The Olympic Media dossier
1924: Paris
4 May-27 July
By now radio broadcasting was developing and reports were transmitted for the
first time from the Games.
Exclusive film rights were awarded to a French company (which?). This led to an American threat to withdraw from the games when the US team was told that they could not make their own film of a rugby semi-final against Romania. (Only France, Romania and the US entered teams for the event, in which the Americans took the gold.) After negotiations, the Americans were allowed to film the match for educational and archive purposes.

A film camera records the men's 800m final.
The event is more notable for two contributions it made subsequently to the media. Three swimming gold medals were won by Johnny Weissmuller, who went on to star in Hollywood movies as Tarzan. The story of the British athletes who competed and won gold in the 100m and 400m races was told in the 1981 Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire.
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Page created 30 May 2004