The 1904 Olympics took place in St Louis, USA. It consisted of only a third of the events that are held today. Most of them were even closed to female competitors. Moreover, because of travel difficulties and rising tensions around the Russo-Japanese war, only 62 international athletes competed, compared to the 11,544 that participated at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. St Louis kind of bullied their way into hosting the games after Chicago originally won the bid. Its main leverage – the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World’s Fair which was being held at the very same time. The two events ended up being combined into one very, very peculiar extravaganza.