Where were the first Summer Olympics held outside Europe?

The first Summer Olympics held outside Europe took place in St. Louis in 1904.

The Games were part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, a world’s fair marking the centennial of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. Because the Olympics were spread across the exposition, the event received less international attention than later Games. Many athletes also found it difficult to travel to Missouri from Europe.

The 1904 Olympics introduced or featured several notable developments. Boxing, freestyle wrestling and the decathlon appeared on the program, while the marathon was run over a course affected by heat, dust and poor road conditions. The Games also included controversial anthropology days, which were not official Olympic events and reflected racist attitudes of the era.

St. Louis was followed by London in 1908. The 1904 Games are sometimes remembered for unusual competition conditions and limited international participation, but they were officially part of the modern Olympic sequence.