Miss Russian Olympians

In the summer of 1908, the Olympic Games were held in London. Six athletes spoke to them from the Russian Empire, and three of them even won medals: one gold for figure skating and two silver for the fight. However, there was another sport in which the Russians were going to take part, but could not for a very annoying reason.

Shooting competitions were held from July 8 to 11. Teams from eight countries took part in the team event with an army rifle (the Americans won gold). However, initially there were nine of them. Unfortunately, the Russian team of six did not manage to compete for the medal in those games. Why do you think so?

In 1908, the Olympic Committee had not yet been organized in Russia, it would appear only three years later, and the country's participation in the games was organized by the Russian representative in the IOC, Count Georgy Ivanovich Ribopier.

It seems that it was he who could not keep track of all the organizational details.

A team of shooters arrived in London a few days before July 11th. However, upon arrival it turned out that the competition had already ended more than a week ago. In London, the calendar showed two weeks in advance! The difference between the Gregorian calendar of Western Europe and the Julian calendar, which at that time was used in Orthodox Russia, summed up the athletes.