France at the 1896 Summer Olympics

France at the
1896 Summer Olympics
France at the; 1896 Summer Olympics
IOC code	FRA
NOC	French National Olympic and Sports Committee
Website	www.franceolympique.com (in French)
in Athens, Greece; April 6, 1896 – April 15, 1896
Competitors	11 in 6 sports and 18 events
Medals; Ranked 4th	Gold 5 Silver 4 Bronze 2 Total 11
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
	1896; 1900; 1904; 1908; 1912; 1920; 1924; 1928; 1932; 1936; 1948; 1952; 1956; 1960; 1964; 1968; 1972; 1976; 1980; 1984; 1988; 1992; 1996; 2000; 2004; 2008; 2012; 2016; 2020; 2024;
Other related appearances
	1906 Intercalated Games

France competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 6 to 15 April 1896. French athletes had appeared in every Summer Olympic Games of the modern era, alongside Australia, Great Britain, and Greece. France won the fourth-most gold medals with 5 and the fourth-most total medals with 11. Cycling was the sport in which the French competitors had the most success, as they completely dominated the field. The French team had 27 entries in 18 events, winning 11 medals.

Medalists

The following competitors won medals at the games. In the discipline sections below, the medalists' names are bolded.

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
Gold	Paul Masson	Cycling	Men's 10 km	April 11
Gold	Paul Masson	Cycling	Men's time trial	April 11
Gold	Paul Masson	Cycling	Men's sprint	April 11
Gold	Léon Flameng	Cycling	Men's 100 km	April 8
Gold	Eugène-Henri Gravelotte	Fencing	Men's foil	April 7
Silver	Alexandre Tuffère	Athletics	Men's triple jump	April 6
Silver	Léon Flameng	Cycling	Men's 10 km	April 11
Silver	Henri Callot	Fencing	Men's foil	April 7
Silver	Joanni Perronet	Fencing	Men's masters foil	April 7
Bronze	Albin Lermusiaux	Athletics	Men's 1500 m	April 7
Bronze	Léon Flameng	Cycling	Men's sprint	April 11

Medals by sport
Sport				Total
Cycling	4	1	1	6
Fencing	1	2	0	3
Athletics	0	1	1	2
Total	5	4	2	11

Multiple medalists

The following competitors won multiple medals at the 1896 Olympic Games.

Name	Medal	Sport	Event
Paul Masson	Gold Gold Gold	Cycling	Men's track time trial Men's sprint Men's 10 kilometres
Léon Flameng	Gold Silver Bronze	Cycling	Men's 100 kilometres Men's 10 kilometres Men's sprint

Competitors

The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games.

Sport	Men	Total
Athletics	5	5
Cycling	2	2
Fencing	3	3
Gymnastics	1	1
Shooting	1	1
Tennis	1	1
Total	11^[1]	11

Medals by day
Day	Date				Total
1	6 April	0	1	0	1
2	7 April	1	2	1	4
3	8 April	1	0	0	1
4	9 April	0	0	0	0
5	10 April	0	0	0	0
6	11 April	3	1	1	5
7	12 April	0	0	0	0
8	13 April	0	0	0	0
Total		5	4	2	11

Athletics

The five French athletes won 2 medals between them. Tuffère appears to have entered the 100 metres but not started; some sources have André Tournois in the first heat of the 100 metres instead of Grisel.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] Grisel entered the triple jump, but did not start.

Track & road events

Athlete	Event	Heat		Final
Athlete	Event	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Adolphe Grisel	100 m	Unknown	4	Did not advance
Alexandre Tuffèri	100 m	DNS		Did not advance
Adolphe Grisel	400 m	Unknown	3-4	Did not advance
Georges de la Nézière		DNS		Did not advance
Frantz Reichel		1:02.3	3	Did not advance
Albin Lermusiaux	800 m	2:16.6	1 Q	DNS
Georges de la Nézière		Unknown	3	Did not advance
Frantz Reichel		DNS		Did not advance
Albin Lermusiaux	1500 m	—		4:36.0
Georges de la Nézière	1500 m	—		DNS
Frantz Reichel	110 m hurdles	Unknown	3	Did not advance
Albin Lermusiaux	1500 m	—		DNF

Field events

Athlete	Event	Final
Athlete	Event	Distance	Position
Adolphe Grisel	Men's long jump	5.83	5
Alexandre Tuffèri	Men's long jump	5.98	4
Adolphe Grisel	Men's triple jump	DNS
Alexandre Tuffèri	Men's triple jump	12.70
Louis Adler	Men's shot put	DNS
Adolphe Grisel	Men's shot put	DNS
Louis Adler	Men's discus throw	DNS
Adolphe Grisel	Men's discus throw	Unknown	5-9

Cycling

Leon Flameng and Paul Masson

France dominated the cycling events, taking 4 of the 6 gold medals. Three were won by Paul Masson who won every event he entered, with Léon Flameng adding the fourth as well as a silver and a bronze. One of the two won each event that a Frenchman contested; the two gold medals won by other countries were in competitions that Masson and Flameng did not enter.

Track

Athlete	Event	Time / Distance
Paul Masson	Men's time trial	24.0
Léon Flameng	Men's sprint	Unknown
Paul Masson	Men's sprint	4:58.2
Léon Flameng	10 km	17:54.8
Paul Masson	10 km	17:54.2
Léon Flameng	100 km	3:08:19.2
Paul Masson	100 km	DNS

Fencing

Group of French and Greek fencers at 1896 Summer Olympics

The final sword match 1896 Summer Olympics

The French fencers were held in high regard prior to the Games; Gravelotte and Callot validated those expectations in the amateur foil competition. Each went undefeated in their pool, advancing to face each other in the final. Gravelotte won the first-to-3 bout. Surprisingly, however, Perronet lost to the Greek Leonidas Pyrgos in the only match of the masters competition.

Athlete	Event	Round 1			Final
Athlete	Event	MW	ML	Rank	Opposition Score	Rank
Henri Callot	Men's foil	3	0	1 Q	Gravelotte (FRA) L 1–3
Eugène-Henri Gravelotte		3	0	1 Q	Callot (FRA) W 3–1
Henri de Laborde		1	2	3	Did not advance	5
Joanni Perronet	Men's masters foil	—			Pyrgos (GRE) L 1–3

Gymnastics

Grisel competed in the parallel bars in the gymnastics program. The competitions had no formal scoring, the judges merely selecting the winner and runner-up. Grisel was neither in this competition.

Artistic

Athlete	Event	Result	Rank
Adolphe Grisel	Parallel bars	Unknown	3–18

Shooting

Lermusiaux entered the military rifle event in the shooting program. His score and placing are unknown.

Athlete	Event	Hits	Score	Rank
Albin Lermusiaux	200 m military rifle	Unknown	Unknown	14–41

Tennis

Only the first initial and last name of the French tennis player in 1896 is known. He was defeated in the first round of the singles tournament.

Athlete	Event	First round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
Athlete	Event	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
J. Defert	Singles	Kasdaglis (GRE) L	Did not advance			=8

References

^ Adolphe Grisel competed in athletics and gymnastics while Albin Lermusiaux competed in athletics and shooting
^ Butler, Maynard. The Olympic Games. In Mallon & Widlund, pp. 37–41.
^ Ekkehard zur Megede : The history of Olympic athletics. Volume 1: 1896-1936. Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970.
^ "100 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
^ "JEUX OLYMPIQUES" (PDF). athle.com. Retrieved 4 March 2017.

Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J.; Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at [1])
Mallon, Bill; Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at [2])
Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.

[Jensen-1] Adolphe Grisel competed in athletics and gymnastics while Albin Lermusiaux competed in athletics and shooting

[Butler-2] Butler, Maynard. The Olympic Games. In Mallon & Widlund, pp. 37–41.

[Megede-3] Ekkehard zur Megede : The history of Olympic athletics. Volume 1: 1896-1936. Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970.

[Olympedia100m-4] "100 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 21 July 2020.

[jeux-5] "JEUX OLYMPIQUES" (PDF). athle.com. Retrieved 4 March 2017.

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