The Mistaken American

The United States absolutely dominated the 1904 Summer Games in St. Louis, claiming over 200 medals. Their closest competitors, Germany, won just 15. But it turns out, some of those medals attributed to the USA weren't actually won by Americans. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
The nineteen oh four Summer Olympics in Saint Louis were
an overwhelming success for the host nation. The United States
absolutely dominated, claiming over two hundred medals, their closest competitors
Germany one just fifteen. But years later, four of the
medals won by the US were taken away. Obviously, it

(00:29):
barely put a dent in their huge medal tally, but
history had been rewritten. Nonetheless. As to why the Americans
were stripped of these medals, well, I can tell you
it wasn't for cheating, at least not in the way
you're probably thinking. It turns out that the bloke who
won these medals for the United States wasn't really an American. Hey,

(00:57):
I'm Tony Armstrong and you're listening to the ballroom. This
is where we celebrate the winners, losers, and the weird
stuff between the Olympics of nineteen oh four in Saint

(01:26):
Louis would be unrecognizable today. It was the first Summer
Olympics held outside of Europe and coincided with the World's Fair.
The events span nearly five months from July to November.
It featured sixteen official sports, including tug of war, basketball,

(01:48):
baseball and American football were also showcased unofficially as demonstrations,
and it was the first Olympics where gold, silver, and
bronze medals were actually handed out. Francis Frank Gaily was
a swimmer specializing in freestyle. He was twenty two years
old and was sponsored by the Olympic Club of San

(02:09):
Francisco to compete in the games. It was the only
time in Olympic history that distances were measured in yards.
The us of A never changed. Frank competed in four
races and first up was the two hundred and twenty
yard freestyle. Now the swimming events were not like what

(02:33):
we have today. No fancy indoor heated pool nah. This
all went down in a man made lake and instead
of diving blocks, swimmers were launching off a small wooden dock.
There were boats in the water and crowds of people
gathered along the bank to watch. Frank claimed the silver
medal with a time of two minutes forty six, just

(02:54):
two seconds behind American Charles Daniels. Next up the four
hundred and forty yard freestyle. Frank was beaten again by Daniels,
but still managed to come in second. There were only
four competitors in both these events, but still a silver
medal is a silver medal. The eight hundred and eighty

(03:15):
yard freestyle followed. There were a whopping five swimmers this time,
and Frank came away with another piece of silverware. Silver. Again,
no sign of Charles Daniels, though maybe he was a
bit tired. It was on the same day as the
previous race, so the last of Frank's events was the

(03:37):
one mile freestyle. Seven swimmers dived into the lake and
three of them didn't finish. It was a tight race
for the remaining swimmers, but Frank managed to claim bronze.
Four medals all up and a solid contribution for the
United States. But more than one hundred years later, the
history books needed amending. In two thousand and nine, researchers

(04:04):
from the Australian Olympic Committee were doing some digging when
they discovered that Francis Frank Gaily was in fact an Australian.
Apparently the record keeping wasn't very accurate back in the day,
considering the world's fare was a mess and the Olympics
were drawn out over five months and well, the paperwork

(04:25):
must have been a nightmare. Thank goodness for historians. They
learned that Frank was born in Queensland and had traveled
to the USA and February of nineteen oh four. Because
of his sponsorship from the San Francisco Olympic Club, he
was mistaken for an American, an era that somehow survived

(04:45):
for over a century. If only they'd picked up the
San Francisco newspaper in June nineteen oh four, which reported
on Frank Gailey's amateur world record with the headline mighty
effort of Australian. The wild thing is Frank wasn't the
only one whose nationality they got wrong. Because the USA

(05:08):
had seen an influx of immigrants who were yet to
become citizens, Several athletes were misidentified as Americans, like another Frank,
for example, Frank Bozzoni, He was actually an Italian citizen.
Maybe that's why so many medals were attributed to the USA, huh. Anyway,

(05:31):
Once the findings were verified, Ossie Frank's achievements were officially
added to Australia's overall medal itally nice. In nineteen oh six,
Frank Gaily went back to North America, this time for good.
He worked as a banker in California and met his
wife while living in Ontario. By nineteen eighteen, he'd moved

(05:52):
back to the US and settled down living the most
Californian life imaginable, running an orange plantation. Eventually, he actually
did become a US citizen, making his Olympic story just
that little bit more complicated. If there's one thing us,
as he's loved to do, it's claim champions as one

(06:15):
of our own. But in Frank's case, he'll always be
the kid from Brizzi. Thanks for joining me in the poolroom.

(06:42):
That's it for this episode, but I'll catch you in
the next one. I'm Tony Armstrong. Stay classy.