After two days at the 2024 Olympics, Jon Rahm is in solo fourth in the men’s competition. It’s his first appearance in the Summer Games, as he had to withdraw three years ago from the golf tournament in Tokyo due to COVID.
But did you know there was an American golfer named John Rahm who competed in the 1904 Olympics?
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Born Jan. 8, 1854 in Richmond, Virginia, John Butler Rahm was a member of the U.S. team in St. Louis at Glen Echo Golf Club. Golf was making its second appearance in the Summer Olympics in 1904 before being pulled from the program for 112 years, not returning until 2016.
Pictures of the USA Team from the 1904 Summer Olympics hosted at Glen Echo Country Club!
Team USA: Edward Cummins, Kenneth Edwards, Chandler Egan, Walter Egan, Robert Hunter, Nathaniel Moore, Mason Phelps, Daniel Sawyer, Clement Smoot, Warren Wood pic.twitter.com/WwwkIpGPRW— Glen Echo CC (@GlenEchoCC) July 8, 2024
In 1904, John Rahm took home a bronze medal. Those Games differed from 1900, as well as the most recent three, because it had a men’s individual and men’s team competition. It also did not have a women’s competition.
The 1904 Olympics had 77 golfers in all, with 74 of them from the U.S., so the team concept couldn’t be fulfilled by actual national teams. Instead, various golf associations from the U.S. competed, with Rahm being a part of the USGA’s entry that took bronze.
Rahm did compete in the individual competition as well, finishing 39th.
Rahm died on July 28, 1935, in Omaha, Nebraska.