June 2019

One year after St. Louis unveiled its first Olympic Rings’ spectacular, it is time to come back to the 1904 Olympic Games Centennial Celebrations held in 2004, exactly 15 fifteen years ago. This event gave impetus to the Sports Commission to build on this rich Olympic legacy!

This one-off celebration was combined with a range of supporting sporting events throughout the month of June 2004, each of which were strategically selected to increase the positioning of sport within the City and within the lives of its residents. The overall vision behind these proceedings was to promote the city externally as an attractive destination for sporting events while simultaneously increasing the perception of St. Louis as a sporting city internally within its own communities. The Centennial capitalised on the increased public attention around sport and the Olympics in the lead up to the 2004 Athens Games a few months later. As well as focusing on the 1904 Games, the organisers used the programme to shine a light on the broader Olympic history of the City and the role it had played in the development of the Olympic movement in the United States. To learn more about the St. Louis Olympic Centennial Celebration!, click here!