1908 Summer Olympics / Tug of War

Tug of war with the III. Olympic Games
information
venue	London
Competition venue	White City Stadium
Nations	3
Athletes	41 (41 men)
date	17.-18. July 1908
decisions	1
← St. Louis 1904 Stockholm 1912 →

At the IV Olympic Games in 1908 , a team competition in a tug of war took place. The venue was the White City Stadium in the White City district . In contrast to today, the tug of war was not considered an independent sport, but as part of athletics .

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Great Britain	1	1	1	3

The City of London Police tug-of-war team with attendants

Remarks

Five teams with eight athletes each took part. Three of these teams represented British police forces, namely the City of London Police , Division K of the Metropolitan Police and the Liverpool Police. Before the start of the competition, the German and Greek teams withdrew their registrations.

In the quarter-finals, the Swedish and two of the British teams had a bye. The only quarterfinal fight was that between the United States and the Liverpool police. The latter won the first round easily. The American delegation protested because the British police officers wore nailed shoes. The purely British jury rejected the protest, as these shoes corresponded to the usual work clothing and are therefore permitted. The Americans then broke off the competition. It was similar in the second semi-final. The defeated Swedes even waived the battle for the bronze medal.

Results

space	country	athlete
1	GBR	City of London Police Edward Barrett , Frederick Goodfellow , Frederick Humphreys , William Hirons , Albert Ireton , Frederick Merriman , Edwin Mills , John James Shepherd
2	GBR	Liverpool Police Thomas Butler , James Clarke , Charles Foden , William Greggan , Alexander Kidd , Daniel McDonald Lowey , Patrick Philbin , George Smith , Thomas Swindlehurst
3	GBR	Metropolitan Police K Division Walter Chaffe , Joseph Dowler , Ernest Ebbage , Thomas Homewood , Alexander Munro , William Slade , Walter Tammas , James Woodget
4th	SWE	Albrekt Almqwist , Frans Fast , Carl-Emil Johansson , Emil Johansson , Knut Johansson , Karl Krook , Karl-Gustaf Nilsson , Anders Wollgarth
5	United States	Wilbur Burroughs , Wesley Coe , Arthur Dearborn , John Flanagan , Bill Horr , Matt McGrath , Ralph Rose , Lee Talbott

Date: August 17th and 18th, 1908

Quarter finals
Liverpool Police	1-0	United States
Sweden	-	bye
City of London Police	-	bye
Metropolitan Police	-	bye
Semifinals
Liverpool Police	2-0	Sweden
City of London Police	2-0	Metropolitan Police
Battle for 3rd place
Metropolitan Police	Where	Sweden
final
City of London Police	2-0	Liverpool Police

Web links

• Tug of war at the 1908 Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1908 (PDF, 12.4 MB)