Games of the II Olympiad PARIS 1900

Games of the II Olympiad PARIS 1900

The Games of 1900 were held in Paris as part of the Exposition Universelle Internationale - the Paris World’s Fair. The exposition organizers spread the events over five months and de-emphasized their Olympic status to such an extent that many athletes died without ever knowing that they had participated in the Olympics. Women made their first appearance in the modern Games. The first to compete were Mme. Brohy and Mlle. Ohnier of France in croquet. The first female champion was in tennis: Charlotte Cooper of Great Britain. Tennis was one of five sports in which athletes from different nations competed on the same team. The others were football, polo, rowing and tug of war. Alvin Kraenzlein won four athletics events in three days and, on 16 July, Ray Ewry, who had overcome childhood polio, won three championships in one day - all in the standing jump events.

24 NOCs (Nations)

997 athletes (22 women, 975 men)

95 events

CEREMONIES

Paris 3 June 1900, Games of the II Olympiad. Gymnasts parade in the "Vélodrome de Vincennes" during the Federal Meeting of the Union of Gymnastics Associations of France.

Official opening of the Games by: No official opening.

Lighting the Olympic Flame by: The Olympic flame was first lit during the opening ceremony of the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

Olympic Oath by: The first athletes' oath was sworn at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium.

Official Oath by: The first officials' oath was sworn at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

HIGHLIGHTS

Charlotte Cooper (GBR-tennis) was the first woman to take the title of Olympic champion. We are not talking of gold medals as they were not yet awarded at these Games.

FOUR VICTORIES



Alvin Kraenzlein (USA-athletics) won the 60m, the 110m hurdles and 200m hurdles, and the long jump. His record of four individual victories at one Games still stands for a track & field athlete.

Discover Alvin Kraenzlein's biography

FIRST OLYMPIC TENNIS TITLE

Charlotte Cooper (GBR-tennis) was the first woman to take the title of Olympic champion. We are not talking of gold medals as they were not yet awarded at these Games.

DID YOU KNOW?

After the preliminary rounds, Myer Prinstein (USA-athletics) was leading in the long jump competition. Because of his religious beliefs, he refused to take part in the final as this was scheduled for a Sunday. In the final, his compatriot and rival Alvin Kraenzlein beat him by one centimetre. Prinstein was allegedly so angry that he attacked and punched Kraenzlein in the face.

KEY FACTS

Opening date:14 May 1900

Closing date:28 October 1900

Country of the host city:France (FRA)

Candidate cities:No candidate cities

Sports:18

Paris 1900: Sports on the program

Aquatics ,Archery ,Athletics ,Basque Pelota ,Cricket ,Croquet ,Cycling ,Equestrian
Fencing ,Football ,Golf ,Gymnastics ,Polo ,Rowing ,Rugby ,Sailing ,Shooting ,Tennis
Tug of War

James CONNOLLY The First Champion of the Modern Olympics

On 6 April 1896, James Connolly won the triple jump (then two hops and a jump), and thus became the first Olympic champion in 1527 years. He also placed second in the high jump and third in the long jump. A 27-year-old undergraduate student, Connolly dropped out of Harvard University and traveled to Athens by freighter and train, arriving the day before the Olympics began. Connolly later became a well-known journalist and novelist and was offered an honorary doctorate by Harvard, which he turned down.

Ray EWRY The Standing Jumper

Ray Ewry won eight Olympic gold medals in 1900, 1904 and 1908, yet he is almost unknown today because his unprecedented feats were performed in events that are no longer held: the standing high jump, the standing long jump and the standing triple jump. Born 14 October 1873, Ewry contracted polio as a young boy. Confined to a wheelchair, it was thought that he might be paralysed for life. However, he began exercising on his own and grew up to be a superb athlete. Ewry won all three standing jump events at the 1900 Olympics in Paris. He defended all three titles in 1904. The standing triple jump was dropped from the Olympic program in 1908, but Ewry won both the standing high jump and the standing long jump for a third time. All standing jumps were dropped from the Olympics after 1912.

John Jesus FLANAGAN Triple hammer Champion

Irish-born John Flanagan was already the world record holder for the hammer throw when he emigrated to the United States in 1897. Like so many champion weight throwers during that era, he became a policeman in New York City and represented the US in international sporting events. At the 1900 Paris Olympics, Flanagan won the hammer throw easily, outdistancing fellow American Truxton Hare by 4.75m. Four years later, at the St. Louis Olympics, in an competition devoid of foreign entries, Flanagan successfully defended his title, although he was given a good test by John DeWitt, and won by less than a metre. A week later, Flanagan picked up a silver medal in the 56-pound (25.4-kg) weight throw. At the 1908 London Games, Flanagan overcame world record holder Matt McGrath with his last attempt to win his third straight hammer throw gold medal. He also competed in the tug-of-war. On 24 July 1909, Flanagan threw the hammer 56.18m to become the oldest world record breaker in the history of athletics. He was 41 years, 196 days old. Flanagan returned to Ireland in 1911 and lived there until his death in 1938.

Alvin KRAENZLEIN Four Gold Medals in Three Days

At the 1900 Games Alvin Kraenzlein of the United States won the 60m dash, the 110m hurdles and 200m hurdles and the long jump, His four individual gold medals remain the record for a track & field athlete at one Games, and he accomplished the feat over a period of only three days. Kraenzlein's pioneering technique of straight-leg hurdling brought him two world hurdle records in addition to his five world records in the long jump. The long jump records were all set in 1899, three in April at the Penn Relays, and two in May at the IC4A Championships. Kraenzlein's great rival was the Syracuse athlete, Meyer Prinstein. At the 1900 Paris Olympics Prinstein led after the qualifying round in long jump, but was forbidden from competing in the finals by his coach because they were held on Sunday. Prinstein lost when Kraenzlein jumped one centimetre farther in the final. Although a qualified dentist, Kraenzlein never practiced, preferring to become a track coach, notably of the German and Cuban national teams and at the University of Michigan.

Eric LEMMING Javelin Master

Eric Lemming was nineteen years old when he set a world record of 49.31m in the javelin throw in 1899. Unfortunately, the javelin was not included in the program of the 1900 Olympics, but Lemming traveled to Paris anyway and took part in six events, placing fourth in the high jump, the pole vault and the hammer throw and eighth in the discus throw. At the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, Lemming was even more active, competing in nine different events. He won the freestyle javelin throw with a world record performance, earned bronze medals in the shot put, the pentathlon and the tug of war, and placed fourth in the discus and in the stone throw. The javelin throw was finally accepted as an Olympic event in 1908, at which time Lemming was still the world record holder. Lemming won the freestyle javelin event (after which it was dropped from the program) and then set another world record (54.825m) in winning the regular javelin event by more than four metres. He also placed eighth in the hammer throw and participated in the discus throw and the Greek-style discus throw. At the age of 32, Lemming made a final appearance at the 1912 Olympics, which were held in his home country of Sweden. Lemming rose to the occasion, earning the gold medal by making the first javelin throw to exceed 60m, a feat that led the appreciative crowd to give him a standing ovation. Later in the Stockholm Games, he placed fourth in a one-time event in which the competitors threw the javelin with each hand, and he competed in a similar event with the discus. During his career, Lemming set ten javelin world records, culminating in a 1912 post-Olympic throw of 62.32m.

Paris 1900: Medal Table

Nation Gold Silver Bronze

1. France FRA 26 41 34
2. United States of America USA 19 14 14
3. Great Britain GBR 15 6 9
4. Mixed team ZZX 6 3 3
5. Switzerland SUI 6 2 1
6. Belgium BEL 5 5 5
7. Germany GER 4 2 2
8. Italy ITA 2 1 0
9. Australia AUS 2 0 3
10. Denmark DEN 1 3 2
11. Hungary HUN 1 3 2
12. Cuba CUB 1 1 0
13. Canada CAN 1 0 1
14. Spain ESP 1 0 0
15. Austria AUT 0 3 3
16. Norway NOR 0 2 3
17. India IND 0 2 0
18. Netherlands NED 0 1 3
19. Bohemia (TCH since 1920) BOH 0 1 1
20. Mexico MEX 0 0 1
21. Sweden SWE 0 0 1


The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not recognise global ranking per country; the medal tables are displayed for information only.

Furthermore, the results that we publish are official and are taken from the "Official Report" - a document published for each Olympic Games by the Organising Committee. However, for the first Olympic Games (until Antwerp in 1920), it is difficult to give the exact number of medals awarded to some countries, due to the fact that teams were composed of athletes from different countries.

The medal tables by country are based on the number of medals won, with gold medals taking priority over silver and bronze. A team victory counts as one medal.

Paris 1900 :The poster
Credit: IOC / Olympic Museum Collections

During the 1900 Universal Exhibition, certain events of international physical exercise and sports competitions were recognised as Olympic and made up the programme of the second modern Olympic Games. Several posters were created-athletics, rowing, cycling, fencing and gymnastics.
Here, a female fencer holding in her right hand the three traditional weapons- foil, sword and sabre. However, it should be noted that women did not compete in the fencing competitions until 1924.