USA St.-Louis
III International Olympic Games

The Games of the III Olympiad were initiated in America by the Baron de Coubertin. Similarly to the previous Olympics, these Games were also held as part of the Universal Exposition, so they featured the same drawbacks of the Paris Games: the same mess and the same delays – the Games lasted for almost 5 months. And the press and spectators riveted more attention on the Exposition rather than on the Games. 
The participants of the Games totaled 651 athletes including 6 female ones, of 12 nations. Europe was represented by 39 athletes while the USA – by 533. The Russian-Japanese War and high expenses affected the number of participants. The athletes had played for 84 sets of medals in 18 sports. 
The St.-Louis Summer Olympics were the first games, at which the athletes were awarded winner medals for all three places. 
Officially, the Games of the III Olympiad were opened on June 1 1904 by David Francis, the President of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. There was no closing ceremony; instead there was a football match game between American teams. It was the last day of the Olympics.
Sponsors of the World’s Fair held so called «Anthropology Days». Various indigenous men from around the world (the Esquimau, Folipinos and Indians) competed in various events for anthropologists to see how they compared to the white man. After such plain racist demarche of the Olympics organizers, Pierre de Coubertin made the IOC avoid such event in future. As the St.-Louis Olympics finished, Pierre de Coubertin all the above considered declared that in future the Olympics would never coincide with other international events. 
As stated above, the athletes-winners of the III Olympiad were awarded the silver-gilt medal for the first place, silver medal for the second place and bronze medal for the third one. 
The winner medal was modified for the St-Louis Olympics – it was suspended from a ribbon attached to a suspension device with a pin clasp. In future, the tradition to award suspended medals was resurrected only at the 1960 Summer Olympics (originally suspended from bronze ribbon, later from tabby ribbons and metal chains). As from the Rome Olympics until the present this tradition was never broken with. 

OBVERSE: a nude athlete with a waistcloth. His left hand is raised to hail while the right hand holds a laurel wreath; figures of ancient athletes and Acropolis in the background, and caption in English “Olympiad” around the upper rim and imitative stone inscription “1904” underneath.
REVERSE: a scene of the Goddess of Victory standing on the globe and holding a winner laurel crown and palm leaf. There is a bust of Zeus (by Fidias) on the left of the goddess, and a laurel wreath with a sport nameplate inside it on the right. There are two English inscriptions – the upper two-line one reads: “Universal Exposition”, and the lower three-line one reads the city and country hosting the Olympics – “St.-Louis, U.S.A”. 

As stated above, the medal was suspended from a ribbon with a link, in turn the ribbon was attached to a suspension device made in the shape of a fortress wall with three towers – the central one for the date of the Olympics, the left one for the caduceus that is a symbol of Hermes, the god of fertility, and the right one for the winner laurel wreath. By this means, two events, the Universal Exposition and Olympiad, were symbolically combined on the Olympic medals.
Medals of the St.-Louis football tournament differed in design and size from other Olympic medals. The tournament celebrated from November 16 until 23 was a closing event of the Olympics. Two American and one Canadian teams were involved. Under the program, the teams were to play one match game with each other. However, due to a draw game between the USA teams they had to play one extra game. The Canadian team became a winner, while the USA teams received the silver and bronze medals.

PARTICIPATION MEDAL
OBVERSE: a nude athlete striding rightward and holding a laurel branch in his left hand, with the rising sun in the background, and English legend reading “Olympic Games St. Louis USA 1904”.
REVERSE: a composition of three shields, viz. of St.-Louis, state Louisiana and USA, ornamented with leaf garlands, and the year 1803 (the year of Louisiana accession to the United States; the Universal Exposition in St.-Louis was devoted to the centennial of this event). A six-line inscription on the medal reads in English: “Universal Exposition – Commemorating – The Olympic Games – 1904 – Physical Culture – Department”. Then follow signatures of Organizing Committee members. 

SILVER WINNER MEDAL (SECOND PRIZE)

Metal	Silver
Diameter	39 mm
Thickness	3 mm
Weight	17 g
Designer	Dieges and Clust Staff
Mint	Dieges and Clust (New York, USA)

BRONZE WINNER MEDAL (THIRD PRIZE)

Metal	bronze
Diameter	38 mm
Thickness	3 mm
Weight	17 g
Designer	Dieges and Clust Staff
Mint	Dieges and Clust (New York, USA)

PARTICIPATION MEDAL 

Metal	bronze
Height	40 mm
Width	40 mm
Thickness	3 mm
Weight	30 g
Mint	Dieges and Clust (New York, USA)