About the Games
American Thomas Hicks won the marathon after Fred Lorz, who had finished first, was disqualified. Soon after the finish, it was discovered that Lorz had cheated and driven most of the distance.
At the Games of the III Olympiad, for the first and only time, two "anthropological days" were held – competitions for "uncivilized peoples," about which the official exhibition handbook stated: "Representatives of savage and uncivilized tribes showed themselves to be weak athletes, proving that their abilities are clearly overestimated." Coubertin harshly condemned this "event."
Off the program of the Games of the III Olympiad, America showed Europe its invention – basketball. A team from Buffalo won the tournament among five American clubs.
