British team. So he entered and competed, but representing his club. I like that.
GB won gold in ice hockey once at the Winter Olympics in 1936 and were the first team other than Canada to win gold, Canada having won all 4 previous gold medals.
9 of the team had grown up in Canada though were born in Britain and Canada lodged a complaint before the tournament that the GB and French teams were full of Canadians, but it was withdrawn
@Andrew C
Very dangerous sport is tug of war, as this page explains:
https://priceonomics.com/a-history-of-tug-of-war-fatalities/
@Silverite
Just read that. Bloody hell. Literally.
Jim Thurber, a 59-year-old from Nova Scotia, decided to participate in his county’s annual tug of war match at the last minute — usually a light social event. “I had retired,” he told CBC in 2010. “But I thought it was one more chance to give the municipality a hand.” He never suspected he’d mean that in a literal sense.
The inevitable ensued. And elsewhere…
In 2007, two 17-year-old boys participating in a tug of war game at a Colorado homecoming looped the rope around their hands and suffered amputations. “Hearing it was pretty gross,” a student at the scene later told NBC. “There was like a lot of people screaming and just all blood flying everywhere and just people running out of the room.” Signs were later posted at the Christian high school that read, “Their hands are in His hands.”
The fatalities in some of the events sounded pretty gruesome. Also, people really need to learn about safety factors…
On October 25, 1997, a massive tug of war match was organized in Taiwan in celebration of Retrocession Day (the day the Japanese ceased colonial rule in Taiwan following World War II). The 1,600 participants exerted over 180,000 pounds of force on a 2-inch thick nylon rope designed to withstand only 57,000 pounds. Amidst cheers, the rope violently snapped; the sheer rebounding force tore off the left arm of the first man on each side.
My dad (40 years before the mast MN) used to amuse us with horror tales of injuries caused when a hawser snapped.