Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the Games of the II Olympiad
Host stadium (shown in 2017)
Venue	Croix-Catelan Stadium
Dates	14–22 July 1900
No. of events	23 (23 men, 0 women)
Competitors	117 from 16 nations

At the 1900 Summer Olympics, twenty-three athletics events were contested. Altogether, 117 athletes from 15 nations competed. A total of 68 medals (23 gold, 23 silver, 22 bronze) were awarded. In many countries, due in part to the conflation of the Olympic Games and the World's Fair in Paris, the media discussed only the athletics events under the "Olympic" name while ignoring the incredible variety of other sports featured at the time.^{[citation needed]}

The 23 events listed are those currently considered to have been of Olympic stature by the International Olympic Committee and most Olympic historians. They exclude all events that used a handicap system, as well as all events which were open to professional athletes. The IOC has never decided which events were "Olympic" and which were not.^[1]

Competitions were held on 14 July, 15 July, 16 July, 19 July, and 22 July. This included Bastille Day, which is a French holiday, and then Sunday, which many of the American athletes protested. Even with many Americans not competing in finals because of confusion caused by the organizers' decision to count scores achieved on Monday, 16 July for finals held on Sunday, 15 July and subsequent rescission of that decision, the United States won more than 4 times as many medals as any other nation, including 16 of the 23 gold medals.

The conditions of competition were also subpar compared even to those at the previous games in 1896. There was no track for the Paris Games, as a grass field dotted with trees and of unequal elevation was used. The course was 500 metres in length, an unusual distance for a track.

Medal summary

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	16	13	10	39
2	Great Britain (GBR)[2]	3	3	2	8
3	France (FRA)	1	4	2	7
4	Canada (CAN)	1	0	1	2
	Hungary (HUN)	1	0	1	2
6	Mixed team (ZZX)	1	0	0	1
7	India (IND)	0	2	0	2
8	Bohemia (BOH)	0	1	0	1
9	Australia (AUS)[2]	0	0	3	3
10	Denmark (DEN)	0	0	1	1
	Norway (NOR)	0	0	1	1
	Sweden (SWE)	0	0	1	1
Totals (12 entries)		23	23	22	68

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
60 metres details	Alvin Kraenzlein  United States	7.0 =OR	Walter Tewksbury  United States	7.1	Stan Rowley  Australia	7.2
100 metres details	Frank Jarvis  United States	11.0	Walter Tewksbury  United States	11.1	Stan Rowley  Australia	11.2
200 metres details	Walter Tewksbury  United States	22.2 OR	Norman Pritchard  India	22.8	Stan Rowley  Australia	22.9
400 metres details	Maxie Long  United States	49.4 OR	William Holland  United States	49.6	Ernst Schultz  Denmark	51.5
800 metres details	Alfred Tysoe  Great Britain	2:01.2	John Cregan  United States	2:03.0	David Hall  United States	2:03.8
1500 metres details	Charles Bennett  Great Britain	4:06.2 WR	Henri Deloge  France	4:06.6	John Bray  United States	4:07.2
Marathon details	Michel Théato  France [a]	2:59:45	Émile Champion  France	3:04:17	Ernst Fast  Sweden	3:37:14
110 metres hurdles details	Alvin Kraenzlein  United States	15.4 OR	John McLean  United States	15.5	Frederick Moloney  United States	15.6
200 metres hurdles details	Alvin Kraenzlein  United States	25.4	Norman Pritchard  India	26.0	Walter Tewksbury  United States	26.1
400 metres hurdles details	Walter Tewksbury  United States	57.6	Henri Tauzin  France	58.3	George Orton  Canada	58.8
2500 m steeplechase details	George Orton  Canada	7:34.4	Sidney Robinson  Great Britain	7:38.0	Jacques Chastanié  France	7:52.4
4000 m steeplechase details	John Rimmer  Great Britain	12:58.4	Charles Bennett  Great Britain	12:58.6	Sidney Robinson  Great Britain	12:58.8
5000 m team race details	Mixed team (ZZX)  Charles Bennett (GBR)  John Rimmer (GBR)  Sidney Robinson (GBR)  Alfred Tysoe (GBR)  Stan Rowley (AUS)	26 pts	France (FRA) Henri Deloge Jacques Chastanié André Castanet Michel Champoudry Gaston Ragueneau	29 pts	only two teams entered
High jump details	Irving Baxter  United States	1.90 m OR	Patrick Leahy  Great Britain	1.78 m	Lajos Gönczy  Hungary	1.75 m
Pole vault details	Irving Baxter  United States	3.30 m =OR	Meredith Colket  United States	3.25 m	Carl Albert Andersen  Norway	3.20 m
Long jump details	Alvin Kraenzlein  United States	7.185 m OR	Myer Prinstein  United States	7.175 m	Patrick Leahy  Great Britain	6.950 m
Triple jump details	Myer Prinstein  United States	14.47 m OR	James Connolly  United States	13.97 m	Lewis Sheldon  United States	13.64 m
Standing high jump details	Ray Ewry  United States	1.655 m	Irving Baxter  United States	1.525 m	Lewis Sheldon  United States	1.500 m
Standing long jump details	Ray Ewry  United States	3.30 m	Irving Baxter  United States	3.135 m	Émile Torchebœuf  France	3.03 m
Standing triple jump details	Ray Ewry  United States	10.58 m OR	Irving Baxter  United States	9.95 m	Robert Garrett  United States	9.50 m
Shot put details	Richard Sheldon  United States	14.10 m OR	Josiah McCracken  United States	12.85 m	Robert Garrett  United States	12.37 m
Discus throw details	Rudolf Bauer  Hungary	36.04 m OR	František Janda-Suk  Bohemia	35.14 m	Richard Sheldon  United States	34.60 m
Hammer throw details	John Flanagan  United States	51.01 m OR	Truxtun Hare  United States	46.26 m	Josiah McCracken  United States	43.58 m

These medals are retroactively assigned by the International Olympic Committee; at the time, winners were given silver medals.

Finish of the 800m

Daily summary

14 July

• All rounds, including the finals, for the 100 metres and the 110 metre hurdles were held. The United States took 5 of the medals, missing only the bronze medal in the 100 metres won by Stan Rowley of Australia. Frank Jarvis won the 100 metres, with Alvin Kraenzlein taking the gold in the 110 metre hurdles.
• In the 400 metre heats, the United States took 5 qualifying spots for the final while Denmark secured the last one. The 800 metres was more balanced, with 3 Americans and one athlete each from France, Great Britain, and Hungary.
• The 400 metre hurdles semifinals eliminated only one athlete, with the other four advancing to the finals.
• Defending discus and shot put champion Robert Garrett failed to make a mark in the qualification round of the discus throw, but did advance to the final in the shot put. Bohemia advanced a thrower in the discus, an event which saw 5 athletes from 5 different nations qualify.
• Surprising few, Kraenzlein and Meyer Prinstein took the top two spots in the long jump qualification, moving to the final along with a third American, a Briton, and a Frenchman.

15 July

• In a busy day for the athletics program, 10 finals were held along with the semifinals of the 60 metres (which was one of the events with a final that day). The United States took 7 of the championships, with Great Britain, Canada, and Hungary each picking up one.
• Kraenzlein took the top spots in the 60 metres and the long jump, the latter victory allegedly earning him a punch in the face from Prinstein, who had not competed because the final was held on a Sunday. This brought Kraenzlein's total to 3 gold medals, better than any athlete had done four years earlier. Irving Baxter also took gold in two events, the high jump and the pole vault.
• Denmark won its first athletics medal, with a bronze in the 400 metres. Charles Bennett's gold in the 1500 metres gave Britain its first gold in the sport. Canada's George Orton took two medals, a gold and a bronze, for the debut nation. Hungary won its first gold with the discus throw, adding a bronze in the high jump. Bohemia, another nation making its debut, took the silver medal in the discus.
• The steeplechase made its Olympic debut, with the 2500 metre version won by Orton.

16 July

• Eight more finals were held on Monday the 16th. Kraenzlein picked up a fourth victory with the 200 metre hurdles, winning both his semifinal and the final to set a long-lived Olympic record for athletic gold medals in individual events. Ray Ewry won all three of the standing jumps, each of which made its Olympic debut in 1900. Great Britain picked up another pair of gold medals with the 800 metres and the 4000 metre steeplechase. Prinstein got his long-awaited victory in the triple jump, while John Flanagan's hammer throw earned the United States its 6th championship of the day.
• India's debut Games reached a high point with Norman Pritchard's silver medal in the 200 metre hurdles.

19 July

• The marathon was the only event held on the 19th. Michel Théato, a Luxembourgish citizen under the French flag, won the gold medal. Sweden earned its first athletics medal with the bronze in the marathon.

22 July

• The two remaining events were held on Sunday the 22nd. The semifinals of the 200 metres and the finals of that event and the 5000 metre team race were held.
• Pritchard won his second silver medal in the 200 metres, while Rowley won his third bronze in the same event. The race was won by Walter Tewksbury, bringing his total for the Games to five medals, including two gold medals.
• The 5000 metre team race was won by the British team, which included Stan Rowley of Australia. This makes Rowley the only athlete in Olympic history to win gold medals for multiple nations in the same Games; the establishment of National Olympic Committees ensures this accomplishment will remain unique. Also of note is that Rowley did not finish the race: it was far longer than the sprinter was accustomed to running, and after he had been injured and reduced to walking, he retired after everyone else had crossed the finish line to accept last place.

Participating nations

•  Australia (1)
•  Austria (1)
•  Bohemia (4)
•  Canada (2)
•  Denmark (4)
•  France (23)
•  Germany (6)
•  Great Britain (9)
•  Greece (2)
•  Hungary (9)
•  India (1)
•  Italy (2)
•  Norway (2)
•  Sweden (8)
•  United States (43)

Notes

1. In 2021, the IOC online data and medal table for the 1900 Games were changed to reflect medalists' nationalities in this and eight other events, including for Michel Théato.^[3] This led some to believe that Luxembourg had officially recovered this Olympic title. This change in the IOC online data was later reversed.^[4]

References

1. Lennartz, Karl; Teutenberg, Walter (1995). Olympische Spiele 1900 in Paris. Kassel, Germany: Agon-Sportverlag. p. 147. ISBN 3-928562-20-7. In many works, it is read that the IOC later met to decide which events were Olympic and which were not. This is not correct and no decision has ever been made. No discussion of this item can be found in the account of any Session.
2. An additional gold medal was won by a mixed team composed of four athletes from Great Britain and one from Australia.
3. "Paris 1900 Medal Table". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 16 June 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
4. "Michel Théato IOC webpage". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee.

References

• International Olympic Committee.
• De Wael, Herman. Herman's Full Olympians: "Athletics 1900". Accessed 18 March 2006. Available electronically at [1] Archived 2006-02-11 at the Wayback Machine.
• Mallon, Bill (1998). The 1900 Olympic Games, Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 0-7864-0378-0.