Dennis Baribouze/Reuters
A photo showing the Olympic rings in front of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters in 2023.
Paris, France
CNN
—
France scored a surprise Olympic victory over Great Britain, 124 years later than expected, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped the British team of their 1900 cycling silver medal in Paris and awarded it to their cross-Channel neighbours.
At a time when the awarding of medals was not strictly dependent on nationality, the IOC decided that the winner, British cyclist Lloyd Hildebrand, had competed as part of a French club, so the medal was handed over to France.
Hildebrand was born in Tottenham, London in 1870, spent most of his life in France, and died in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret in 1924. At the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, he came second in the men's 25 km cycling event.
“Mr Hildebrand was a British national but was born and raised in France and played for French clubs both before and after the 1900 Paris Olympics,” the IOC said in a statement.
In 1900, many National Olympic Committees (NOCs) did not yet exist, and athletes, regardless of nationality, belonged to the sports federation of the country in which they were based. Therefore, any medals an athlete won went to his or her country.
“Athletes only had to submit the license number issued by the national federation in which they regularly compete,” the IOC said in a statement.
The IOC added that “National Olympic Committees were not involved in the process as they are today.”
French sports writer Stephane Gachet, who has researched Hildebrand's background, sent a letter to the IOC on March 30th of this year, along with French President Emmanuel Macron and French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea Castellas, requesting the change.
“The rule that athletes competing in the Olympics must be registered by their country of nationality was first established in 1920,” Gachet said.
“In the early days, especially before 1908, the registration process was more informal and controlled by the clubs,” he added.
Gachet is an expert on French Olympic medals and published the Dictionary of French Olympic Medalists in 2011.
According to Gachet's research and French archives, Hildebrand always competed under the flag of the Club des Sports, a sports association based in Levallois-Perret, where she lived.
“124 years later, at my request, the IOC Executive Board today approved the redistribution to France of the silver medal won by Lloyd Hildebrand at the 1900 Paris Olympic Games. I couldn't be more pleased!” Gachet said in a post on X.
Team GB also responded to the news, with a British Olympic Association spokesperson telling CNN Sport: “We are aware of the change in medal status and have benefited from situations like this before.”
“We'll try to win it again later this summer!”