Olympic Summer Games 1900 / Tug of War

Tug of war at the II Olympic Games
information
venue	Paris
Competition venue	Croix Catelan
Nations	2
Athletes	12 (12 men)
date	July 16, 1900
decisions	1
St. Louis 1904 →

The international competitions for physical exercise and sport (Concours Internationaux d'Exercices Physiques et de Sports) held in the French capital Paris as part of the World's Fair ( Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Paris ) also included a competition in the tug of war , which was part of the 1900 Summer Olympics ( Games of the II Olympiad) was.

Remarks

The tug of war was a discipline in track and field competitions up to the 1908 Games . Only afterwards, when the athletics associations and clubs neglected this competition, did the tug-of-war develop into an independent sport with its own independent associations.

The tug-of-war was one of the team competitions; these were not intended as a national competition, but were advertised for club or association teams, which usually represented the country in which the club or association was based in international competitions. It was not seen as a hindrance if athletes of other nationalities were represented in a club. This also applied to the tug of war.

Only two teams competed in the actual competition for the advertised prizes. A team from the Racing Club de France and a team that started as a " Scandinavian team". These were athletes from Sweden and Denmark . In a second competition, the victorious Scandinavian team competed against an "All American Team" with US athletes, including the first three places in the shot put, Sheldon, McCracken and Garrett, and the first two in hammer throw, Flanagan and Hare. The Americans won, but it turned out that there were a few comrades standing close by, who prevented an impending defeat by intervening in the fight. The fight was viewed as an exhibition fight or private encounter, so no prizes or honors were given.

The tug-of-war, like the other athletic competitions, was held in the Croix Catelan , the grounds of the Racing Club in the Bois de Boulogne .

Medal table

space	country			Third	total
1	Mixed team	1	-	-	1
2	France	-	1	-	1

Result

space	country	athlete
1	XXZ	Scandinavian team Edgar Aabye ( ) , August Nilsson ( ) , Eugen Schmidt ( ) , Gustaf Söderström ( ) , Karl Gustaf Staaf ( ) , Charles Winckler ( )
2	FRA	Racing Club de France Robert Basset , Jean Collas , Charles Gondouin , Francisco Henríquez , Joseph Roffo , Emile Sarrade

1900 tug of war between
Scandinavians and French

Date: July 16, 1900

A team consisted of six athletes. Best of three was drawn, so whoever could win two out of three rounds was the winner. The Scandinavian team already won the first two rounds, which made a third round unnecessary. Each team had four athletes who also took part in other competitions or sports. In the Scandinavian team there were four athletes in the throwing disciplines, and in the French there were four rugby players . In the early days of the Olympic Games, nobody had thought of a nation ranking or a medal table. As a result, a number of teams with athletes of different nationalities are nowadays assessed separately as mixed teams . This also includes the Scandinavian team in the tug of war. The participation of three Swedes and three Danes led the IOC to attribute their placement to the mixed teams and not exclusively to one nation. There are certainly publications in which this is viewed differently. The statistics and the medal table have changed accordingly.

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle I. Athens 1896 - Berlin 1936. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-328-00715-6 .
• Karl Lennartz , Walter Teutenberg: II. Olympic Games 1900 in Paris. Presentation and sources. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1995, ISBN 3-928562-20-7 .
• Bill Mallon : The 1900 Olympic Games . McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina 1998, CIP 97-36094.

Web links

• Side of the IOC to the Summer Games in 1900 (English)
• Official report (French, PDF, 3 parts in total; 8.10 MB)
• Page about all Olympic participants by Herman de Wael (English)