Funny you mention Tug 'o War. There was a show, maybe on BBC1 or 2 just as the Olympics were starting about the 1908 games in White City.
Lord Desborough ran the games after failures in the 1896 (Athens), 1900 (Paris) and 1904 (St Louis) games. He was a complete sportsman and whipped it into shape but there were problems nonetheless. But one of the events was the Tug 'o War and I think Britain beat America in it for gold.
There was a big controversy on one of the foot races around the track. A British runner was up against 3 American runners. Yes, only 4 runners in the race and 3 of them American, sounds dodgy, no? Believe it or not, back then, there weren't any lane lines. So towards the end the Brit was on track to win it when one of the Americans diverted from inside to outside of the track taking the Brit out and letting one of the Americans win. There was lot of controversy but because there were no lines it was difficult to make a ruling so I think the Americans were able to take the gold.
Interestingly, that was the year the Italian Durando something-or-other ran the marathon. In those days they didn't drink any water and had something like brandy, a sandwich and some cake before the race. He made it all the way to the stadium and collapsed on the way in with just meters to go. He almost made it to the finish line but couldn't continue so some people picked him up and helped him across the line so he was disqualified!
