Croquet at the 1900 Summer Olympics
The in the French capital Paris as part of the World's Fair ( Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Paris) discharged International competitions for Physical Education and Sport ( Concours Internationaux d' Exercices et de Physique Sports) consisted of three competitions in Croquet. The International Olympic Committee (IOC ) these competitions arranged the program of the Olympic Games to 1900 ( Games of the II Olympiad ).
Croquet at that time was a game that was played almost exclusively in the posh social circles and by the nobility. Thus, to understand that in 1912 the IOC had taken to document the history of the first five Olympic Games, the decisions Croquet regarded at that time as an Olympic sport. The game, however, was not universally loved and widespread, which is why they played the better known in the United States Roque at the Olympic Summer Games 1904 in St. Louis, a variant of croquet. The game lost in the period following its status as a sport, so that the competitions of 1900 in Paris has been the only performance of Croquet in Olympic history.
Croquet nevertheless represents a historical specificity for the Olympic Games, because it is one of the first sports in the Olympics, where women had participated. Three French girls, Marie Ohnier, Filleaul Brohy and the wife of the president of the French Croquetverbandes, woman Desprès were involved. As most remarkable here is the fact to be considered that the women fought out not have its own competition, but a common competition with men. However, all three women could not qualify for the final round.
After the very scanty historical records it is assumed that only 10 players or players took part in the competitions, of which only one player did not come from France, the Belgians Marcel Haentjens.
The competitions were held between 24 June and 15 August. Venue was the Pelouse de Madrid, a place conditioning the Cercle du Bois de Boulogne, a company founded only a year earlier association which actually devoted to the shooting at live pigeons. By the way, that even in this " sports " competitions were held in the framework of the World Exhibition on precisely this space conditioning, which are generally not attributed to the Olympic program.
Mixed
Single with a ball
Date: June 28,
Three rounds were played. At the first round took 6 men and 3 women in part (winner Chrétien Waydelich ). Only the four best of this round were the second round of play (winner Georges Johin ). From this, only the top two for the final round (winner Gaston Aumoitte ) qualified.
Third place for Waydelich was determined from the results of the second round.
Single with two balls
Date: July 4
There were six applications, including that of Mrs Despres and woman Filleaul Brohy. The latter, however, did not occur on the competition.
It was played a preliminary round, was eliminated in the women Desprès. The four remaining participants played in a final round of everyone against everyone. The winner was the player with the most won games.
Doubles
Date: unknown
The historical records give no indication of whether the winner of this contest have actually played without competition, or whether there were opponents.