France at the 1900 Summer Olympics games, taking top prize in the tournament. France matched Great Britain in gold medals won in the inaugural sailing events in 1900, but took 16 of the 20 silver and bronze medals (8 each). 76 French sailors took part. France competed again in shooting at the second modern Olympic Games. France won the most medals in the sport that year with 10, but took only three gold medals to Switzerland's five. France sent a team to compete in the tug of war competition in 1900, losing to a combined Denmark-Sweden team. France at the 1900 Summer Olympics France was the
Olympic Games Evangelos Zappas, a wealthy Greek-Romanian philanthropist, first wrote to King Otto of Greece, in 1856, offering to fund a permanent revival of the Olympic Games. Zappas sponsored the first Olympic Games in 1859, which was held in an Athens city square. Athletes participated from Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Zappas funded the restoration of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium so that it could host all future Olympic Games. The stadium hosted Olympics in 1870 and 1875. Thirty thousand spectators attended that Games in 1870, though no official attendance records are available for the 1875 Games. In 1890, after attending the Olympian