Tug-of-War, Men

The tug-of-war competition was held inside the Panathenaic Stadium, on the infield of the track. In 1906, it was conducted as part of the track and field program. The newspapers documented that the competitions were highly watched and greatly anticipated by spectators in the stadium. Although it may have been exciting to the spectators, the competing nations apparently gave little thought to the tug-of-war. Most of them simply selected a team to compete in this competition by choosing their strongest athletes from among their gymnasts and weight throwers in the track and field event. It is known that the winning German team, for instance, was only selected on the boat (Trieste) traveling from Italy to Greece just prior to the start of the Olympic Games.