[9] The general committee for the organization of water sports was chaired by Admiral Victor Duperré and included senators and former ministers such as Édouard Barbey and Pierre Baudin, but above all many presidents of fishing associations.

[14][15] Its vice-presidents were: All the other members were like them bourgeois and middle class personnalities presiding over local or departmental fishing societies.

[16] Its vice-presidents were:[16] Its members were:[16] Of the 600 contestants, 560 were French and the 40 others came from Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

[16] Fishermen, who could be men or women, French or foreigners, of 18 years and above and, could enter as individual contestants or as members of fishing societies.

Individual contestants were encouraged to compete in the same heats as the fishing societies of their hometowns in order to simplify the organization.

[citation needed] The competitions were scheduled to take place over four days starting on Sunday, August 5, in the Seine, on its left arm created by the Île aux Cygnes, between the Pont d'Iéna and the Pont de Grenelle, at the foot of the main sites of the Universal Exhibition.

Finally, just before the start of the competition, on July 27 and 28, accidental pollution caused by a sewer at the Pont de la Concorde killed more than 30 tons of fish in the river.

[18] The organizing committee warned in the rules that there are no salmon to be caught in the Seine and that one must instead count on roach, bleak, chub, gudgeon, bream, hotu (which the jury calls "mullet"), barbel, carp, perch and pike; more rarely monkfish, dace, tench and eel.

[1] La Pêche moderne attacked the organizers of the angling competition, joking that contestants should have brought their own fish.

[1][16] During one of the non-Parisians' heats, Mrs. B,[Note 1] member of the Fishermen Society of Amiens, finished among the first ten and thus qualified for the final on Wednesday.

[19][20][21] The biggest fish was caught by Élie Lesueur from Amiens, who received the title of "world champion" and whom the Président de la République Émile Loubet gave a trophy to.

Their exploits earned them a triumphant welcome on their return to Amiens, where they were referred to in official speeches as "the first angling society in the entire world".

), 2,400 on preparing the competition venue (including mowing the grass on the bank), 2,500 in personnel costs and, above all, 5,600 francs in prizes during the heats and the concours d'honneur.

A mere 46 francs were paid by spectators on Sunday before the organization committee decided that the entrance would be free.

[5][6][23] The ambiguity is based on the competition that developed after the 1896 Summer Olympic Games held in Athens between Pierre de Coubertin, who wanted to organize the Games of the Second Olympiad in Paris but who was unable to get his project off the ground, and Alfred Picard, the Commissioner General of the Universal Exhibition, who wanted to organize "international competitions for physical exercises and sports" as part of the Exhibition.