1900 Summer Olympics / Rowing

Rowing at the II Summer Olympics
information
venue	Paris
Competition venue	Seine (between Pont Bineau and Asnières-sur-Seine )
Nations	7th
Athletes	99 (all male)
date	25-27 August 1900
decisions	4 (5)
1904 St. Louis →

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 rowing , which is part of the Summer Olympic Games 1900 (Games of the II. Olympiad) were.

The rowing competitions 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 considered Olympic . An Olympic competition should be freely accessible for every athlete, i.e. it should not have any restrictions linked to the person of the participant, e.g. B. regarding his age. The rowing competitions, which were advertised exclusively for beginners, juniors and seniors, were therefore not taken into account at the IOC as early as 1912, when some decisions were made about the assignment of various sports and competitions to the Olympic program in order to review the history of the first five Olympic Games.

Finish area of ​​the rowing course

The IOC assigns 5 rowing competitions to the Olympic program of the Games of the II Olympiad. Actually there were only 4 competitions, but in the boat class "four with helmsman" there was a scandal that led to two separately rated finals.

The rowing competitions, like the team competitions at that time, were generally advertised as competitions between club or association teams. In international competitions, they usually represented the country in which the club or association was based. A total of 108 rowers from 8 nations took part. 99 of them were known by name, the 9 unknown athletes were all helmsmen. This can be explained by the fact that there were no precise regulations for the participation of the helmsmen. They were viewed as irrelevant and mostly only had the task of indicating a directional correction. For this reason people liked to use light boys, mostly still children. Her origin and her name were unimportant, and membership in a club was not required. It was also possible to change the helmsman at every race. This led to one of the most unusual and legendary incidents in Olympic history (see two with helmsman).

The competitions were supposed to take place on two days, August 25th and 26th, but were extended by one day due to various protests. The rowing course was the section of the Seine between the Pont Bineau and the place Asnières-sur-Seine . The length was 1750 m, with the Seine making a slight curve in this section. The lanes were not marked. The lack of clear rules and careless organization led to some strange decisions.

One

space	country	athlete	Time (min)
1	FRA	Henri Barrelet	7: 35.6
2	FRA	André Gaudin	7: 41.6
3	GBR	Saint George Ashe	8: 15.6
4th	FRA	Robert d'Heilly	8: 16.0
5	FRA	Louis Prével	DNF

Date: August 25th and 26th.

There were 4 preliminary runs from which the first and second qualified for two semi-finals. Of these, the first and second were each intended for the final.

The first scandal occurred in the run-up when Saint George Ashe rammed the Frenchman Benoit's boat and the race was restarted. Ashe was actually banned from starting the race, but still competed, won and was not disqualified.

In his semi-final run, Ashe protested against the ranking as third behind Barrelet and Gaudin for reasons that could not be reconstructed. They did not want to accept the protest and threatened to boycott the final. Finally they let themselves be changed and the organization let five boats take part in the final.

In the final there was another incident when Louis Prével overturned due to alleged disability. However, his protest was not accepted.

Two with a helmsman

space	country	Athletes	Time (min)
1	XXZ	Minerva Amsterdam François Brandt , Roelof Klein , Hermanus Brockmann , unknown helmsman	7: 34.2
2	FRA	Société Nautique de la Marne Lucien Martinet , René Waleff , unknown helmsman	7: 34.4
3	FRA	Rowing Club Castillonais Carlos Deltour , Antoine Védrenne , Raoul Paoli (helmsman)	7: 57.2
3	FRA	Cercle Nautique de Reims Jean-Baptiste Mathieu , Pierre Ferlin , unknown helmsman	8: 01.0

François Brandt (left) and Roelof Klein with the French boy

Date: August 25th and 26th.

There were two preliminary runs with three or four boats, from which the first and second qualified for the final.

In the boat of the Dutch from Minerva Amsterdam sat the helmsman Hermanus Brockmann , who weighed about 60 kg. You only qualified because the third boat had to give up in advance. For the finale, they wanted to reduce the weight and therefore changed the helmsman, because there were no precise regulations for the participation of the helmsmen. Origin or club membership were completely unimportant. In the final, a boy sat in the boat of the Dutch, about whom there is still speculation about age and nationality. According to sports historians, it is most likely that it was a French street boy between the ages of 7 and 12. This boy is widely considered to be the youngest participant in the history of the Olympic Games.

Foursome with a helmsman

First final run

space	country	Athletes	Time (min)
1	FRA	Cercle de l'Aviron de Roubaix Henri Bouckaert , Jean Cau , Émile Delchambre , Henri Hazebroucq , Charlot (helmsman)	7: 11.0
2	FRA	Union Nautique de Lyon Georges Lumpp , Charles Perrin , Daniel Soubeyran , Émile Wegelin , unknown helmsman	7: 18.0
3	GER	Rowing Club Favorite Hammonia (Hamburg) Wilhelm Carstens , Julius Körner , Adolf Möller , Hugo Rüster , Egmont Zahn (helmsman)	7: 18.2

Second final run

space	country	Athletes	Time (min)
1	GER	Germania RC Hamburg Gustav Goßler , Oskar Goßler , Walther Katzenstein , Waldemar Tietgens , Carl Goßler (helmsman)	5: 59.0
2	NED	Minerva Amsterdam Coenraad Christiaan Hiebendaal , Gerhard Oswald Lotsij , Paulus Jan Lotsij , Johannes Hester Terwogt , Hermanus Brockmann (helmsman)	6: 33.0
3	GER	Ludwigshafen rowing club Ernst Felle , Otto Fickeisen , Carl Lehle , Hermann Wilker , Franz Kröwerath (helmsman)	6: 35.0

Date: August 25-27.

The fact that two finals were held in this boat class is proof of the bad organization paired with a lack of assertiveness. The inclusion of both finals in the IOC's list of winners is a sign of the difficult processing in connection with the circumstances under which the Summer Olympics in 1900 took place.

Out of eight participating boats, four boats should qualify for the final in three heats, namely the respective winner and the second fastest of the three heats. In the first run, the boat of the Ludwigshafen rowing club took it slowly, as the opposing boat from Spain was not a strong competitor. As a result, the boats of the Union Nautique de Lyon and the RC Favorite Hammonia Hamburg were able to undercut the time of the Ludwigshafener in the following heats, although they had not actually qualified. The organization then decided to hold the final with six boats.

However, the course was not suitable for a race with six boats. Those responsible recognized this and therefore ordered two intermediate runs with three boats each, which should be held on the same day before the final run and of which only the winner should qualify for the final. The four originally qualified boats, the one from Ludwigshafen, Germania RC Hamburg , Minerva Amsterdam and the Cercle de l'Aviron de Roubaix, protested against this. The intermediate runs were thus obsolete and the first thought was taken up again, the finale with six boats. With the exception of Roubaix, the other three protesters were also against this order. For the originally scheduled final run, only the boats from Roubaix, Lyon and the RC Favorite from Hamburg appeared. The race was rated anyway and should be the final result.

There was a general lack of understanding on site that the protesting teams were being ignored in this way, especially since all three boats were the respective winners of their prelims. The resentment even among the French observers had its effect, and the organizers arranged for another final run for the three protesters for the following day. This final run was also counted and regarded as equal, and so it came about that this race went down in Olympic history with double winners and places.

Eighth

space	country	Athletes	Time (min)
1	United States	Vesper Boat Club Philadelphia Louis Abell , William Carr , Harry DeBaecke , John Exley , John Geiger , Edwin Hedley , James Juvenal , Roscoe Lockwood , Edward Marsh (helmsman)	6: 07.8
2	BEL	Koninklijke Roeivereniging Club Gent Oscar de Cock , Marcel van Crombrugge , Jules de Bisschop , Prospère Bruggeman , Maurice Hemelsoet , Frank Odberg , Oscar de Somville , Maurice Verdonck , Alfred van Landeghem (helmsman)	6: 13.8
3	NED	Minerva Amsterdam François Brandt , Johannes van Dijk , Roelof Klein , Ruurd Leegstra , Walter Middelberg , Hendrik Offerhaus , Walter Thijssen , Henricus Tromp , Hermanus Brockmann (helmsman)	6: 23.0
4th	GER	Germania RC Hamburg Alexander Gleichmann von Oven , Gustav Goßler , Oskar Goßler , Ascan Ernst Jenquel , Walther Katzenstein , Theodor Lauezzari , Waldemar Tietgens , Arthur Warncke , unknown helmsman	6: 33.0

The victorious Americans

Date: August 25th and 26th.

From five participating boats four boats should qualify for the final in two heats. The only boat that was eliminated was a French boat that had given up in advance. With that, all three boats of the second run were practically already qualified.

The Dutch rowers Brand and Klein had recently won the two-man race with a helmsman, which is why the eight-man started the race with these two on board weakened. Hermanus Brockmann is officially listed as the helmsman of the Dutch boat. Written records from observers of the race suggest, however, that the helmsman actually involved in the final was the same boy who was already in the Dutch boat in the two-man with helmsman.

The German boat of Germania RC Hamburg had also exchanged the helmsman for the finale. The helmsman of the junior boats of the Union Nautique de Bruxelles had been borrowed. While this meant a significant reduction in weight, on the one hand the boat got a different center of gravity and on the other hand there was some loss of confidence which eventually led to the loss of the race.

Medal table

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 winning boat in two with a helmsman. The participation of the French boy as a helmsman with two Dutch rowers led the IOC to attribute the placement to the mixed teams and not exclusively to the Netherlands. There are certainly publications in which this is viewed differently. The statistics and the medal table have changed accordingly.

space	team			3rd pl.	total
1	France	2	3	1	6th
2	German Empire	1		2	3
3	United States	1			1
	Mixed team	1			1
5	Netherlands		1	1	2
6th	Belgium		1		1
7th	Great Britain			1	1
total		5	5	5	15th

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)
• 1900 Olympic Rowing Regatta on the sports-reference.com website