1908 Summer Olympics: History and Background

The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, United Kingdom, from 27 April to 31 October 1908.

The 1908 Games were relocated to London after Italy withdrew from hosting on financial grounds. Rome had been awarded the games at the 6th IOC Session in 1904, but Italy formally relinquished its obligation during the 8th IOC Session at the Intercalated Games in Athens in April 1906, with Italy's IOC member Count Eugenio Brunetta d'Usseaux citing the financial consequences of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (4–22 April 1906) as the reason. Mallon and Buchanan cite personal communications from Italian Olympic historian Giuseppe Odello, suggesting that the decision to withdraw had effectively been made before the eruption, claiming that Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti had already withheld the government funds necessary to finance the games, which were competing with major public works projects including the Simplon Tunnel, an aqueduct in the Puglia region, relief efforts following the Calabrian earthquake of 1905, and expenditure planned for the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Rome as capital. Archival research has established that the British Olympic Association was already privately exploring the possibility of London hosting the games as early as 5 January 1906, three months before the eruption began. London was formally confirmed as host on 19 November 1906. Rome eventually hosted the games in 1960.

These were the fourth chronological modern Summer Olympics in keeping with the now-accepted four-year cycle as opposed to the alternate four-year cycle of the proposed Intercalated Games. The IOC president for these games was Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

Lasting a total of 187 days (six months and four days), these were the longest games in modern Olympics history.

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