At the 1900 Paris Olympics, many winners never knew they were Olympians
The second modern Olympics sprawled across Paris from May to October, had no opening ceremony, and rarely used the word Olympic at all. Folded into a World's Fair, its events were billed as international championships or grand prizes, so years afterwards many competitors still had no idea they were Olympians.
Pierre de Coubertin had wanted Paris to host the very first modern Games, but delegates in 1894 refused to wait six years, so Athens went first in 1896. Paris then tied the event to its 1900 Exposition Universelle. Coubertin drew up grand plans to recreate ancient Olympia, complete with temples and statues; the fair's director, Alfred Picard, thought an ancient sporting festival an absurd anachronism and quietly filed the plans away. After a turf war with a French sports union, Coubertin stepped back and organisers ran contests from 14 May to 28 October.
The results were chaotic enough that historians later called these, and the 1904 Games, the Farcical Games. Sprinters raced on an uneven grass field dotted with trees rather than a track. Three American marathoners protested that the French runners who finished first and second had taken a short cut, noting they were the only competitors without mud on them. Rowing crews swapped in young boys as coxswains, whose names and ages went unrecorded. Coubertin later remarked it was a miracle the Olympic movement survived.
The programme was delightfully odd, featuring angling, ballooning, motor racing, croquet, cricket and an obstacle swimming race, all never repeated. Most winners got cups instead of medals. Yet there was a milestone: women competed for the first time, and the New York-born sailor Helene de Pourtales became the first female Olympic champion, with a Swiss crew.
France dominated the entry list with 720 of 997 athletes and won the most placings. Britain sent 102 and the United States just 75, yet American college athletes swept the sprints, taking 13 of 21 medals at 400 metres or less. Many of them objected to competing on a Sunday.
Source: 1900 Summer Olympics
