Winner’s medal issued for the Paris 1900 Summer Olympics. Bronze, 42 mm x 60 mm, 56 gm, by Frederic Vernon, Paris. The front, inscribed “Republique Francaise, Exposition Universelle, Paris 1900,” features a winged goddess scattering laurels over the grounds of the Exposition; the reverse identifies the sport as gymnastics, “XXVI me Fête Fédérale de Gymnastique,” and depicts a victorious athlete upon a podium with a stadium and the Acropolis in the background. Stamped “Bronze” on an edge.
Also included ae two original French-language programs related to the Fete Federale gymnastics events at the Paris 1900 Summer Games: a green 4.75 x 8.25 program headed, “Processions and Parades, Instructions, To the Monitors of the Societies invited, Parade of Sunday, June 3rd,” which notes that the “Parade is formed on the Lawn around the Aerostation Park near the lockers. Bombs announce the Rally and immediately all the gymnasts have to go to the training site.” The second program, beige, 5.5 x 9.5, from the “Union of Societies of Gymnastics of France,” is headed “XXVI Fête Fédérale, Paris, June 3 and 4, 1900, Preliminary Ensemble Movements,” with interior detailing group actions and featuring a visually appealing chart of a man performing each movement.
Held between July 29 and 30, 1900, the Fete Federale gymnastics event consisted of 16 exercises, with each exercise capable of earning the participant a maximum of 20 points, and a possible total maximum score of 320 points. The events were mostly gymnastic in nature—parallel bars, rings, floor exercise, and so on—but also included a number of athletics events and a weightlifting competition. The third-place winner in the gymnastics event was Frenchman Lucien Démanet (born 1874), the last surviving participant of the 1900 Summer Olympics, who passed away in 1979 at the age of 104.
