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.

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

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

The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games. Sport Men Women Total Athletics 5 0 5 Cycling 2 0 2 Fencing 3 0 3 Gymnastics 1 0 1 Shooting 1 0 1 Tennis 1 0 1 Total 11[1] 0 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

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
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Adolphe Grisel	100 m	Unknown	4	Did not advance
Alexandre Tuffèri		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		—		DNS
Frantz Reichel	110 m hurdles	Unknown	3	Did not advance
Albin Lermusiaux	1500 m	—		DNF

Field events

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

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.

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

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
		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

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.

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

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
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
J. Defert	Singles	Kasdaglis (GRE) L	Did not advance			=8

Wikimedia Commons has media related to France at the 1896 Summer Olympics.

• 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.