1900 Summer Olympics / Cycling

Cycling at the 1900 Summer Olympics
information
venue	Paris
Competition venue	Vélodrome de Vincennes
Nations	7th
Athletes	195 (195 )
date	September 9-19, 1900
decisions	2
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In the French capital Paris during the World Fair ( Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Paris ) discharged international competitions for Physical Education and Sport (Concours Internationaux d'Exercices physiques et de Sports) included competitions in cycling that are part of the Olympic Games 1900 (Games of the II. Olympiad) were.

The competitions in cycling also consisted of several competitions which, according to Pierre de Coubertin , the founder of the modern Olympic Games , and according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), are not all considered Olympic . These primarily included competitions for professionals , for whom u. a. a 24 hour and 100 mile race was organized. The IOC assigned two competitions in cycling to the Olympic program of the Games of the II Olympiad.

The three finalists in Sprint
v. l. No. Taillandier, Sanz, Lake

The confusion about the Olympic competitions in cycling is exemplary of the general incomplete processing and difficult interpretation in connection with the circumstances under which the Olympic Games in 1900 took place. The assignment made by the IOC is highly controversial.

For a long time, the IOC, without exception, took the view that only a competition, the sprint for amateurs, had an Olympic character. Now the 25 km track race with pacemaker has also been classified as Olympic , although the official report of the world exhibition nowhere mentions such a race. Well-known sports historians (e.g. Volker Kluge, Erich Kamper) therefore still do not see this competition as part of the Olympic Games at that time, but as part of the World Track Cycling Championship. It was also held in Paris in August 1900, but in the Velodrome des Parc des Princes . For the race over 25 km, however, no official world championship title was awarded, it was only given in the race over 100 km. It is curious that both races were won by Frenchman Louis Bastien .

72 athletes from 6 nations took part in the two competitions officially designated as Olympic by the IOC . The venue for the 2000 m sprint of the amateurs was the Vélodrome Municipal on the grounds of the World Exhibition in Vincennes .

All competitions were reserved for men.

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country			3.	total
1	France	2	2	1	5
2	United States	-	-	1	1
total		2	2	2	6th

Medalist

Men competitor silver bronze Third Track cycling sprint  Albert Taillandier  Fernand Sanz  John Henry Lake 25 km  Louis Bastien  Louis Hildebrand  Auguste Daumain

Official competitions

2000 m sprint for amateurs

→ Main article : 1900 Summer Olympics / Cycling - Sprint Track (Men)

space	country	athlete	Time / backlog
1	FRA	Albert Taillandier	2: 52.0 min (13.0 s)
2	FRA	Fernand Sanz	½ wheel length
3	United States	John Henry Lake	1 wheel length

Date: September 11th and 13th

The three best of 69 drivers qualified for 9 intermediate runs in 9 preliminary runs. From these intermediate runs with three drivers each, only the first qualified for 3 penultimate runs (semifinals). From these races only the first came into the final.

In the heats, only 2 laps were completed in the Velodrome, which corresponded to a distance of 1000 m. Only in the semifinals and in the finals was 2000 m driven. In all races the judges only measured the total time of the winner and the time for the last 200 m (brackets). There was no timekeeping for those placed; the gap between them and the winner was estimated.

Another example of the general confusion surrounding the 1900 Olympics is what happened around French cyclist Ferdinand Vasserot , who finished third in the World Cup a month before the Olympic sprint. 60 years later, when France was honoring its medal winners of all Olympic Games, not only did the winner Taillandier find out about his Olympic victory for the first time, but also Vasserot learned that he had supposedly finished second. It wasn't until years later, when Vasserot had long since died, that it was discovered that his second place was a semi-final that he had lost to John Henry Lake.

25 km with a pacemaker

→ Main article : Summer Olympics 1900 / cycling - 25 km track (men)

space	country	athlete	time
1	FRA	Louis Bastien	k. A.
2	FRA	Louis Hildebrand	k. A.
3	FRA	Auguste Daumain	k. A.

Date: September 15th (??)
The date is controversial, it is also put on August 16th and the race is seen as part of the cycling world championship. The venue was the Velodrome des Parc des Princes. The winner Bastien also won the 100 km race with pacemaker of the cycling world championship on August 15th.

Non-Olympic competition (officially controversial)

The IOC's view of assigning the 25 km race with pacemaker to the Olympic program prompted other no less important sports historians (e.g. Bill Mallon) to examine all cycling races held in Paris at that time with regard to their Olympic character, including those that were part the World Track Cycling Championships. Insofar as it was a race for amateurs and no world championship title was awarded, the opinion is that it was Olympic . This would mean that a third competition in cycling would have to be added to the Olympic program of the Games of the II Olympiad, the points race over 5000 m.

5000 m points run

space	country	athlete	Points
1	ITA	Enrico Brusoni	21st
2	GER	Karl Duill	9
3	FRA	Louis Trousselier	9

Date: August 19th

The race was part of the cycling world championships, but no title was awarded. 13 racing drivers from 3 nations took part, who also took part in the Olympic competitions. The venue was the Velodrome of Parc de Prince.

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

• Summer Olympics 1900 / Cycling in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• 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)