Tag Archives: track and field

Ahead by a Century: remembering the Paris 1924 Olympics

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Version française

By Sali Lafrenie

Picture it. Paris, 1924.

You’re at the Summer Olympic Games. And there are roughly 3,000 other athletes there with you.

What sport are you playing? Tennis? Maybe soccer? Basketball? Oh wait, is it aquatics? Athletics? No, boxing? Well, whatever it is, I bet you’re excited. You should be: Team Canada only sent 65 competitors, and this is the first time the Games are going to be broadcast live on the radio!

A black and white panoramic photograph of an outdoor stadium with hundreds of athletes.

General view of the Stadium of Colombes at the beginning of the 1924 Olympic Games (e011783298).

Considered to be the most successful of the Modern Games, the 1924 Summer Games in Paris looked very different from the Olympics that we know and love today. For starters, there were only 17 sports included in these Games. Five sports had been dropped from the previous iteration in 1920, with others included solely for demonstration or exhibition purposes.

Playing host for a third time, Paris 2024 will see Canada send 338 athletes to compete. The Games boast a whopping 32 sports, doubling the number of sports included at the 1924 Olympics.

In honour of the centenary, let’s dive into the 1924 Olympic Games!

1924 Winter Olympics

Did you know that when France bid to host the Summer Olympics in 1924, they accidentally started a new trend? That trend was the Winter Olympic Games.

The practice of hosting the Summer and Winter Games in the same year—sometimes in the same country—continued until 1992 when the International Olympic Committee decided to shift the Games to an alternating two-year schedule.

Before 1924, the Olympics only consisted of summer sports and did not have a winter sports equivalent. But there’s always a first. Hosted in Chamonix, France from January 25 to February 5, 1924, 260 athletes competed across 16 events. This means that 2024 is also the 100-year anniversary of the first Winter Olympic Games.

While Canada only sent 12 athletes to these Games—collectively earning a singular medal—there’s more to the story than that. The Chamonix Olympics was just the beginning for these athletes and the Canadian Winter Olympic Team, which had a roster of 215 athletes in 2022.

Charles “Charlie” Gorman, New Brunswicker and First World War Veteran, was one of these athletes. He made his Olympic debut in speed skating alongside the debut of the sport itself. Despite a disappointing finish in the 1924 Games, Gorman competed and won medals for Team Canada in numerous competitions, such as the American Championships, the Canadian Championships, and the World Championships.

A black and white photograph of a man speed skating and looking directly at the camera.

Photo of Charles Gorman speed skating (a050382).

Cecil Smith Hedstrom also made history at these Olympic Games when she became the first female Olympian to represent Canada. Competing in figure skating, Smith appeared in three Olympic Games and achieved many early feats to propel Canadian figure skating onto the world stage. For all these reasons and more, Smith was inducted into the Skate Canada Hall of Fame in 1991.

Earning the only medal for Team Canada at the Chamonix Games, the Toronto Granites Hockey Club won Canada’s first Winter Olympic gold medal. With this win, the Granites extended Canada’s Olympic ice hockey medal streak, initiated in 1920 by the Winnipeg Falcons who won gold in Antwerp. While ice hockey made its debut in the Antwerp Games, that was the first and last time the sport was included in the Summer Olympics. This means that Canada is the only country to have won a gold medal in ice hockey at both the Summer and the Winter Olympic Games.

A black and white photograph of a men’s hockey team standing on the ice holding hockey sticks.

Winnipeg Falcons, Olympic Champions (a049622).

1924 Summer Olympics

While all Olympic Games are important, the 1924 Summer Games had a special glow to it: live radio transmissions, the introduction of the Athlete’s Village, and the debut of the Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, Stronger.”  The Modern Games ushered in a new era of international sports competitions that has only continued to expand in size and spectacle since 1924.

One of the greatest success stories of the 1924 Olympics comes from a group of athletes who technically were not a part of the Games: the Edmonton Grads. Although basketball was not officially included in the Olympics—men’s basketball would join in 1936 and women’s basketball would join in 1976—the Fédération sportive féminine internationale (FSFI) decided to hold their own matches alongside the Summer Games.

At home and abroad, the Grads were a difficult team to beat. They won approximately 95% of all the games they ever played and won the FSFI women’s basketball tournaments in 1924, 1928, and 1936.

Two black and white photographs of a group of female athletes. The first photograph has nine women standing in a line with one holding a basketball. The second photograph has nine women posing in two rows with a man standing in the middle of the back row.

Team photos of the Edmonton Grads in 1924 and 1936 (a050440) and (a050442).

Making his Olympic debut, Canadian hurdler Warren “Monty” Montabone soared onto the world stage in Paris 1924 and then again in Amsterdam 1928. In between Olympic appearances, Monty also set a Canadian record that stood for 58 years in the 110 m hurdles event. His athletic career can be traced beyond the Olympics all the way back to his time as a student athlete at Loyola and as an amateur athlete with the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association.

Another athlete who made his Olympic debut in 1924 is Victor Pickard, the pole vaulter and javelin thrower. Pickard represented Canada at two Olympic Games (1924 and 1928) and won a gold medal in pole vaulting at the British Empire Games in 1930. During his athletic career, Pickard’s highest jump at the Olympics was 3.45 m, but his personal best was 4.15 m. Today, the Canadian pole vault record stands at 6.00 m and the world pole vault record stands at 6.24 m.

Two black and white photographs of a male pole vaulter. The first shows a man jumping over a bar with a vaulting pole. The second shows a man holding a vaulting pole horizontally before beginning to run.

Victor Pickard at the 1924 Olympics (a151000) and (a151014).

While every Olympic Games is different, they always guarantee two things: excitement and excellence. Whether that’s through record-breaking performances, making a political statement or rallying around an athlete in need, the Olympics have got something for everyone. The Games have come to symbolize a lot more than just fair play, athleticism, and national identity. They’re a cultural moment. They bring people together in bars, in living rooms, and in schools. They’re history in the making and they’re just getting started.

Additional Resources

Sali Lafrenie is a Portfolio Archivist in the Private Archives Branch at Library and Archives Canada.

“The Man of Bronze”: Olympic athlete Dr. Phil Edwards

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Version française

By Dalton Campbell

Dr. Philip Aron “Phil” Edwards earned five Olympic bronze medals in the 1920s and 1930s. It was the most career Olympic medals won by a Canadian athlete to that point and a Canadian record that would stand for 70 years.

Male athletes competing in a race.

Phil Edwards crossing the finish line, 1928 Olympics (a150990)

Nicknamed “The Man of Bronze,” his specialty was the middle distance. He finished on the podium at three Olympic Games: the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics (4 × 400 metre relay), the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics (800 m, 1500 m and 4 × 400 m relay) and the 1936 Berlin Olympics (800 m).

In 1936, he was the inaugural winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canadian athlete of the year.

Edwards was born in Guyana (then called British Guiana). As a young man, he moved to the United States, studying at New York University and competing in track. But his British citizenship prevented him from joining the U.S. Olympic team. Edwards was invited to join the Canadian Olympic team for the 1928 Games. In 1931, he moved to Canada and enrolled at McGill University, where he joined the track team.

A group of male athletes competing in a race.

Phil Edwards leading the field, 1932 Olympics (a150989)

Edwards was the first Black Canadian to win an Olympic medal. He was one of few Black Canadian Olympians in the first half of the 20th century, along with John Armstrong Howard, Sam Richardson and Ray Lewis, who won bronze with Edwards on the Canadian relay team at the 1932 Olympics.

Edwards had an extraordinary year and a half in 1935–36. He led McGill to a fifth consecutive Canadian university track title in the autumn of 1935. Before the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, he completed his medical studies, becoming one of the first Black graduates from the McGill medical program. The Globe and Mail reported that he was named co-captain and associate physician of the 1936 Canadian Olympic team. At year’s end, he won an unofficial triple crown when he was named Canadian athlete of the year, Canadian amateur athlete of the year and Canadian Press male athlete of the year.

Edwards won bronze in Berlin, where he ran in the face of open racial hostility from Germany’s Nazi government, which saw the Olympic Games as a propaganda showcase for its racist ideas. He was among the Black athletes who won medals, which included U.S. track stars Jesse Owens and Mackenzie “Mack” Robinson, older brother of Jackie Robinson.

On the return trip to Canada, the team was booked in a hotel in London, England. Edwards was refused a room, so the rest of the team decided to leave the hotel and find accommodations where their teammate would be accepted.

Dr. Edwards’ medical specialty was tropical and chest diseases. In 1937, he was appointed resident house surgeon at Barbados General Hospital. He served with the Canadian Army as a captain during the Second World War. After the war, he studied at McGill and practised at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montréal, where he would become head of the parasitology department. He worked with the Red Cross program in Congo in 1960.

Several male athletes competing in a race.

Phil Edwards, second from left, competing at the 1932 Olympics (a150988)

He managed British Guiana’s (now Guyana) Olympic team at the 1956 Olympics, held in Melbourne, Australia.

His record for most Olympic medals by a Canadian—five—was unbeaten for 70 years. In 2002, speed skater Marc Gagnon matched this achievement. In 2006, speed skater Cindy Klassen earned her sixth Olympic medal, breaking the record. In 2010, speed skater and cyclist Clara Hughes also earned a sixth medal.

Edwards died in 1971, just short of his 64th birthday. He was survived by his wife, three daughters and two siblings. The Phil A. Edwards Memorial Trophy, named in his honour, has been awarded annually to the top Canadian track athlete since 1972. In 1997, Dr. Phil Edwards was elected to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Additional resources

  • Photograph of Edwards celebrating with Canadian sprinter Percy Williams, 1928 (a150983)
  • Radio program featuring Edwards, “Trans-Canada Matinee” (ISN 382550)
  • Interview with Edwards and other Canadian athletes, “Crysdale and Company” (ISN 382973)
  • File on Edwards, Stanley Grizzle fonds (MIKAN 3728970)
  • Video of 1932 Olympics (ISN 385532, 331681)
  • Video of 1936 Olympics (ISN 191253, 300159)
  • Highlights of 1932 Olympics (ISN 447089)
  • Footage of 1932 and 1936 Olympics (ISN 300321)
  • Highlights and footage of 1936 Olympics (ISN 191253, 300159, 33542)
  • Rapid Ray: The Story of Ray Lewis, by John Cooper (OCLC 49047597)

Dalton Campbell is an archivist in the Science, Environment and Economy section of the Private Archives Division at Library and Archives Canada.