A tug of war tournament was held on 16 July at Catalan Cross, Boulogne Forest in Paris as part of the 1900 Summer Olympics.

The modern Olympic Games were first held in Athens in 1896,[2] and travelled to Paris four years later as part of the 1900 Exposition Universelle world's fair.

[b] Jean Collas, Charles Gondouin, and Émile Sarrade were all part of both teams,[11] while it is often misreported that another of their rugby teammates, the Haitian-born Constantin Henriquez was also on the tug of war team, but this was a case of mistaken identity due to their similar names, with Colombian-born Francisco Henríquez de Zubiría taking part in the tug of war.

[16] Dane Edgar Aabye was at the Games as a journalist for the Politiken newspaper, but was recruited into the team to make up the numbers as one of the original entrants was injured.

The Swedish paper Ny Tidning för Idrott reported that the French team "put up desperate resistance" but were unable to cope with their opponents.

The New York Herald recorded that in the second contest, a group of Americans formed a team to take on the victorious Scandinavians, beating them in two pulls, the second of which took over five minutes.

[6] In contrast, the Journal des Sports suggested that the Americans initially wanted to wear spiked shoes to take part in the match, but were then forced to remove them after protests.