Flodjunior asked me to ask yinz this after we were unable to google up an answer:
What was the smallest city ever to host the Summer Olympics? (We’re assuming Albertville pretty safely has the title for the Winter Games; please correct us if we’re wrong.)
Thank you!
A quick online search gives me 2003 population fugures for the following cities:
St. Louis, USA - 1904 - 354,000
Antwerp, Belgium - 1920 - 450,000
Helsinki, Finland - 1952 - 583,000
Athens, Greece - 1896 - 747,000
Assuming St Louis hasn’t had some dramatic depopulation since 1904, I assume it must have been the least populated Olympic host.
Actually, the city of St. Louis has undergone a dramatic depopulation. In 1910, the population was 687,000
Of course, the city population itself is somewhat misleading, since the St. Louis metro area has about 2.6 million. The city itself is just a small core of the larger region.
And using the term “Olympics” for the 1904 games is charitable. Few countries participated and events were stretched out over several months during the World’s Fair in St. Louis.
There were all sorts of screwball events going during that and there were even special events for Patagonians because the organizers had it in their heads that they were specially gifted athletes.
The first man across the finish line in the marathon was disqualified after it was discovered that he got a lift in the car most of the way.
According to masafer’s website the 1970 population of St Louis was 900,000. The website I worked from gave its 2003 population as 354,000. I had no idea St Louis’s vampire problem had gotten that bad before Anita Blake showed up!
Anyway, as I wrote, I didn’t spend too much time trying to find population figures that were contemporary with the actual games. I figured 2003 gave me a standard baseline and I could project back from that.
And yes, the 1904 Olympics was a pretty weak operation. But it’s recognized by the IOC and they’re the ones who make the call.
The 1970 population quoted is a 1970 population projected in 1947. It didn’t anticipate the vast deindustrialization and suburbanization that was to occur in the postwar era.
No matter really, just to say that St. Louis was a significantly larger and more important city in 1904 than it is today.
St. Louis city is a completely separate entity from St. Louis county, and as such, every stastic that mentions St. Louis must be taken with a grain of salt to see whether the study included just the city or the entire metro region. And as to what I understand, St. Louis was the 4th largest US city at the time of the olympics.
Here’s a link for more information about the St. Louis “olympics” and the rather embarrasing competition, along with many other useless stories.
St. Louis city is a completely separate entity from St. Louis county, and as such, every stastic that mentions St. Louis must be taken with a grain of salt to see whether the study included just the city or the entire metro region. And as to what I understand, St. Louis was the 4th largest US city at the time of the olympics.
Here’s a link for more information about the St. Louis “olympics” and the rather embarrasing competition, along with many other useless stories.
20 posts and already 2 double postings… looks like I’ll have to be more careful