France in the Olympic Games:

Now that we are about 16 days away from the Olympic Games which will take place in London, we think it was convenient to tell you France´s place in the past Olympic Games. France has been host of the Summer Olympic Games about two times in history:

• Paris 1900:
• Opening date: May 14, 1900
• Closing date: October 28, 1900

These games were really important because women participated for the first time! The star of these Games was American Alvin Kraenzlein who won 60, 110 and 200m hurdles ant the long jump. There were also many French champions at these Games which was not surprising given several events were entered only by French competitors. In total there were 997 athletes (22 women and 975 men)

 

• Paris 1924:
• Opening date: May 4, 1924
• Closing date: July 27, 1924

These games were known as the Olympic Games of Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, the Chariots of Fire Games, immortalizes on the silver screen by Hugh Hudson. In these games the French athlete George André pronounced the Olympic oath, president Gaston Doumerge carried out the official opening ceremony. There were 3089 athletes in total (135 women and 2954 men).  

In the past Summer Olympic Games (Beijing 2008) France occupied the 10^th place in the list of countries with the biggest amount of medals obtained.  France obtained a total of 40 medals: golden: 10, Silver: 16 and bronze: 17.