Belgium has three distinct groups: Dutch, French, and German. Dutch is mostly spoken in Antwerp.
Antwerp, a city of tradesmen, had a golden age in the 16th century due to Martin Luther and John Calvin. There were religious uprisings and war. Tradesmen were doing business based on religion. The King of the region at the time was a Spanish Catholic.
Walls, fortress, and moats surrounded this area, but eventually, they had to be torn down as the city expanded.
The land where the Olympics were held was mostly rural yet unfit for agriculture. Many wealthy city dwellers moved out of the city to escape bad odors in the summers from the canals.
Antwerp had rich Germans doing business here. Ernst Grisar owned 47 acres of land which included a horse race track. His son, Alfred, wanted to build a sports club, and his father agreed. Alfred had gone to England for college and participated in the many sports clubs there. Alfred brought that idea home and founded the first soccer team of which he was goalie.
There was also an abbey in this area that sold part of its land. Names of the streets reflect this history: Country houses, abbey and Olympics such as Athletes Street, Discus-Throwers Street, Gymnasts Street, and VII Olympiad Street.
The 1920 Olympics were awarded to Antwerp in hopes of bringing a spirit of renewal to Belgium, which had been devastated during World War I. The defeated countries—Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey—were not invited. The new Soviet Union chose not to attend due to their civil war.
In 1916, the Olympics were scheduled to be in Berlin or Munich but were cancelled due to The Great War. This was called the Olympiad VI although it never took place. So that makes Antwerp VI Olympiad.
The modern Olympics had three goals in mind:
- Countries live together in peace and global acceptance.
- After the war in 1870, youth were terribly out of shape so sport was encouraged.
- Most sports are easiest to judge to determine a winner.
The Olympics also determined to have competition in the arts: painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and literature. Judging these events are difficult as they are subjective. The arts were discontinued after 1948. Events such as diving, gymnastics, boxing etc. are also subjective and difficult to judge.
Olympic Athletes
The Olympics were only for amateur sportsmen that didn’t have time or money to be professional athletes. However, only the wealthy or sponsored, or those in the army or police with a lot of physical training competed.
Athletes from the USA were strong and not weakened by having the war in their country. The American ship arrived late, but the organizers waited for their arrival since they were happy that the Americans came to help in The Great War. (It seems like we are always late to the party!!)
Amsterdam, Budapest, Rome, and Antwerp were candidates for consideration in 1910 for being the host of the 1920 Olympics. Budapest was the favorite but they chose the wrong side in WWI. During the war, Rome and Amsterdam withdrew.
Hatred of Germany and Austria was deep. One ice skater was forbidden to skate because she used Austrian music.
In November, 1918, Belgium started to prepare. They used schools for housing the athletes. Children had not been to school in four years due to the war. However, there were no showers in the schools. Some trainers stayed in hotels, and the athletes complained.
Americans would go back to the ship. They would even practice on the boat. The javelin had a chain that was attached to the boat for easy retrieval.
More than 2,600 athletes (including more than 60 women) participated in the Games, representing 29 countries.
Olympic Sports
The modern Olympics organizers in 1896 wanted an event to connect these games with the ancient Olympics. The first marathon was to tell the people of Athens that they had won. It was about 26 miles of hilly terrain. It was decided that the Athens marathon could be run in the flat coastline of Greece. At the London Olympics in 1908, the marathon was to start at Windsor Castle and finish in the stadium in front of the Royal tribune.
A new road leading to Brussels had cobblestones. Since it was raining, the course was changed and has the distinction of the longest marathon in Olympic history at 26.56 miles. Today the marathon is set at the Royal distance of 1908.
The temperature was very hot and the Japanese marathoner named Shiso Kanakuri collapsed, was listless and unconscious. Several hours later, he revived and vanished into thin air. A Swedish team of journalists found him living in his birthplace and they encouraged him to finish the race 54 years later.
Winter Olympic Games were first organized in Antwerp. The winter sports were in April. (Summer events were in August and September.) However, only flat events could take place in the low country such as ice skating and hockey. A roller rink was converted to an ice skating rink.
Korfball was a Demo sport at the 1920 Olympics. Korfball is like basketball except it has men and women on the team. It is still played in Belgium and Holland.
Another demonstration sport was equestrian vaulting. This was much like a rodeo where horsemen do trucks such as jumping on a still horse, jumping over a horse, mounting a horse that is running, etc. There is a horse race through the country that is still done today.
Sailing took place in Holland as there were only two competitors and both were Dutch.
Golf was a scheduled event but not played due to so much rain. We can relate. We brought sunglasses but have rarely used them.
Suzanne Lenglen was a tennis sensation. She was from France and had a private tennis court. Her moves were a unique blend of athleticism and ballet. Her singles record was 332-7. Sadly, she died young at age 39.
There was a great swimmer from the USA whom they called “The Water Man” because he was faster in water than out of water. This could either be Johnny Weismeller (later known as Tarzan) or Duke Kahanamoku. My money is on Weismeller since he had polio as a child and started swimming as a way to improve his strength.
Moats around the city were 160 feet wide and used for the swimming competition. There were complaints about the standing water. Swimmers said that they were not swimming alone. The rats had joined them. At least one water polo team forfeited their match.
Soccer has always been big. Belgian and Czechoslovakia were in the finals. Czechoslovakia was favored. In the previous matches they had scored a total of 15 goals and only allowed one.
Hardly anyone attended the games. The ticket price was too high. Soccer, however, was an exception. The stadium was completely sold out and held 18,000 spectators.
The finish on March 20, 1967 at the Swedish Olympics. With an elapsed time of 54 years, 249 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes, 20.3 seconds, he holds the distinction of the longest time to complete a marathon.
Many people wanted to watch the soccer match. Young boys dug a tunnel. One might call it an Olympic trench. (Could this be a skill acquired in WWI?) Others climbed trees and lantern poles. Many listened on a radio if they had one.
It is estimated that 35,000 were watching. They brought in the army for safety reasons to stand between the spectators and the field. After six minutes, a goal was scored for Belgium. Then a local hero scored the second goal.
The linesmen were to be from each of the competing countries with the referee from a neutral country. This time all the officials were British.
The Czech goalie was called for a foul and sent off the field. (This is before yellow and red cards.) An earlier foul was not called on Belgium. Belgium won 5-0. There were complaints. It was the last time that Belgium won a gold medal in soccer. Today Holland and Belgium are soccer rivals.
Olympic Flag
The Olympic flag was introduced at the Antwerp Games. The five colors represent five participating continents. (Note: The rest of the world thinks that North and South America are one continent.) The five colors represent the colors used on flags of the countries and don’t represent a specific continent.
On the last day of competition, an American swimmer from Hawaii stole the Olympic flag. At the age of 103, he came to the Sydney Olympics to return it to the Belgian delegation. He was egged on by fellow swimmer Duke Kahanamoku.
Olympic Trivia
The Olympic Anthem had been played before but this was the first time while raising the flag. It was also the first time that the teams marched into the stadium with their national flag.
No flame was lit in Antwerp although there had been lightings before during ancient Olympics that took place every four years from 1776 BC to 392 AD. There have been 293 Olympics in all.
In ancient times the lighting of the flame was a racing event. Everyone carried a torch in a race and ran to light the fire of the altar of Zeus. It was said that it took the fat of 110 oxen to keep the flame burning.
The first time that the flame was lit in the modern Olympics was in 1928. In 1936 Hitler came up with the idea of transporting the flame from Athens, and it was carried by all walks of life: athletes, officials, ordinary citizens, etc.
The first Olympic rings were rubber tires made by Dunlop and were carried by athletes.
This was the first Olympics to release white peace doves.
We took a quick trip to view the Battlefields of Waterloo.
It was a long day and we were driving at night. We came upon a police barricade. Rob was asked to blow his Cheetos breath into a breathilizer. All good. After shining a flashlight into our eyes, we were asked, “Why are you driving a French car?” Our reply, “We are Americans here for the Battle of the Bulge celebrations.” OK with a smile, you’re good.
We watched The Lion King (not animated) in French. I am excited to see Mufasa. I even like to say it like the hyena…Mufasa!!
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