France Retroactively Given Cycling Silver Medal From 1900 Olympics

Great Britain was originally credited for Lloyd Hildebrand's second-place finish.

Jul 29, 2021; Tokyo, Japan; A general overall view of the Olympic rings outside of New National Stadium, the venue for track and field and opening and closing ceremonies during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

It may seem hard to believe given the absence of heavier-than-air flight and five U.S. states, but sports were around in 1900.

The Brooklyn Superbas (today's Los Angeles Dodgers) won the National League title. The Montreal Shamrocks won the Stanley Cup. Yale was recognized as the best team in college football and men's college basketball. And Paris hosted the Olympics.

Ahead of another Paris Olympics this summer, the International Olympic Committee made waves Thursday by taking a silver medal given to Great Britain in those 1900 Games and reallocating it to France. The long-ago medal was won by Lloyd Hildebrand in the men's 25-kilometer race.

"Recent research has now concluded that, even though Hildebrand was a British citizen, he was born and brought up in France, and competed for a French club before and after Paris 1900," the IOC said in a Thursday statement via Karolos Grohmann of Reuters.

Hildebrand, who died in 1924, won a bronze medal in the cycling world championships the same year.