The shooting competition over 30 meters with the free pistol at the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 took place on April 11th in Skopeftirion .
The shooters shot five series of six shots each. Sumner Paine from the United States became the first Olympic champion in this discipline. His brother John Paine , who the day before had become Olympic champion in the 25 meter competition with the service revolver with the same number of points , decided not to participate in order to give his brother better chances of winning. Second place went to Holger Louis Nielsen from Denmark.