All-Around Championship, Men

The all-around was the early forerunner of the decathlon and consisted of ten events held in one day as follows: 100 yards, shot put, high jump, 880 yards, hammer throw, pole vault, 120 yard hurdles, 56 lb. weight throw, long jump and one mile run. Scoring was by point tables, but since in the sprints, times were only taken for the winner, the points for the others in the 100 and high hurdles were derived by estimating the distance they were behind the winner. For each foot behind the winner, seven pts. were deducted from the winner’s score in the 100, and five pts. in the hurdles. The event was held in July, as part of the gymnastics championships, rather than with the other track & field events.

This was expected to be a battle between the Irish champion, Tom Kiely, and the two-time U.S. champions, Ellery Clark and Adam Gunn. But Clark was ill his entire stay in St. Louis and he fell behind early before dropping out. Kiely was fifth after four events but then his great strength in the weight throws pulled him into the lead after the eighth event and he held on to win. The individual event marks for all competitors were below par, mostly due to the conditions as the all-around was contested on a day that it rained continuously and the track was noted to be flooded at various locations and muddy throughout.

There has been some controversy in the Journal of Olympic History as to whether this was an Olympic event. Decathlon expert Frank Zarnowski leads the naysayers, but the IOC continues to recognize this as an Olympic event. In addition, photos exist of Kiely’s medal, which contains the term “Olympic Games” above the ribbon holding the medal. A trophy was also made for Kiely to celebrate his victory which contains the term “Olympic Games, St. Louis, U.S.A.” on it.