Swimming at the 1900 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre team swimming

Men's 200 metre team swimming at the Games of the II Olympiad
Venue	River Seine
Date	August 12
Competitors	20 from 2 nations
Medalists
Deutscher Schwimm-Verband Berlin  Germany   Tritons Lillois  France   Pupilles de Neptune de Lille  France

Swimming at the 1900 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
200 m		men
1000 m		men
4000 m		men
Backstroke
200 m		men
Other
200 m team		men
200 m obstacle		men
Underwater		men

The men's 200 metre team swimming was an event on the swimming at the 1900 Summer Olympics schedule in Paris. It was held on August 12, 1900. 20 swimmers from two nations constituted four teams; 18 of the swimmers actually swam.

There were four heats, with five swimmers in each heat. Scoring used a fairly strange system—swimmers were seeded into the heats, then received a number of points depending on what place they received in which heat. The five swimmers in the first heat were given between 1 and 5 points, with the winner receiving 1 and points increasing with place. The swimmers in the second heat received between 6 and 10 points, and so on. The scores of the five swimmers on a team were summed, and the team with the fewest points won. This gave a strong advantage to the German team, which had three swimmers in the first heat, and an equally strong disadvantage to the Parisian team, with three swimmers in the fourth heat.

If points are given by best time regardless of heat, the Pupilles de Neptune and the Tritons switch places, though the Germans still win and the Parisian team still takes fourth.^[1]

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Place	Swimmer	Team	Time	Points
1	Ernst Hoppenberg (GER)	Deutscher Schwimm-Verband Berlin	2:35.4	1
2	Max Hainle (GER)	Deutscher Schwimm-Verband Berlin	2:36.0	2
3	Maurice Hochepied (FRA)	Tritons Lillois	2:53.0	3
4	Julius Frey[2] (GER)	Deutscher Schwimm-Verband Berlin	2:55.0	4
5	Bertrand (FRA)	Tritons Lillois	3:00.0	5

Heat 2

Place	Swimmer	Team	Time	Points
1	Max Schöne[3] (GER)	Deutscher Schwimm-Verband Berlin	2:42.0	6
2	Jules Clévenot (FRA)	Libellule de Paris	2:45.0	7
3	René Tartara (FRA)	Pupilles de Neptune de Lille	2:48.6	8
4	Désiré Mérchez (FRA)	Pupilles de Neptune de Lille	2:55.4	9
5	B. Rosier (FRA)	Libellule de Paris	3:04.4	10

Heat 3

Place	Swimmer	Team	Time	Points
1	Louis Martin (FRA)	Pupilles de Neptune de Lille	2:51.4	11
2	Victor Hochepied (FRA)	Tritons Lillois	2:56.4	12
3	Jules Verbecke (FRA)	Tritons Lillois	3:01.6	13
4	Georges Leuillieux (FRA)	Pupilles de Neptune de Lille	2:55.0	14

Heat 4

Place	Swimmer	Team	Time	Points
1	R. Féret (FRA)	Libellule de Paris	3:00.4	15
2	Gasaigne (FRA)	Libellule de Paris	3:02.0	16
3	Pelloy (FRA)	Libellule de Paris	3:06.0	17
4	Victor Cadet (FRA)	Tritons Lillois	3:18.0	18

Did not start

The following two swimmers did not compete and thus earned 20 points for their teams:

• Herbert von Petersdorff, Deutscher Schwimm-Verband Berlin
• Houben, Pupilles de Neptune de Lille

Team scores

The final was held on August 12.

Place	Team	Swimmers	Nation	Points
1	Deutscher Schwimm-Verband Berlin	Ernst Hoppenberg Max Hainle Julius Frey Max Schöne Herbert von Petersdorff	Germany (GER)	33 1+2+4+6+20
2	Tritons Lillois	Maurice Hochepied Bertrand Victor Hochepied Jules Verbecke Victor Cadet	France (FRA)	51 3+5+12+13+18
3	Pupilles de Neptune de Lille	René Tartara Désiré Mérchez Louis Martin Georges Leuillieux Houben[4]	France (FRA)	62 8+9+11+14+20
4	Libellule de Paris	Jules Clévenot Rosier R. Féret Gasaigne Pelloy	France (FRA)	65 7+10+15+16+17

Notes

1. ↑ Mallon, pp. 201, 205-6
2. ↑ Mallon gives this swimmer as Ernest Luhrsen.
3. ↑ Mallon gives this swimmer as Gustav Lexau.
4. ↑ Houben did not actually compete; however, he is listed in the IOC's medal database as part of the Neptune team.

References

• International Olympic Committee medal database
• Official Olympic Report