Great Britain at the 1908 Summer Olympics Great Britain at the 1908 Summer Olympics Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed as the host nation of the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. The British Olympic Association was the National Olympic Committee responsible for organizing the United Kingdom's representation. At the time British athletes competed under the team name "United Kingdom". The British team comprised 676 competitors. A number of Irish athletes boycotted the games in protest at British refusals to grant Irish Home Rule. During the opening ceremony, American athletes did not dip their flag to the British royalty in support of the Irish
Olympic Games Evangelos Zappas, a wealthy Greek-Romanian philanthropist, first wrote to King Otto of Greece, in 1856, offering to fund a permanent revival of the Olympic Games. Zappas sponsored the first Olympic Games in 1859, which was held in an Athens city square. Athletes participated from Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Zappas funded the restoration of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium so that it could host all future Olympic Games. The stadium hosted Olympics in 1870 and 1875. Thirty thousand spectators attended that Games in 1870, though no official attendance records are available for the 1875 Games. In 1890, after attending the Olympian