"We hope that the next staging of the Olympic Games will substantially contribute to peace and the perfection of humanity".

Baron Pierre de Cuberten at the final ceremony of the Stockholm Games

Little did he know that these Games would be the last before the eruption of the WWI in August of 1914, and that the Germans would be the reason for the cancellation of the 1916 Games awarded to Berlin.

Nevertheless for the Stockholm Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin stated, "At last the Games have been completed the way I dreamed they would be".

The Swedish architect constructed a perfect stadium for 35.000 spectators, harmonious to the Olympic ideals and it proved inviting for the "upper" European classes of the time. The Baron was extremely proud of the fact that a Russian General traveled to the Games on a navy vessel.

In these Games, an American lieutenant participated in the modern pentathlon and received the fifth place while failing to score points in the shooting event. It was the last time in his career that he had lost in any event since. In WWII he led the allied forces against the Nazis and made a name for himself in history. The athlete was George Patton.

Jim Thorpe was another American athlete who surfaced to fame through his victory in the pentathlon and decathlon. The King of Sweden Gustav V addressed, Jim Thorpe as "the greatest athlete of the world" only to receive a humble "thank you sir" as a respond. The native American athlete whose real name was Wa Tho Huck had his medals taken away from him because he was charged as a professional athlete. The IOC decided to award the medals to the Norwegian and Swedish athletes that came in after him but they declined the award.