IT SHOULD BE NOTED that much of the knowledge of the early days of the modern Olympics is not officially documented, so it has taken many years of research by many noted historians to come up with “most likely” versions of what happened. And not all the historians agree. So if you find that some of the data presented here disagrees with what you might find elsewhere, it’s possible that neither source is definitively right or wrong. What we have done is attempt to present as mainstream-yet-reputable a version as possible. Bill Mallon, Mark Butler and Ekkehard zur Megede are three of the most important names who should be singled out for their contributions in this area.
Lengthy doping case adjudication and retroactive testing have led to many disqualifications from the ’08 and ’12 Games; until “the dust settles,” these compilations do not reflect all of those changes.