Editing 1900 Summer Olympics (section)

== Olympic status of sports and events ==
The 1900 Games were not governed by a specific Olympic organizing committee, but were instead held as an appendage to the [[Exposition Universelle (1900)|1900 World's Fair]]. An enormous number of events was held, though many fall short of the standards later required for Olympic championship status.

After the several initial editions of the Olympic Games, decisions as to which Olympic events were termed "official" and which had "unofficial" or "demonstration" status were usually left to the Olympic organizing committees and/or the [[IOC]]. In the early Olympic Games, however, no decision as to the official status of any event was made at the time of the Games.

While a document from 1912 exists, listing results from the 1900 Games, and formed the original basis of the results of the Paris games in the IOC database, the reliability and authenticity of this paper has been questioned by Olympic historians.<ref name=status>"Olympic or not?" – article by Herman de Wael – Journal of Olympic History – January 2003</ref> Further complicating matters, the IOC has never determined which events were Olympic and which were not.<ref name="KLWT"/>

All events satisfying all four of the retrospective selection criteria (restricted to amateurs, international participation, open to all competitors and without handicapping) are now regarded by historians as Olympic events, except for ballooning, while croquet, motorboating and boules satisfied three of these criteria (as only French athletes competed).

Of the three events that satisfied three criteria, only croquet has been accorded Olympic status.<ref name="Mallon"/> In this regard, one of the ten croquet players, [[Marcel Haëntjens]], had been believed to be Belgian, and the croquet events were thus considered as international. Despite the Flemish name, it was discovered in recent times that Haëntjens was French.

Like all the Olympic events widely regarded as official, there were other events conducted during the [[Exposition Universelle (1900)|1900 World's Fair]]:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gbrathletics.com/olympic/other.htm |title=Demonstration and unofficial sports |publisher=GBRathletics |access-date=February 10, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219030419/http://www.gbrathletics.com/olympic/other.htm |archive-date=February 19, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Soltis |first=Greg |url=http://www.livescience.com/2782-olympic-events-history.html |title=Olympic Events Through History |publisher=LiveScience |date=July 27, 2012 |access-date=February 10, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222203733/http://www.livescience.com/2782-olympic-events-history.html |archive-date=February 22, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="KLWT"/>
* [[Angling at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Angling]]
* [[Ballooning at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Ballooning]] (hydrogen-filled, non-fueled<ref name="reportb">{{cite book|title=Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1900 a Paris. Concours Internationaux D'Exercices Physiques et de Sports. Rapports Publies Sous La Direction de M. D. Merillon.|author=Ministere du Commerce de L'Industrie des Postes et des Telegraphes|location = Paris|date=1902|publisher=Imprimerie Nationale|pages=178, 250–275}}</ref>)
* [[Baseball at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Baseball]]
* [[Boules at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Boules]]
* [[Cannon shooting at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Cannon shooting]]
* [[Fire fighting at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Fire fighting]]
* [[Kite flying at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Kite flying]]
* [[Life saving at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Life saving]]
* [[Longue paume at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Longue paume]]
* [[Military exercise at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Military exercise]]
* [[Motor racing at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Motor racing]]
* [[Motorcycle racing at the Summer Olympics|Motorcycle racing]]
* [[Pigeon racing at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Pigeon racing]]
* [[Water motorsports at the 1900 Summer Olympics|Water motorsports]]

Scholastic and military events were also held across a range of sports. Four planned competitions were not organized due to a lack of participants: {{ill|balle au tamis|fr}}, [[field hockey]], [[jeu de paume]] and [[lacrosse]].<ref name="Drevon 2000">{{cite book | last=Drevon | first=A. | title=Les Jeux olympiques oubliés: Paris 1900 | publisher=CNRS | year=2000 | isbn=978-2-271-05838-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJyBAAAAMAAJ | language=fr | access-date=2024-01-28 | page=31}}</ref>