Speaker 1: The nineteen oh four Summer Olympics in Saint Louis were
Speaker 1: an overwhelming success for the host nation. The United States
Speaker 1: absolutely dominated, claiming over two hundred medals, their closest competitors
Speaker 1: Germany one just fifteen. But years later, four of the
Speaker 1: medals won by the US were taken away. Obviously, it
Speaker 1: barely put a dent in their huge medal tally, but
Speaker 1: history had been rewritten. Nonetheless. As to why the Americans
Speaker 1: were stripped of these medals, well, I can tell you
Speaker 1: it wasn't for cheating, at least not in the way
Speaker 1: you're probably thinking. It turns out that the bloke who
Speaker 1: won these medals for the United States wasn't really an American. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm Tony Armstrong and you're listening to the ballroom. This
Speaker 1: is where we celebrate the winners, losers, and the weird
Speaker 1: stuff between the Olympics of nineteen oh four in Saint
Speaker 1: Louis would be unrecognizable today. It was the first Summer
Speaker 1: Olympics held outside of Europe and coincided with the World's Fair.
Speaker 1: The events span nearly five months from July to November.
Speaker 1: It featured sixteen official sports, including tug of war, basketball,
Speaker 1: baseball and American football were also showcased unofficially as demonstrations,
Speaker 1: and it was the first Olympics where gold, silver, and
Speaker 1: bronze medals were actually handed out. Francis Frank Gaily was
Speaker 1: a swimmer specializing in freestyle. He was twenty two years
Speaker 1: old and was sponsored by the Olympic Club of San
Speaker 1: Francisco to compete in the games. It was the only
Speaker 1: time in Olympic history that distances were measured in yards.
Speaker 1: The us of A never changed. Frank competed in four
Speaker 1: races and first up was the two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: yard freestyle. Now the swimming events were not like what
Speaker 1: we have today. No fancy indoor heated pool nah. This
Speaker 1: all went down in a man made lake and instead
Speaker 1: of diving blocks, swimmers were launching off a small wooden dock.
Speaker 1: There were boats in the water and crowds of people
Speaker 1: gathered along the bank to watch. Frank claimed the silver
Speaker 1: medal with a time of two minutes forty six, just
Speaker 1: two seconds behind American Charles Daniels. Next up the four
Speaker 1: hundred and forty yard freestyle. Frank was beaten again by Daniels,
Speaker 1: but still managed to come in second. There were only
Speaker 1: four competitors in both these events, but still a silver
Speaker 1: medal is a silver medal. The eight hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: yard freestyle followed. There were a whopping five swimmers this time,
Speaker 1: and Frank came away with another piece of silverware. Silver. Again,
Speaker 1: no sign of Charles Daniels, though maybe he was a
Speaker 1: bit tired. It was on the same day as the
Speaker 1: previous race, so the last of Frank's events was the
Speaker 1: one mile freestyle. Seven swimmers dived into the lake and
Speaker 1: three of them didn't finish. It was a tight race
Speaker 1: for the remaining swimmers, but Frank managed to claim bronze.
Speaker 1: Four medals all up and a solid contribution for the
Speaker 1: United States. But more than one hundred years later, the
Speaker 1: history books needed amending. In two thousand and nine, researchers
Speaker 1: from the Australian Olympic Committee were doing some digging when
Speaker 1: they discovered that Francis Frank Gaily was in fact an Australian.
Speaker 1: Apparently the record keeping wasn't very accurate back in the day,
Speaker 1: considering the world's fare was a mess and the Olympics
Speaker 1: were drawn out over five months and well, the paperwork
Speaker 1: must have been a nightmare. Thank goodness for historians. They
Speaker 1: learned that Frank was born in Queensland and had traveled
Speaker 1: to the USA and February of nineteen oh four. Because
Speaker 1: of his sponsorship from the San Francisco Olympic Club, he
Speaker 1: was mistaken for an American, an era that somehow survived
Speaker 1: for over a century. If only they'd picked up the
Speaker 1: San Francisco newspaper in June nineteen oh four, which reported
Speaker 1: on Frank Gailey's amateur world record with the headline mighty
Speaker 1: effort of Australian. The wild thing is Frank wasn't the
Speaker 1: only one whose nationality they got wrong. Because the USA
Speaker 1: had seen an influx of immigrants who were yet to
Speaker 1: become citizens, Several athletes were misidentified as Americans, like another Frank,
Speaker 1: for example, Frank Bozzoni, He was actually an Italian citizen.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's why so many medals were attributed to the USA, huh. Anyway,
Speaker 1: Once the findings were verified, Ossie Frank's achievements were officially
Speaker 1: added to Australia's overall medal itally nice. In nineteen oh six,
Speaker 1: Frank Gaily went back to North America, this time for good.
Speaker 1: He worked as a banker in California and met his
Speaker 1: wife while living in Ontario. By nineteen eighteen, he'd moved
Speaker 1: back to the US and settled down living the most
Speaker 1: Californian life imaginable, running an orange plantation. Eventually, he actually
Speaker 1: did become a US citizen, making his Olympic story just
Speaker 1: that little bit more complicated. If there's one thing us,
Speaker 1: as he's loved to do, it's claim champions as one
Speaker 1: of our own. But in Frank's case, he'll always be
Speaker 1: the kid from Brizzi. Thanks for joining me in the poolroom.
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode, but I'll catch you in
Speaker 1: the next one. I'm Tony Armstrong. Stay classy.