With the Olympic Games well under way in fancy London Town, it would be very predictable to write about whether motorsport should be in the Olympics. And doubtless I will be that predictable before long.

But much more interesting is something that I stumbled on while thinking about that: motorsport nearly was an Olympic sport in 1900. Sort of.

Paris 1900: more ‘motoring’ than ‘motorsport’

There were seven ‘automobilisme’ – or ‘motoring’ – categories in the Paris 1900 Olympic Games, and 16 events in total. But they were all exhibition rather than full Olympic events, and calling all but one of the categories ‘motorsport’ is rather generous.

The one recognisable motorsport category was essentially a rally, Paris-Toulouse-Paris, over three stages including timed sections. There were events for passenger cars, small cars and motorcycles.

The rest of the events were more like reliability tests than races, the vehicles having to cover a set distance on a given course, repeated on multiple days. These events were judged on the likes of reliability, fuel consumption, comfort. Really not motorsport, then.

Nevertheless, the full list of categories and events is quite interesting:

• Paris-Toulouse-Paris (Courses de vitesse)
  Passenger Cars (Voitures)
  Small Cars (Voiturettes)
  Motorcycles (Motocycles)
• Passenger Cars (Voitures de tourisme)
  2 seater cars weighing more than 400kg
  4 seater cars weighing more than 400kg
  6 seater cars weighing more than 400kg
  Cars with more than 6 seats
• Motorcycles (Motocycles)
• Taxis and Delivery Cars (Voitures de place et de livraison)
  Taxis with petrol engine
  Taxis with electric engine
  Delivery Cars with petrol engine
  Delivery Cars with electric engine
• Small Cars (Voiturettes)
  2 seater cars weighing less than 250kg
  2 seater cars weighing less than 400kg
• Lightweight Trucks (Poids légers)
• Trucks (Poids lourds)

Some of the winners are notable, too. The small car class of the Paris-Toulouse-Paris event was won by Louis Renault; his brother and fellow Renault founder Marcel also entered, but did not finish. Peugeot were around and about too, competing in quite a number of events.

London 1908: just motor boats in the end

Motoring events were originally scheduled for the 1908 Olympic Games when they were due to be held in Rome, and also when they were moved to London after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. They didn’t take place, but motor boats did compete.

Sources & Further Reading

Motorsport at the 1900 Paris Olympic Games by Jeroen Heijmans is an excellent, fuller account of all this and more, from the Journal of Olympic History Volume 10 September 2002 Number 3, via the LA84 Foundation.

The 1900 Official Olympic Report is also available online, via the Olympic Games Museum, if you fancy a long, baffling, French read.

Photo Credit
Dave Catchpole – Flickr – Some rights reserved