This summer, athletes from around the globe are gathering in France for the chance to represent their countries as the best of the best. But this is not the first time Paris has hosted these renowned events. Exactly one hundred years ago, sports champions were making headlines with victories of their own.
Perhaps the most famous of these are names you may recognize. Eric Lidell and Harold Abrahams were two British runners whose stories of conviction and resilience inspired the 1981 film Chariots of Fire. Or you might be familiar with the “Flying Finns,” Paavo Nurmi and Ville Ritola, running celebrities even before they beat the competition in a collective nine events (Nurmi won five himself, becoming the first to do so in a single year).
But some athletes, lesser-known or forgotten, have their own incredible tales to tell from Paris 1924.
Richard Norris Williams – Tennis, U.S.A.
More than a decade before he competed in Paris, Richard Norris Williams and his father, Charles, were passengers aboard the ill-fated RMS Titanic. Charles would not survive the disaster—Williams watched one of the ship’s huge funnels crash into the water where his father swam, mere feet away.
Williams was fortunate to be rescued, but frostbite had damaged his legs. Doctors recommended amputation. It was news the tennis champion refused to accept. He paced the deck of the rescue boat every two hours until feeling came tingling back into his limbs.
In Paris 1924, with several more championship wins to his name, Williams and his partner Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman achieved ultimate victory in the mixed doubles tournament. The win was a testament to human will, and triumph after tragedy.
Williams died in 1968 at age seventy-seven and was laid to rest in Philadelphia’s Old Saint David’s Church Cemetery.
William “DeHart” Hubbard – Long jump, U.S.A.
DeHart Hubbard’s high school athletic performance caught the eye of University of Michigan alumnus Lon Barringer, who reached out to Michigan’s head of athletics, Fielding Yost, on Hubbard’s behalf. Yost barred Black players from joining Michigan’s football team but made a rare exception for Hubbard, one of the few Black athletes he allowed in non-team sports.
Hubbard fully lived up to the faith of his supporters. A stellar university career earned him a place on the U.S. team in Paris 1924, where he qualified for the long jump and triple jump (reportedly there were other events in which, as a Black man, he was not permitted to compete).
With a long jump distance of 24 feet 5 inches, he was literal leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. His jump clinched the win and made Hubbard the first African American ever to win gold in an individual event. It was a huge accomplishment in itself, and certainly a historic one at a time when rules and prejudice kept many Black athletes out of sports altogether.
Hubbard went on to set a long jump world record at the 1925 NCAA championship (and tied the record for the 100-yard dash). And in 1928, he once again qualified to represent team U.S.A. in Amsterdam.
Hubbard was laid to rest in Highland Park Cemetery in Ohio. For his contributions to his sport, he was posthumously inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor, as well as the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. An athletic scholarship was created in his honor in 2010.
Alice Walker – Fencing, Great Britain
Paris 1924 saw the first appearance of a women’s fencing event, and one of its competitors was British foil fighter Alice Walker.
Walker wrote extensively about women’s fencing, a favorite subject that she staunchly defended. In the early decades of the 20th century, the public was slowly growing out of the belief that women were too weak for physical activity. But the sentiment still lingered. Walker insisted that, as sports go, it was a good one for both health and happiness—and she was sure to clarify that despite the supposed masculinity of fencing, women would be able to retain their “womanliness.”
It must have been a thrill for Walker to see fencing added to the Paris lineup in 1924. At that time, Walker was forty-eight years old and on the waning end of her foil fighting years. But that didn’t stop her from continuing to challenge perceptions as one of twenty-six women fencers who competed for gold.
While Walker did not advance beyond her starting pool, her influence was clear in the presence of her teammates. Many of them were there at all because they’d first been inspired by her writing.
Johnny Weissmuller – Swimming, U.S.A.
You know Tarzan’s characteristic yodeling yell? That’s thanks in part to Johnny Weissmuller, who today is remembered primarily for his acting career. He played the titular role in 1932’s Tarzan the Ape Man, which first featured the sound that has stuck with Tarzan to this day.
But eight years before he became “King of the Apes,” Weissmuller was in Paris, wowing the world as a team U.S.A. swimmer. He broke records with his wins in the 100-meter and 400-meter freestyles, then secured a third gold with his team in the 4×200-meter relay.
By the time he retired from swimming at age thirty-six, Weissmuller had won five golds, broken sixty-seven world records, and never lost a race. His acting career took him through twelve Tarzan movies, sixteen Jungle Jim movies, and twenty-six episodes on the Jungle Jim TV show before his retirement in 1957.
At his 1984 burial in Cementerio Valle de la Luze in Acapulco de Juarez, Mexico, Weissmuller was honored with a 21-gun salute. And perhaps more personally, he was lowered into his grave to a recording of his distinctive Tarzan yell, played three times by his own request.
These are just a few of the thousands of stories lived by the roster of athletes who found themselves in Paris one hundred years ago. More can be found in this search, if you’re interested to dive into more sports history research.
What are some of your favorite stories from past competitions? Or perhaps you have some athletes in your family history with inspiring tales of their own? Let us know!