Russian Empire at the 1908 Summer Olympics

The Russian Empire (Russia) competed at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, England. It was the second appearance of the European nation, after having missed the 1904 Games.

Russian Empire at the 1908 Summer Olympics
Flag of the Russian Empire
IOC code	RU1
NOC	Russian Olympic Committee
in London
Competitors	6 in 3 sports
Medals Ranked 12th	Gold 1 Silver 2 Bronze 0 Total 3
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
1900 1904 1908 1912
Other related appearances
Soviet Union (1952–1988)  Unified Team (1992)  Russia (1994–2016)  ROC (2020)  Individual Neutral Athletes (2024)

Late arrival of the shooting team

Some sources claim that the Russian shooting team was 13 days late to the Olympics due to the Russian Empire still using the Julian calendar as opposed to the rest of Europe, which used the Gregorian system.^[1] The official report does not mention Russia, and it does mention Italy and Australia as "absent".^[2] Other authors doubt of this claim, and underlie that Russia had been living next to Gregorian-calendar Europe for two centuries and was used to the difference ^[3]

Medalists

Further information: 1908 Summer Olympics medal table and List of 1908 Summer Olympics medal winners

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
Gold	Nikolai Panin	Figure skating	Men's special figures	October 29
Silver	Nikolay Orlov	Wrestling	Men's Greco-Roman lightweight	July 25
Silver	Aleksandr Petrov	Wrestling	Men's Greco-Roman super heavyweight	July 24

Results by event

Athletics

Main article: Athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics

Russia had one track & field athlete compete in 1908. Lind took 19th place of 27 finishers in the marathon.

Event	Place	Athlete	Heats	Semifinals	Final
Men's marathon	19th	Georg Lind[4]	None held		3:26:38.8

Figure skating

Main article: Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympics

Event	Place	Skater	Score
Men's individual	—	Nikolai Panin	Did not finish
Men's special figures	1st	Nikolai Panin	43.8

Wrestling

Main article: Wrestling at the 1908 Summer Olympics

Event	Place	Wrestler	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarter- finals	Semi- finals	Final
Greco-Roman lightweight	2nd	Nikolay Orlov	Bye	Defeated Lund	Defeated Radvány	Defeated Lindén	Lost to Porro
Greco-Roman middleweight	9th	Georgy Demin	Bye	Lost to Frank	Did not advance
Greco-Roman light heavyweight	9th	Yevgeny Zamotin	Bye	Lost to Payr	Did not advance
Greco-Roman heavyweight	2nd	Aleksandr Petrov	None held		Defeated Humphreys	Defeated Payr	Lost to Weisz

Opponent nation	Wins	Losses	Percent
Finland	1	0	1.000
Great Britain	1	0	1.000
Hungary	2	2	.500
Italy	0	1	.000
Sweden	1	1	.500
Total	5	4	.556

Notes

1. Keown, Eric (1949). Lemon, Mark (ed.). "[unknown]". Punch. 217: 35. Retrieved 28 June 2024. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
2. "Official Report 1908 page 295". digital.la84.org. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
3. "Was Russia really late for the Olympics in 1908? (It won medals anyway!)". www.rbth.com. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
4. Georg Lind was actually a Latvian living in London.

Sources

• Cook, Theodore Andrea (1908). The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report. London: British Olympic Association.
• De Wael, Herman (2001). "Top London 1908 Olympians". Herman's Full Olympians. Archived from the original on 12 July 2006. Retrieved 10 June 2006.