The 1924 Paris Olympics, which opened 100 years ago this week, marked a turning point for the event. That year saw the Olympics adopt a new motto – "Faster, Higher, Stronger" – and begin their transformation into the elite sporting spectacle they are today.
1924 was the year the Olympics came of age.
The modern Games were less than three decades old at the time and organisers were still in the process of defining them.
The official motto the International Olympic Committee (IOC) adopted that year – Citius, Altius, Fortius, Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger" – revealed what it hoped the event would become: a place not just to play games, but to break records.
National committees were becoming more numerous the world over, and more selective. The first time Paris had hosted the Games, in 1900, 26 countries sent around 1,200 competitors. In 1924, more than 3,000 athletes from 44 countries descended on Paris, many of them only after proving themselves domestic champions in national try-outs.
Meanwhile organisers were refining the list of events. Gone was the tug-of-war, military pistol shooting and equestrian vaulting, leaving disciplines like athletics, aquatics and gymnastics to take centre stage.
Some hangovers from another age remained: rope climbing and tandem cycling, for instance, not to mention the arts portion of the competition that saw painters, sculptors, musicians, writers and architects vie for medals.
Nor did the local specialties that France chose to showcase take off. The French combat sports la canne and savate, which involve whacking an opponent with a cane and kicking them respectively, never made it out of the demonstration programme.
Other innovations were more successful. 1924 saw the construction of the world's first Olympic Village, after IOC president Pierre de Coubertin lobbied to provide athletes – previously left to their own devices – with food and lodging.
A collection of wooden huts on the north-western outskirts of Paris, the village lacked today's comforts but did provide bathrooms, a cafeteria, a post office, a newsagent and a hairdresser.
Games of legend
Paris hosted more athletes than any city before it, with countries as far-flung as Ecuador, the Philippines, Uruguay and China sending delegations for the first time (though the four Chinese sportsmen pulled out before the competition started).
The performances drew crowds of up to 60,000 a day, unprecedented at the time.
The world's media was watching too. Over 1,000 journalists got accreditation to cover the Games, including on the radio – another Olympic first.
The new attention made global superstars of some competitors, chief among them Johnny Weissmuller.
Before he went on to play Tarzan in a string of Hollywood films, the charismatic 20-year-old won three gold medals for the US in swimming and a bronze in water polo – as well as charming the crowds silly by clowning around on the diving board between races.
The 1924 Games made other Olympic heroes too. Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi was already an Olympic champion, but it was his achievements in Paris that propelled him into legend.
Preternaturally focused – he was known for running with a stopwatch in hand to keep his pace to the millisecond – Nurmi won five gold medals, two of them in the same afternoon (having come first in the 1,500 metres, he promptly set off to win the 5,000 metres less than an hour later).
He even made it unscathed through the cross country, an event so disastrous it has never featured at an Olympics since. The race took place in a heat wave of over 40 degrees Celsius, resulting in almost half the runners passing out or giving up.
In the sprints, two British runners stole the show: Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, whose stories inspired the 1981 film Chariots of Fire.
Against all expectations, they beat the American favourites to gold in the 100 metres and 400 metres respectively (Liddell, a devout Christian, famously refused to take part in the heats for the 100m dash because they were scheduled on a Sunday).
It would be their only Olympics. Both men had retired from competition within a year, Liddell to become a theologian and Abrahams with a broken leg.
Overlooked Olympians
Other athletes weren't in the same spotlight, but made history just the same.
DeHart Hubbard of the US became the first black sportsman to win an individual Olympic gold after coming first in the long jump, despite having badly injured his foot in the trials.
Athletes of colour were scarce in the early years of the Games – as were women.
Sportswomen had had to battle the prejudices of gatekeepers like de Coubertin – who believed women's competitions were "uninteresting and unsightly" – to get an entry at all, and in 1924 they remained limited to swimming, diving, tennis and, for the first time, fencing.
Among the women who stood out in Paris were Ethel Lackie, Martha Norelius, Mariechen Wehselau, Gertrude Ederle and the other members of the US swim team, who took 10 medals and set seven new records between them.
Notably, their win in the freestyle relay smashed the previous world record by nearly 13 seconds.
While France's most famous sportswoman of the time, tennis trailblazer Suzanne Lenglen, was out of action due to illness, her regular doubles partner Julie Vlasto won silver in the singles.
Gold went to Helen Wills of the US who, at 19, was on the cusp of becoming the most dominant player since Lenglen.
Meanwhile Ellen Osiier of Denmark won the first ever Olympic gold for women's fencing.
A century's legacy
A lot has changed since Paris last hosted the Games. Athletes have become faster, costs higher, and the world's interest stronger.
Sport has also got fairer. This year will see equal numbers of women and men compete for the first time in Olympic history.
But in other respects, the organisers of Paris 2024 are looking backwards. Like the 1924 Games, which took place largely on the city outskirts, this edition is also seeking to involve the suburbs.
The stadium in north-western Colombes that hosted the feats of Hubbard, Liddell, Abrahams and Nurmi has been renovated for the occasion and will host the hockey this summer.
Meanwhile the pool on the north-east edge of Paris in which Weissmuller and Lackie won gold will be where this year's swimmers train.
