Pigeon racing at the 1900 Summer Olympics

[3] The report on the "International Contests of Physical Exercise and of Sports" in Paris in 1900 lists lâcher-concours de pigeons-voyageurs (lit.

[5] Due to additional restrictions, such as not having pigeons flying in opposite directions at the same time, there were "almost as many releases" as there were competing companies, which "could only be of interest to people initiated in our sport", hence the relatively low attendance.

[5] This was due to conflicting needs when planning the competitions: pigeon races are only successful "at an early hour", Dr. Conil writes, while the majority of the public only attends events in the afternoon.

[5] Thus, the pigeon release spectacles were added to give the public something to watch that was related to the competitions, while the races themselves were done earlier in the day.

[5] As such, no "winner" was picked and rewarded separately; the event instead had an emphasis on patriotism and verifying whether pigeons from different regions of France could be used for war.