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Features - Reading and the Olympic Games

The following details Reading connections with the Olympic Games.

Roll of honour for Reading players

Year	Venue	Sport	Name	Medal
1908	London	Football	Herbert Smith
1912	Stockholm	Football	Ted Hanney
1980	Moscow	Athletics	Daley Thompson
1984	Los Angeles	Athletics	Daley Thompson

gold medal

silver medal

bronze medal

1908 - London

The 1908 Olympics saw the first official Olympic football tournament, and Great Britain were represented by the England amateur team which included Reading's Herbert Smith. Only six teams took part, two of which were from France, and Great Britain won the gold medal. Smith played in all Great Britain's games, as follows:

As an amateur, Smith was registered with more than one team at the same time but was still making occasional appearances for Reading at the time of the Olympic football tournament.

1912 - Stockholm

In the 1912 Olympic Games, the England amateur football team again represented Great Britain and again won the gold medal. This time the squad included Reading's Ted Hanney who played in the quarter-final, but was injured and did not appear in the semi-final or final:

In the same tournament, the Italian team was eliminated in the first round. Four of their players - Renzo De Vecchi, Giuseppe Milano, Pietro Leone and Felice Berardo - also played in the Italian national side that lost 2-0 to Reading in Turin a year later.

1920 - Antwerp

The Great Britain football team lost in the first round at the 1920 Games, but did again include a Reading player - Charlie ("C W") Harbridge - who played in the defeat:

Belgium won the gold medal, including in their team Louis van Hege, who had played against Reading for Milan during the 1913 tour of northern Italy.

1936 - Berlin

After 1920, Great Britain's next appearance in the Olympic Football tournament was in 1936. Although there was no Reading player in the squad, it did include Maurice Edelston who joined us in 1946. Edelston did not play in the quarter-final defeat to Poland, but did play in Great Britain's other game:

I have been unable to find out what stadium the match was played at, but it was not the Olympic stadium as only the semi-finals and medal matches were played there.

1948 - London

In 1948, the Great Britain Olympic football squad used Elm Park as their training ground and included Reading's Bill Amor. He played only in the third-placed match which ended in defeat, and so did not receive a medal. He did however score a goal, making him the only Reading player to do so at an Olympic Games:

The main Olympic Stadium for the 1948 games was Wembley Stadium. Reading have played there twice, winning the Full Members ("Simod") Cup Final in 1988 and losing the Division 1 play-off final in 1995.

1972 - Munich

This was the last Olympic games before the abolition of amateur football in England. Great Britain entered a team but they were unlucky to be drawn against Bulgaria in a two-legged tie in the preliminary qualifying round (Bulgaria, like other Eastern bloc countries at the time, claimed that none of their sportsmen were professionals and were therefore able to enter their strongest team). The Great Britain team, made up of genuine amateurs, played a series of warm-up matches including a 2-0 win over Reading at Elm Park on 11/1/1971. I've not seen the Great Britain Olympic XI line-up for any of those games, but I have seen the squad for four of the matches and Reading's Micky Mellows, the last amateur to play for the club, was not in the squad for any of them. He also did not play for Reading in the match between the two sides.

On 24/3/1971, Great Britain beat Bulgaria 1-0 at Wembley in the first leg of the preliminary round, and Mellows again did not play. However, he was in the squad for the next trial match that I know about (a defeat to Sunderland), definitely played in the next game (a defeat to Motherwell) and was then named in the 16-man squad that travelled to Sofia for the second leg. I don't know if he played or not, but Great Britain lost 5-0 and so did not progress to the next stage of the qualifying competition, or to the Olympic Games themseves in Munich.

A full list of what I know about the 1972 qualifying campaign and trial games is contained in the following table:

1976 - Montreal

Great Britain won only three gold medals in the 1976 Olympics, one of which was in the Modern Pentathlon team event. The three members of the team were Jim Fox, Danny Nightingale and Adrian Parker, although they were only awarded one gold medal between them. Fox was a soldier based at the Army garrison at Arborfield and appeared at a Reading game early in the 1976/77 season with the gold medal. He walked round the pitch with another British medallist from the Games, but I'm afraid I can't remember who that was (although it must have been one of the rowers who got a silver medal in either the eights or the double sculls).

In the decathlon, Daley Thompson made his first Olympic appearance finishing 18th. Thompson trained with Reading before the 1995/96 season began, and played in a first team friendly match.

1980 - Moscow

The Tory government disgracefully tried to withdraw the Great Britain team from the 1980 Olympics because they were held in the Soviet Union. Fortunately they did not get their way. This allowed Daley Thompson to win his first gold medal in the decathlon.

1984 - Los Angeles

For the 1984 and 1988 Olympics football tournaments, countries from Europe and America were allowed to field professionals as long a they had not previosuly participated in a World Cup. Canada appeared in the Los Angeles Olympics and former Reading player Bob Lenarduzzi played in all four of their games:

As you can see the venues were chosen from across the United States, rather than just in the Los Angeles area.

Presumably with the approval of the UK government, Daley Thompson was allowed to go to the Olympics held in the United States in 1984 and won his second gold medal in the decathlon.

1988 - Seoul

Bermuda entered the qualifiers for Seoul and as they had never played in a World Cup were able to pick their best players. So Shaun Goater may have played in their unsuccessful qualifying campaign, but I've been unable to verify this.

The 1988 Olympics saw Daley Thompson's final appearance, but he could only finish 4th in the decathlon.

1992 - Barcelona

By 1992, the Olympic football tournament rules had changed so that only Under-23s could take part (although squads were allowed three over-age players in the final tournament). Future Reading defender Elroy Kromheer played for the Dutch Olympic team at some point in his career. Holland did not qualify for the final tournament in 1988, 1992 or 1996 so he must have played in an unsuccessful qualifying campaign. Kromheer was born in 1970 so it was probably this Olympiad that he played a part in.

Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast Maria Petrova came 5th. The relevance to Reading? In 1998 she married our former goalkeeper Bobby Mikhailov.

1996 - Atlanta

Future Reading trialist goalkeeper Kelvin Jack certainly played for the Trinidad & Tobago Olympic football team at some stage, and I think it was most likely to be in qualification for the 1996 Games. His country did not make it through.

Maria Petrova again came 5th in the rhythmic gymnastics event. The result was controversial and Bulgarians believe that she was cheated out of a gold medal.

2000 - Sydney

Seol Ki-Hyeon, who later joined Reading, played in South Korea's qualifying campaign but was not in the squad for the Olympic Games in Sydney.

Three unsuccessful trialists with Reading took part in qualifying for the football tournament but none of their countries made it to the Olympic games. Hamed Kavianpour played for Iran, Winston Griffiths played for Jamaica, whilst Brian Quailey played and scored for St Kitts & Nevis.

2004 - Athens

The qualifying tournament for the two places available for CONCACAF nations at the Athens Olympics featured several players with Reading connections. Omar Daley, Shavar Thomas and Simieon Howell played for Jamaica who reached the last eight but then lost all three games in their group and so went no further. United States of America won their group but lost to hosts Mexico in the semi-final, and so also failed to make the Olympics. Bobby Convey played in all their games, scoring three goals.

Australia did qualify for the Olympics, but former Reading trialist Gareth Edds did not take part in the qualifying competition. He then played in some of their warm-up games for Athens, but did not make the squad for the tournament.

Ibrahima Sonko played for Senegal at least once in the qualifiers. He missed later games by deciding to play for Brentford instead, and Senegal failed to reach Athens. Former Reading youth goalkeeper Chad Harpur played for South Africa in a couple of games, and they also failed to qualify.

2008 - Beijing

Both Adam Federici (Australia) and Andre Bikey (Cameroon) are in the squad of their country for the Olympic football tournament.

Federici's tournament schedule:

Bikeyi's tournament schedule:

2012 - London

Madejski Stadium was one of 47 stadiums that put their names forward as a venue for the football tournament, but it did not make the list that went into the final bid. However, with London successfully gaining the Games, the stadium was put forward again. With the planned expansion it is possible that Reading may yet host a part of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Empire / Commonwealth Games

I'm sure I can come up with some more connections in future but here's a few as a start.

1954 - Vancouver

In 1954 the Games were called the British Empire and Commonwealth Games. Former Reading winger Jimmy Carr took part in the bowls tournament. I don't yet know whether he took part in the singles, doubles or fours, or how well he did, but I do know that he did not win a medal.

1978 - Edmonton

Daley Thompson won the gold medal in the decathlon.

1982 - Brisbane

Daley Thompson won the gold medal in the decathlon. He was asked to carry the England flag in the opening ceremony but turned down the opportunity because it would mean standing for over four hours.

1986 - Edinburgh

Daley Thompson won the gold medal in the decathlon and also a silver medal in the 4x100m..

2002 - Manchester

Rebecca Cooke won the gold medal in both the 400m and 800m freestyle. She also came 4th in the 400m individual medley final. And how do I justify her inclusion here? Easy - she drew the Golden Gamble prizes at half-time during Reading's 1-0 win over Cambridge United in September 2001. (And the following day she left the Reading area to begin training in Glasgow - I know because I was on the same train!)

2006 - Melbourne

Rebecca Cooke won the gold medal in the 800m freestyle and a silver medal in the 400m individual medley. She also came 7th in the 400m fresstyle final.

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