At the 1908 Summer Olympics held in London, England, 26 athletics events were contested, all for men only. A total of 79 medals (27 gold, 27 silver, 25 bronze) were awarded.

Each nation was allowed to enter up to 12 competitors in most of the events. In the team races (the medley relay and the 3 mile team race), each nation entered one team. The medley relay was run by four athletes, with four alternates allowed. In the 3 mile team race, five athletes from each nation ran with only three counting.

The competition was restricted to amateurs, and was held under the rules of the Amateur Athletic Association. These rules included a prohibition on any interference with other runners (a rule that played an important part in the 400 metres).

Events

The 1908 Games were the first to feature race walking, with two different events held. Two different forms of javelin throwing also appeared, introducing the new throwing apparatus to the programme. The 60 metre short sprint was dropped from the programme, as was the middle hurdle distance. Steeplechasing was done at 3200 metres instead of the 2500 metres that had been included at the previous two editions; the team race also had its distance shortened. A short track relay event was added. The multi-discipline triathlon and decathlon events that had been experimented with at the 1904 Games were both absent, as was the 56 pound weight throw. An unusual event featuring the discus, which had become a staple of Olympic athletics, was held in which throwers had to follow a very specific throwing style. Overall there was one more event on the 1908 programme than there had been in 1904.

New:

• 3200 metre steeplechase
• Medley relay
• 3 mile team race
• 5 miles
• 3500 metre walk
• 10 mile walk
• Javelin throw
• Greek discus
• Freestyle javelin

Removed:

• 60 metres (1900–04)
• 200 metre hurdles (1900–04)
• 2500 metre steeplechase (1900–04)
• 4 mile team race (1904)
• Triathlon (1904)
• Decathlon (1904)
• Standing triple jump (1900–04)
• 56 pound weight throw (1904)

Medal summary

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
100 metres	Reggie Walker  South Africa	James Rector  United States	Robert Kerr  Canada
200 metres	Robert Kerr  Canada	Robert Cloughen  United States	Nate Cartmell  United States
400 metres	Wyndham Halswelle  Great Britain	none awarded	none awarded
800 metres	Mel Sheppard  United States	Emilio Lunghi  Italy	Hanns Braun  Germany
1500 metres	Mel Sheppard  United States	Harold Wilson  Great Britain	Norman Hallows  Great Britain
5 miles	Emil Voigt  Great Britain	Edward Owen  Great Britain	John Svanberg  Sweden
Marathon	Johnny Hayes  United States	Charles Hefferon  South Africa	Joseph Forshaw  United States
110 metres hurdles	Forrest Smithson  United States	John Garrels  United States	Arthur Shaw  United States
400 metres hurdles	Charles Bacon  United States	Harry Hillman  United States	Jimmy Tremeer  Great Britain
3200 metres steeplechase	Arthur Russell  Great Britain	Arthur Robertson  Great Britain	John Eisele  United States
Medley relay	United States (USA) William Hamilton Nate Cartmell John Taylor Mel Sheppard	Germany (GER) Arthur Hoffmann Hans Eicke Otto Trieloff Hanns Braun	Hungary (HUN) Pál Simon Frigyes Wiesner József Nagy Ödön Bodor
3 miles team race	Great Britain (GBR) William Coales Joe Deakin Arthur Robertson	United States (USA) George Bonhag John Eisele Herbert Trube	France (FRA) Joseph Dreher Louis de Fleurac Paul Lizandier
3500 metres walk	George Larner  Great Britain	Ernest Webb  Great Britain	Harry Kerr  Australasia
10 miles walk	George Larner  Great Britain	Ernest Webb  Great Britain	Edward Spencer  Great Britain
Long jump	Frank Irons  United States	Daniel Kelly  United States	Calvin Bricker  Canada
Triple jump	Tim Ahearne  Great Britain	Garfield MacDonald  Canada	Edvard Larsen  Norway
High jump	Harry Porter  United States	Géo André  France	none awarded
		Con Leahy  Great Britain
		István Somodi  Hungary
Pole vault	Edward Cook  United States	none awarded	Edward Archibald  Canada
			Clare Jacobs  United States
	Alfred Gilbert  United States
			Bruno Söderström  Sweden
Standing long jump	Ray Ewry  United States	Konstantinos Tsiklitiras  Greece	Martin Sheridan  United States
Standing high jump	Ray Ewry  United States	John Biller  United States	none awarded
		Konstantinos Tsiklitiras  Greece
Shot put	Ralph Rose  United States	Denis Horgan  Great Britain	John Garrels  United States
Discus throw	Martin Sheridan  United States	Merritt Giffin  United States	Bill Horr  United States
Hammer throw	John Flanagan  United States	Matt McGrath  United States	Con Walsh  Canada
Javelin throw	Eric Lemming  Sweden	Arne Halse  Norway	Otto Nilsson  Sweden
Greek discus	Martin Sheridan  United States	Bill Horr  United States	Verner Järvinen  Finland
Freestyle javelin	Eric Lemming  Sweden	Michalis Dorizas  Greece	Arne Halse  Norway

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	16	10	8	34
2	Great Britain & Ireland	7	7	3	17
3	Sweden	2	0	3	5
4	Canada	1	1	4	6
5	South Africa	1	1	0	2
6	Greece	0	3	0	3
7	Norway	0	1	2	3
8	France	0	1	1	2
	Germany	0	1	1	2
	Hungary	0	1	1	2
11	Italy	0	1	0	1
12	Australasia	0	0	1	1
	Finland	0	0	1	1
—	Austria	0	0	0	0
	Belgium	0	0	0	0
	Bohemia	0	0	0	0
	Denmark	0	0	0	0
	Netherlands	0	0	0	0
	Russian Empire	0	0	0	0
	Switzerland	0	0	0	0
*	Total medals	27	27	25	79

Participating nations

446 athletes from 20 nations competed. Argentina

and Turkey were the only two nations not to compete in athletics.

Calendar of the Games