The second Olympic Games were held in Paris, France. They were a disaster. To start with the games were held as part of the 1900 World’s Fair which was being held in Paris. The games lasted from May 20th to October 28th. The games were poorly organized and poorly attended. Some of the athletes didn’t even know that the competition they had taken part in- were actually the Olympic Games. They had no opening ceremonies and no closing ceremonies. They had no track for the races to be run on-the races were run on grass. The swimming events were held on Seine River which had extremely currents. In the discus and hammer throw  if the competitors threw too far they landed on trees. In the hurdles they made the hurdles out of broken telephone poles.

1319 men and 11 women took part in the games. Women did not take part in the 1996 Athens Games. 22 countries were represented 95 events in 11 different sports.  The medal totals – France came out with the most gold medals with 29 and 102 medals total. The United States won 20 gold and 53 total. Great Britain came in third in the medal count with 17 gold and 35 overall. Greece which had won the most medals in the 1896 Athens Games -came up empty-no medals at all.

Most of the athletes didn’t receive medals -they received cups or trophies instead.

These games were considered a failure. At this point the future of the Olympic Games did not look all that certain.