Great Britain at the 1896 Summer Olympics

Great Britain at the
1896 Summer Olympics
Great Britain at the; 1896 Summer Olympics
	Flag of the United Kingdom
IOC code	GBR
NOC	British Olympic Association
in Athens, Greece; April 6, 1896 – April 15, 1896
Competitors	10 in 7 sports and 19 events
Medals	Gold 2 Silver 3 Bronze 2 Total 7
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

Ten athletes from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland competed in seven sports at the 1896 Summer Olympics. The Great Britain athletes were the fifth most successful in terms of overall medals (7) and tied for fifth in gold medals (2). The 7 medals came on 23 entries in 14 events.

Two tennis players (one English, one Irish) also played in mixed team squads, contributing to a gold and a bronze medal. These medals are not counted as part of the Great Britain total.

Medallists[edit]

The following competitors won medals at the games. In the discipline sections below, the medalists' names are bolded. Medals awarded to participants of mixed-NOC teams are represented in italics. These medals are not counted towards the individual NOC medal tally.

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
Gold	John Pius Boland	Tennis	Singles	April 11
Gold	John Pius Boland	Tennis	Doubles	April 11
Gold	Launceston Elliot	Weightlifting	One hand lift	April 7
Silver	Grantley Goulding	Athletics	110 m hurdles	April 10
Silver	Frederick Keeping	Cycling	12 hour race	April 13
Silver	Launceston Elliot	Weightlifting	Two hand lift	April 7
Bronze	Charles Gmelin	Athletics	400 m	April 7
Bronze	Edward Battell	Cycling	Road race	April 12
Bronze	George S. Robertson	Tennis	Doubles	April 9

Medals by sport
Sport				Total
Athletics	0	1	1	2
Cycling	0	1	1	2
Tennis	1	0	0	1
Weightlifting	1	1	0	2
Total	2	3	2	7

Multiple medalists[edit]

The following competitors won multiple medals at the 1896 Olympic Games.

Name	Medal	Sport	Event
Launceston Elliot	Gold Silver	Weightlifting	Men's one hand lift Men's two hand lift

Competitors[edit]

The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games.

Sport	Men	Total
Athletics	5	5
Cycling	2	2
Gymnastics	1	1
Shooting	2	2
Tennis	2	2
Weightlifting	1	1
Wrestling	1	1
Total	10^[1]	10

Medals by day
Day	Date				Total
1	6 April	0	0	0	0
2	7 April	1	1	1	3
3	8 April	0	0	0	0
4	9 April	0	0	0	0
5	10 April	0	1	0	0
6	11 April	1	0	0	1
7	12 April	0	0	1	1
8	13 April	0	1	0	0
Total		2	3	2	7

Athletics[edit]

Track & road events

Athlete	Event	Heat		Final
Athlete	Event	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Launceston Elliot	100 m	12.9	3	Did not advance
Charles Gmelin		12.9	3	Did not advance
George Marshall		Unknown	5	Did not advance
Launceston Elliot	400 m	DNS		Did not advance
Charles Gmelin		1:00.5	2 Q	56.7
Grantley Goulding		DNS		Did not advance
George Marshall		DNS		Did not advance
George Marshall	800 m	Unknown	4	Did not advance
George Marshall	1500 m	—		DNS
Grantley Goulding	110 m hurdles	18.4	1 Q	17.7

Field events

Athlete	Event	Final
Athlete	Event	Distance	Position
George S. Robertson	Men's shot put	DNS
George S. Robertson	Men's discus throw	25.20	4

Cycling[edit]

Track[edit]

Athlete	Event	Time / Distance	Rank
Edward Battell	Men's time trial	26.2	4
Frederick Keeping	Men's time trial	27.0	=5
Edward Battell	100 km	DNF
Frederick Keeping	Men's 12 hour race	294.946 km

Road[edit]

Athlete	Event	Time	Rank
Edward Battell	Men's road race	Unknown
Frederick Keeping	Men's road race	DNS

Gymnastics[edit]

Individual

Athlete	Event	Result	Rank
Launceston Elliot	Men's rope climbing	Unknown	5

Fencing[edit]

Athlete	Event	Record		Touches		Rank
Athlete	Event	Wins	Losses	For	Against	Rank
Edgar Seligman	Sabre	DNS

Shooting[edit]

Merlin and Machonet were unable to win any medals in the shooting events.

Athlete	Event	Final
Athlete	Event	Score	Rank
Machonet	Men's 200 m military rifle	Unknown	14-41
Sidney Merlin	Men's 200 m military rifle	1156	10
Sidney Merlin	Men's 300 m free rifle	Unknown	6-18
Sidney Merlin	Men's 25 m military pistol	DNF
Sidney Merlin	Men's 25 m rapid fire pistol	DNF

Swimming[edit]

Athlete	Event	Final
Athlete	Event	Time	Rank
H.F Suter	100 m freestyle	DNS
H.F Suter	500 m freestyle	DNS

Tennis[edit]

Boland (later best known as an Irish nationalist politician) was by far the best player in the tennis competition, amassing a 6-0 record over both events and two gold medals, though one of them was as part of a mixed team. He defeated Traun in the first round of the singles competition, then teamed up with him for the doubles competition. Robertson was much less successful, losing both of the matches he played, though he was awarded a retroactive bronze medal by the International Olympic Committee as his bye in the doubles quarterfinals put him in third place in that event. Like Boland's doubles gold medal, Robertson's bronze is not counted as part of the British total because the two played on mixed teams. Some sources include George Marshall and his brother Frank; the two were entered but appear to have not competed.

Athlete	Event	First round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
Athlete	Event	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
John Boland	Singles	Traun (GER) W 6–0, 2–6, 6–2	Rallis (GRE) W	Paspatis (GRE) W	Kasdaglis (GRE) W 6-3, 6,1
George S. Robertson		Paspatis (GRE) L	Did not advance
Frank Marshall		DNS
George Marshall		DNS
John Boland (GBR) Friedrich Traun (GER)	Doubles	—	Akratopoulos / Akratopoulos (GRE) W	Bye	Kasdaglis / Petrokokkinos (GRE) W 5-7, 6-4, 6-1
George S. Robertson (GBR) Edwin Flack (AUS)	Doubles	—	Bye	Kasdaglis / Petrokokkinos (GRE) L	Did not advance

Weightlifting[edit]

Elliot (born in British India of Scottish ancestry) lifted the same amount as Viggo Jensen in the two handed lift, but was declared by Prince George of Greece to have taken second place based on lifting form. In the one handed lift, he easily defeated Jensen, who lifted only 57 kilograms.

Athlete	Event	Result	Rank
Launceston Elliot	Men's one hand lift	71.0
Launceston Elliot	Men's two hand lift	111.5

Wrestling[edit]

Elliot was defeated by eventual champion Carl Schuhmann in the first round of the wrestling competition, tying for 4th and last place.

Athlete	Event	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Final
Athlete	Event	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Launceston Elliot	Men's Greco-Roman	Schuhmann (GER) L	Did not advance		=4

References[edit]

^ Launceston Elliot competed in athletics, gymnastics, weightlifting and wrestling while George S. Robertson competed in athletics and tennis.

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.

[Elliot-1] Launceston Elliot competed in athletics, gymnastics, weightlifting and wrestling while George S. Robertson competed in athletics and tennis.

[1]