Editing 1908 Summer Olympics (section)

== Participating nations ==
[[File:1908 Summer Olympics teams.png|thumb|Participants of the 1908 Games]]
[[File:1908 Summer Olympics numbers of athletes.png |thumb|Number of participating athletes per country]]

The 1908 Games featured athletes representing 22 [[National Olympic Committee]]s. [[Finland]], [[Turkey]] and [[New Zealand]] (as part of the team from [[Australasia]]) made their first appearance at the Olympic Games. The fact that the United Kingdom competed as a single team was upsetting to some Irish competitors, who felt that Ireland should compete on its own, despite being part of the UK at the time. They relied on the precedent set by [[Finland at the 1908 Summer Olympics|Grand Duchy of Finland]], which while being a part of the [[Russian Empire]], competed in London as a separate country.<ref name=officialreport>{{cite book|author=Cook, Theodore Andrea |title=The Fourth Olympiad London 1908 Official Report |publisher=[[British Olympic Association]] |location=London |url=http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1908/1908.pdf |access-date=17 June 2009 |date=May 1909 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927222443/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1908/1908.pdf |archive-date=27 September 2007 }}</ref> Fearing an Irish boycott, the authorities changed the name of the team to Great Britain/Ireland, and in two sports, field hockey and polo, Ireland participated as a separate country, winning silver medals in both, although their medals counted towards the UK's tally.<ref>Irish Times, 4 August 2008, article by Kevin Mallon</ref> Irish athletes in the United States were not affected by this controversy, and many Irish immigrants to the United States competed for the [[United States at the Olympics|U.S. Olympic team]] as members of the [[Irish American Athletic Club]]. Members of the Irish American Athletic Club won ten of the U.S. Olympic team's total 23 gold medals, or as many as the nations of [[France]], [[Germany]] and [[Italy]] combined.

Britain had more than a quarter of competitors in their team, with 676, compared to 112 on the American team which placed second in the medal standings.

{| class="wikitable collapsible" style="width:100%;"
|-
! Participating [[:Category:Nations at the 1908 Summer Olympics|National Olympic Committees]]
|-
|
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* {{flagIOC|ARG|1908 Summer|1}}
* {{flagIOC|ANZ|1908 Summer|30}}
* {{flagIOC|AUT|1908 Summer|7}}
* {{flagIOC|BEL|1908 Summer|88}}
* {{flagIOC|BOH|1908 Summer|19}}
* {{flagIOC|CAN|1908 Summer|87}}
* {{flagIOC|DEN|1908 Summer|79}}
* {{flagIOC|FIN|1908 Summer|67}}
* {{flagIOC|FRA|1908 Summer|363}}
* {{flagIOC|GER|1908 Summer|81}}
* {{flagIOC|GBR|1908 Summer|676}} '''(host)'''
* {{flagIOC|GRE|1908 Summer|20}}
* {{flagIOC|HUN|1908 Summer|63}}
* {{flagIOC|ITA|1908 Summer|68}}
* {{flagIOC|NED|1908 Summer|113}}
* {{flagIOC|NOR|1908 Summer|69}}
* {{flagIOC|RU1|1908 Summer|6}}
* {{flagIOC|RSA|1908 Summer|14}}
* {{flagIOC|SWE|1908 Summer|168}}
* {{flagIOC|SUI|1908 Summer|1}}
* {{flagIOC|TUR|1908 Summer|1}}
* {{flagIOC|USA|1908 Summer|112}}
{{div col end}}
|}

=== Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees ===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed sortable" style="border:0;"
|-
! Country
! Athletes
|-
| {{flagIOC|GBR|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 676
|-
| {{flagIOC|FRA|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 363
|-
| {{flagIOC|SWE|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 168
|-
| {{flagIOC|NED|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 113
|-
| {{flagIOC|USA|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 112
|-
| {{flagIOC|BEL|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 88
|-
| {{flagIOC|CAN|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 87
|-
| {{flagIOC|DEN|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 81
|-
| {{flagIOC|GER|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 81
|-
| {{flagIOC|NOR|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 69
|-
| {{flagIOC|ITA|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 68
|-
| {{flagIOC|FIN|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 67
|-
| {{flagIOC|HUN|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 63
|-
| {{flagIOC|ANZ|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 32
|-
| {{flagIOC|GRE|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 20
|-
| {{flagIOC|BOH|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 19
|-
| {{flagIOC|RSA|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 14
|-
| {{flagIOC|AUT|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 7
|-
| {{flagIOC|RU1|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 6
|-
| {{flagIOC|ARG|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 1
|-
| {{flagIOC|SUI|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 1
|-
| {{flagIOC|TUR|1908 Summer}} ||align=center| 1
|- class="sortbottom"
|style="text-align:right; border:0px; background:#fff;"| '''Total''' ||style="text-align:center; border:0px; background:#fff;"| '''2,008'''
|-
|}