Will Ulrich: Penn's Olympians in Paris

A century ago, if America's fastest men weren't outfitted in red, white and blue while competing for the USA, they didn't revert to the swoosh-bearing duds of Team Nike. And they didn't pull on the sky blue singlets of the Santa Monica Track Club, either. Instead, America's -- and for that matter, the world's -- fastest and most talented track and field athletes wore the red and blue of their beloved alma mater, Pennsylvania. One hundred summers ago, the American team excelled in the track competition at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. And although American domination was not quite as demonstrative as it had been in the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, the Yanks still "swept the field," in the words of the Chicago Tribune. Leading the charge for the new-worlders was a quartet of University of Pennsylvania Quakers that combined for an astonishing nine gold medals: Alvin Kraenzlein, Irving Baxter, Walter Tewksbury and George Orton. The performance of this foursome in Paris represents not only a high-water mark for the success of Penn athletes on an international stage, but it also points to a bygone era, when gold medals were made of silver and the Olympics were the sight of a cut-throat debate over how to best keep holy the sabbath. In the spring of 1900, the Board of Directors of the Athletic Association at Penn voted to send a contingent of 13 Quakers or recent alumni across the pond to take part in the English Championships and then the Olympics, which were being staged in conjunction with the World's Fair in Paris. After a solid performance at the English games, the 13 Penn athletes and legendary coach Mike Murphy made their way to the City of Lights. The Red and Blue found themselves smack-dab in the middle of the gorgeous spectacle of the Paris Exposition, complete with the newly constructed Eiffel Tower and the games of the second Olympiad, which boasted 1,330 competitors from 22 countries. But before the Philadelphians could even catch their breath, controversy began to brew. The French organizers of the Games had committed a mortal sin in the eyes of the pious American team. The cosmopolitan Olympic Committee has scheduled a series of important finals on Sunday, July 15, the day of the Christian sabbath. The Yanks were up in arms, and an emergency meeting of track officials was called on Wednesday the 11th. At that meeting, so the Americans claimed, the French promised to allow any conscientious objector to participate in his event on Monday. When Sunday morning rolled around, however, the French Committee formally announced that every final scheduled for Sunday would mark the only chance to compete. The Americans felt they were victims of Gallic treachery. There's no official record of how many runners elected not to participate on Sunday, but the Tribune straightforwardly claimed that the U.S. team was "deprived of the service of some of her best athletes." Five of the 13 Penn athletes present went against the wishes of many of their collegiate counterparts and elected to participate on the 15th. They were criticized severely. A Princeton manager by the name of Jamison was livid: "By the change our pole vaulter and high jumper were unable to compete after traveling a great distance. Pennsylvania protested most strongly to Sunday games, but finally entered. I think her representatives should have stood with those of other colleges." Although Sunday racing might have thinned out the field somewhat, the performance by the Penn athletes was extraordinary. Kraenzlein's performance was clearly the blockbuster of the games. His four victories -- in the 60-meter dash (world record), 110 hurdles, 200 hurdles and long jump -- marked the first time ever that a track athlete won four golds (even though first-place awards were silver in Paris). The only other track athletes to repeat such a feat are Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis -- illustrious company, to say the least. Kraenzlein's talent was truly prodigious. To give you an idea, his best long jump in a Penn uniform of 24 feet, 4.5 inches is still the sixth-best in Red and Blue history. That fact is almost unbelievable given the advances in equipment and training that have occurred in the past century. Orton, who was actually Canadian but competed under an American flag, had the most dramatic victory of the games. With the grandstand packed with American supporters, Orton, who was trailing Sydney Robinson of Great Britain by well over 100 meters with less than 400 to go, sprinted down the stretch and earned a dramatic, come-from-behind win in the 2,500-meter steeplechase. Tewksbury came clanking home from Paris with plenty of hardware as well. The '99 grad won two golds, two silvers and one bronze, with first-place finishes in the 100-meter and 220-yard dashes. Baxter rounded out the list of Penn standouts in 1900, taking first in the high jump and the pole vault. One hundred years after the controversial triumph of 1900, a group of new Penn-trained Olympians will test their mettle in Sydney over the next few weeks. This group, which includes medal hopefuls in fencing, rowing and freestyle wrestling, may make history of its own this month, but there's little chance that their story will be more colorful than that of Penn's men of the second modern Olympiad.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.