- SPORT:
The Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games set attendance records for a Winter Games, selling more than 1.5 million tickets and attracting a daily average of more than 70,000 fans per day.
Only 62 athletes came from outside North America to compete in the St. Louis 1904 Olympic Games. U.S. athletes won 239 medals (78 gold); the second-place country in the medal count was Germany with 13 medals.
Due to the difficulty of getting to St. Louis and European tensions caused by the Russo-Japanese War, only 62 athletes came from outside North America as the St. Louis 1904 Olympic Games were held in concert with the World’s Fair and spread out over 4 ½ months. It was the first Olympic Games in which gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded. Swimming events were held in a temporary pond. George Poage became the first Black American to win an Olympic medal, taking bronze in the 200- and 400-meter hurdles. American Thomas Hicks won the marathon after it was discovered that another American, Fred Lorz, had ridden much of the race in a car.
