Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,805
"The Great Competition"...
On September 14, 1901, at the Royal Albert Hall in London ...
... the first competition for bodybuilders that history knows is taking place! Of course, only men are allowed!
"The Great Competition", as the event is generally called, was invented and organized by a bodybuilder himself, namely by the British Eugen Sandow ...
... which is no longer active and publishes a specialist magazine about this sport.
It took Sandow three years to prepare the event!
It begins with a kind of state act:
In honor of US President William McKinley, who was fatally injured in an assassination attempt on September 6 ...
... (and will just die during the competition, which is not yet known in London!) ...
... parading the Irish Guards ...:
Then 60 participants from almost every country in Europe perform in front of 15,000 enthusiastic spectators ...
... which are gradually reduced to 12 finalists by a jury of three men based on the criteria "uniformity of general growth, general development, condition and tone of the tissue, and general health of the skin", as we can see in the following picture ...:
The winner of the competiton, William Murray from Nottingham…
... receives the amount of 1,000 guineas (at that time about $ 5,000) and a golden statue of the organizer, Eugen Sandow ....
In second place comes a D. Cooper - unfortunately history has forgotten where he came from. Cooper can look forward to a silver statue and the amount of 500 guineas.
The third-placed, Mr. A.C. Smythe from Middlesex, got a statue too, in bronze - but no money.
Here we see the three winners together with the organizer Eugen Sandow. The statues they won are on the table ...
And that could mean the end of today's story - but it's not, because there is still something interesting to report about the jury:
It consisted of three by no means unknown people: First of all, of course, Eugen Sandow, who was certainly a specialist - and whose vote was decisive if there was any equality.
Second juror was Sir Charles Lawes ...
... a well-known sculptor and amateur athlete at the time, who created the original of the statue for the winners.
And the third juror was none other than the doctor and writer Dr. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ...
... the inventor of "Sherlock Holmes" and "Doctor Watson"!
Here we see Sir Arthur in the light-colored trousers between the other two jurors ...:
On September 14, 1901, at the Royal Albert Hall in London ...
... the first competition for bodybuilders that history knows is taking place! Of course, only men are allowed!
"The Great Competition", as the event is generally called, was invented and organized by a bodybuilder himself, namely by the British Eugen Sandow ...
... which is no longer active and publishes a specialist magazine about this sport.
It took Sandow three years to prepare the event!
It begins with a kind of state act:
In honor of US President William McKinley, who was fatally injured in an assassination attempt on September 6 ...
... (and will just die during the competition, which is not yet known in London!) ...
... parading the Irish Guards ...:
Then 60 participants from almost every country in Europe perform in front of 15,000 enthusiastic spectators ...
... which are gradually reduced to 12 finalists by a jury of three men based on the criteria "uniformity of general growth, general development, condition and tone of the tissue, and general health of the skin", as we can see in the following picture ...:
The winner of the competiton, William Murray from Nottingham…
... receives the amount of 1,000 guineas (at that time about $ 5,000) and a golden statue of the organizer, Eugen Sandow ....
In second place comes a D. Cooper - unfortunately history has forgotten where he came from. Cooper can look forward to a silver statue and the amount of 500 guineas.
The third-placed, Mr. A.C. Smythe from Middlesex, got a statue too, in bronze - but no money.
Here we see the three winners together with the organizer Eugen Sandow. The statues they won are on the table ...
And that could mean the end of today's story - but it's not, because there is still something interesting to report about the jury:
It consisted of three by no means unknown people: First of all, of course, Eugen Sandow, who was certainly a specialist - and whose vote was decisive if there was any equality.
Second juror was Sir Charles Lawes ...
... a well-known sculptor and amateur athlete at the time, who created the original of the statue for the winners.
And the third juror was none other than the doctor and writer Dr. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ...
... the inventor of "Sherlock Holmes" and "Doctor Watson"!
Here we see Sir Arthur in the light-colored trousers between the other two jurors ...:
