Women’s Boxing a Displayed Event in Third Olympic Games – 1904

Boxing was introduced at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis. Women’s boxing was a displayed event at the third Olympic games. However, women’s boxing didn’t strike root in the Olympics, while men’s debutants – boxing and freestyle wrestling also having their debut at the St. Louis Games, survived until the present day.

Debuts and firsts:  The 1904 Olympic Games were the first at which gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded for first, second and third place. Boxing, freestyle wrestling, decathlon and a dumbbells event all made their debuts on the programme.

Wiki:  The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States from August 29 until September 3, 1904, as part of an extended sports program lasting from July 1 to November 23, 1904, at what is now known as Francis Field on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis. It was the first time that the Olympic Games were held in a majority English language nation, and the first time that they were held outside of Europe.  A major problem for the 1904 Olympics was that it was held far from Europe. The fact that European participants would have to make a trans-Atlantic voyage plus a long train ride to Missouri to get there, not to mention that many Europeans envisioned St. Louis as small town on the wilderness frontier, made international participation very weak.  Though twelve countries were represented, only a little over 100 of the 681 athletes participating were from outside of the U.S. and most of those were from Canada. No athletes represented England, France, or Sweden.  During the 1904 Olympics, boxing was added as an Olympic sport.

About the 1904 Olympics:  The 1904 Summer Olympics, (Games of the III Olympiad), were held at the same time, in St. Louis on the fairgrounds in conjunction with the 1904 World’s Fair.  The fifty cent Fair admission fee (or ticket) also provided admission the the Olympic events. These were the first Olympics held in the United States and the first Olympic games to award Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers. Many of the Olympic events were held in the stadium, on the fairgrounds which is now “Francis Field” on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, from July 1904 to November 1904.

The first American Olympics, held in 1904 in St. Louis, were a vigorous spectacle suited to an energetic and confident nation. The games were wrested away from rival city Chicago and appended to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World’s Fair. Athletes came from eleven countries and four continents to compete in state-of-the-art facilities, which included a 10,000-seat stadium with gymnasium equipment donated by sporting goods magnate Albert Spalding. St. Louis Olympics, 1904 corrects common misperceptions and presents a fresh view of the games that featured first-time African American Olympians, an eccentric marathon, and documentation by pioneering photojournalist Jessie Tarbox Beals.