Great Britain at the 1896 Summer Olympics
Flag of the United Kingdom
IOC code	GBR
NOC	British Olympic Association
in Athens, Greece April 6, 1896 – April 15, 1896
Competitors	10 in 7 sports and 19 events
Medals	Gold 2 Silver 3 Bronze 2 Total 7
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024
Other related appearances
1906 Intercalated Games

Ten athletes from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland competed in seven sports at the 1896 Summer Olympics. The Great Britain athletes were the fifth most successful in terms of overall medals (7) and tied for fifth in gold medals (2). The 7 medals came on 23 entries in 14 events.

Two tennis players (one English, one Irish) also played in mixed team squads, contributing to a gold and a bronze medal. These medals are not counted as part of the Great Britain total.

Medallists

The following competitors won medals at the games. In the discipline sections below, the medalists' names are bolded. Medals awarded to participants of mixed-NOC teams are represented in italics. These medals are not counted towards the individual NOC medal tally.

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
Gold	John Pius Boland	Tennis	Singles	April 11
Gold	John Pius Boland	Tennis	Doubles	April 11
Gold	Launceston Elliot	Weightlifting	One hand lift	April 7
Silver	Grantley Goulding	Athletics	110 m hurdles	April 10
Silver	Frederick Keeping	Cycling	12 hour race	April 13
Silver	Launceston Elliot	Weightlifting	Two hand lift	April 7
Bronze	Charles Gmelin	Athletics	400 m	April 7
Bronze	Edward Battell	Cycling	Road race	April 12
Bronze	George S. Robertson	Tennis	Doubles	April 9

Medals by sport
Sport				Total
Athletics	0	1	1	2
Cycling	0	1	1	2
Tennis	1	0	0	1
Weightlifting	1	1	0	2
Total	2	3	2	7

Multiple medalists

The following competitors won multiple medals at the 1896 Olympic Games.

Name	Medal	Sport	Event
Launceston Elliot	Gold  Silver	Weightlifting	Men's one hand lift Men's two hand lift

Competitors

The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games. Sport Men Women Total Athletics 5 0 5 Cycling 2 0 2 Gymnastics 1 0 1 Shooting 2 0 2 Tennis 2 0 2 Weightlifting 1 0 1 Wrestling 1 0 1 Total 10[1] 0 10

Medals by day Day Date Total 1 6 April 0 0 0 0 2 7 April 1 1 1 3 3 8 April 0 0 0 0 4 9 April 0 0 0 0 5 10 April 0 1 0 0 6 11 April 1 0 0 1 7 12 April 0 0 1 1 8 13 April 0 1 0 0 Total 2 3 2 7

Athletics

Track & road events

Athlete	Event	Heat		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Launceston Elliot	100 m	12.9	3	Did not advance
Charles Gmelin		12.9	3	Did not advance
George Marshall		Unknown	5	Did not advance
Launceston Elliot	400 m	DNS		Did not advance
Charles Gmelin		1:00.5	2 Q	56.7
Grantley Goulding		DNS		Did not advance
George Marshall		DNS		Did not advance
George Marshall	800 m	Unknown	4	Did not advance
George Marshall	1500 m	—		DNS
Grantley Goulding	110 m hurdles	18.4	1 Q	17.7

Field events

Cycling

Track

Athlete	Event	Time / Distance	Rank
Edward Battell	Men's time trial	26.2	4
Frederick Keeping		27.0	=5
Edward Battell	100 km	DNF
Frederick Keeping	Men's 12 hour race	294.946 km

Road

Athlete	Event	Time	Rank
Edward Battell	Men's road race	Unknown
Frederick Keeping		DNS

Gymnastics

Individual

Fencing

Shooting

Merlin and Machonet were unable to win any medals in the shooting events.

Swimming

Tennis

Boland (later best known as an Irish nationalist politician) was by far the best player in the tennis competition, amassing a 6-0 record over both events and two gold medals, though one of them was as part of a mixed team. He defeated Traun in the first round of the singles competition, then teamed up with him for the doubles competition. Robertson was much less successful, losing both of the matches he played, though he was awarded a retroactive bronze medal by the International Olympic Committee as his bye in the doubles quarterfinals put him in third place in that event. Like Boland's doubles gold medal, Robertson's bronze is not counted as part of the British total because the two played on mixed teams. Some sources include George Marshall and his brother Frank; the two were entered but appear to have not competed.

Athlete	Event	First round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
John Boland	Singles	Traun (GER) W 6–0, 2–6, 6–2	Rallis (GRE) W	Paspatis (GRE) W	Kasdaglis (GRE) W 6-3, 6,1
George S. Robertson		Paspatis (GRE) L	Did not advance
Frank Marshall		DNS
George Marshall		DNS
John Boland (GBR)  Friedrich Traun (GER)	Doubles	—	Akratopoulos / Akratopoulos (GRE) W	Bye	Kasdaglis / Petrokokkinos (GRE) W 5-7, 6-4, 6-1
George S. Robertson (GBR)  Edwin Flack (AUS)		—	Bye	Kasdaglis / Petrokokkinos (GRE) L	Did not advance

Weightlifting

Elliot (born in British India of Scottish ancestry) lifted the same amount as Viggo Jensen in the two handed lift, but was declared by Prince George of Greece to have taken second place based on lifting form. In the one handed lift, he easily defeated Jensen, who lifted only 57 kilograms.

Athlete	Event	Result	Rank
Launceston Elliot	Men's one hand lift	71.0
Launceston Elliot	Men's two hand lift	111.5

Wrestling

Elliot was defeated by eventual champion Carl Schuhmann in the first round of the wrestling competition, tying for 4th and last place.

Athlete	Event	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Final
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Launceston Elliot	Men's Greco-Roman	Schuhmann (GER) L	Did not advance		=4

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great Britain at the 1896 Summer Olympics.

• Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J.; Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at )
• Mallon, Bill; Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at )
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.