A tug of war tournament was held on 16 July at Catalan Cross, Boulogne Forest in Paris as part of the 1900 Summer Olympics. The only match of the tournament was between a mixed team[1] from the Racing Club de France, consisting of five French and one Colombian athlete, and a mixed team consisting of three Danish athletes and three Swedish athletes. The mixed Scandinavian team won the match 2–0.
Originally, the Racing Club team were scheduled to face a team from the United States, but the latter had to withdraw due to a scheduling clash with the hammer throw, which three of their team were competing in.
The Scandinavians were accepted as late entrants by the organisers, with their team composed of five athletes who were competing in other events and one journalist, Edgar Aabye.
The Scandinavian team won both of the first two pulls against the French/Colombian team in a best-of-three contest to win the gold medal.
Due to a second unofficial match subsequently taking place between the United States and the Scandinavians, some records have erroneously listed the United States as gold medalists.
Background
The modern Olympic Games were first held in Athens in 1896,[2] and travelled to Paris four years later as part of the 1900 Exposition Universelle world's fair. The second Games featured a greatly expanded range of events from the first, up from 43 to 95.[3] Among the events added in 1900 was the tug of war.[4]
Two tug of war teams were entered for the Paris tournament: Racing Club de France represented the host nation, along with a team from the United States which was composed of six athletes that were taking part in various other events during the Games.[5]
However, the American team were forced to withdraw after they discovered that the tug of war was scheduled at the same time as the hammer throw, in which three of their team members were competing.[6][a]
A Scandinavian team was accepted as a late entry by the organisers, comprising a mix of Swedish and Danish athletes competing at the Games.[6] Various reports assign the credit for the formation and entry of this team to different sources; a Danish account claimed that it was one of the Danish pullers, Eugen Schmidt, who was responsible, while a Swedish record attributed it to their representative at the Games, Lieutenant Fredrik Bergh.[8][9]
The match was played as a best-of-three. The mixed Scandinavian team won both of the first two pulls, using their greater weight, particularly that of Söderström and Winckler, to their advantage. The Swedish paper Ny Tidning för Idrott reported that the French team "put up desperate resistance" but were unable to cope with their opponents.[8] There are sources that report that the Scandinavian team won by two pulls to one, but the majority record it as a 2–0 victory.[5]
Confusion
As late as 1974, the Olympic Review listed the United States team of John Flanagan, Robert Garrett, Truxton Hare, Josiah McCracken, Lewis Sheldon and Richard Sheldon as the gold medalists for the 1900 tug of war.[20] A report in the Paris edition of the New York Herald described the tug of war contest at the Olympic Games as being "an object lesson in how not to do a thing".[6] The report mentioned the Scandinavian team's defeat of France, before detailing a second match between an American team and the Scandinavians.
The New York Herald recorded that in the second contest, a group of Americans formed a team to take on the victorious Scandinavians, beating them in two pulls, the second of which took over five minutes.[6] In contrast, the Journal des Sports suggested that the Americans initially wanted to wear spiked shoes to take part in the match, but were then forced to remove them after protests. They then won the first pull against the mixed Swedish/Danish team, but during the second pull, some of their compatriots joined in pulling the rope to help the tiring team. A fight nearly broke out, but was avoided by the intervention of officials.[21]
Regardless of the result of this second contest, it was not considered to be part of the official competition, but rather a private contest, so the United States are not considered to have officially taken part.[5]
