Denmark at the 1896 Summer Olympics

Three athletes from Denmark competed in five sports at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. Two of the three combined to win a gold medal, two silvers, and three bronzes, while Eugen Schmidt earned no medals. Viggo Jensen contributed one of each color, while Holger Nielsen earned the second silver and two bronzes. Shooting and weightlifting were Denmark's most successful sports. Denmark had 15 entries in 12 events, winning six medals.

Denmark at the 1896 Summer Olympics
IOC code	DEN
NOC	National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark
Website	www.dif.dk (in Danish and English)
in Athens, Greece April 6, 1896 – April 15, 1896
Competitors	3 in 5 sports and 12 events
Medals Ranked 9th	Gold 1 Silver 2 Bronze 3 Total 6
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

Medalists

Further information: 1896 Summer Olympics medal table and List of 1896 Summer Olympics medal winners

The following competitors won medals at the games. In the discipline sections below, the medalists' names are bolded.

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
Gold	Viggo Jensen	Weightlifting	Men's two hand lift	April 7
Silver	Holger Nielsen	Shooting	Men's 30 m free pistol	April 11
Silver	Viggo Jensen	Weightlifting	Men's one hand lift	April 7
Bronze	Holger Nielsen	Fencing	Men's sabre	April 9
Bronze	Viggo Jensen	Shooting	Men's 300 m free rifle, three positions	April 12
Bronze	Holger Nielsen	Shooting	Men's 25 m rapid fire pistol	April 11

Medals by sport
Sport				Total
Weightlifting	1	1	0	2
Shooting	0	1	2	3
Fencing	0	0	1	1
Total	1	2	3	6

Multiple medalists

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

Name	Medal	Sport	Event
Viggo Jensen	Gold   Silver   Bronze	Weightlifting Shooting	Men's two hand lift Men's one hand lift Men's 300 metre free rifle
Holger Nielsen	Silver   Bronze   Bronze	Shooting Fencing	Men's 30 metre pistol Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol Men's sabre

Competitors

The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games. Sport Men Women Total Athletics 3 0 3 Fencing 1 0 1 Gymnastics 1 0 1 Shooting 2 0 2 Weightlifting 1 0 1 Total 3^[1] 0 3

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

Athletics

Main article: Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics

 

Viggo Jensen

Denmark's three athletes had little success in the 100 metres or the discus throw. Jensen took fourth place in the shot put competition, the closest to an athletics medal the Danish team came.

Track & road events

Athlete	Event	Heat		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Eugen Schmidt	100 m	Unknown	4	Did not advance

Field events

Athlete	Event	Final
		Distance	Position
Viggo Jensen	Men's shot put	Unknown	4
Holger Nielsen		DNS
Charles Winckler		DNS
Viggo Jensen	Men's discus throw	Unknown	5-9
Holger Nielsen		Unknown	5-9
Charles Winckler		DNS

Fencing

Main article: Fencing at the 1896 Summer Olympics

One of Nielsen's two bronzes came in the fencing competition, in which he won half of his four matches.

Athlete	Event	Record		Touches		Rank
		Wins	Losses	For	Against
Holger Nielsen	Sabre	2	2	10	9

Opponent nation	Wins	Losses	Percent
Austria	1	0	1.000
Greece	1	2	.333
Total	2	2	.500

Gymnastics

Main article: Gymnastics at the 1896 Summer Olympics

Jensen placed fourth of five competitors in the rope climbing contest, not reaching the top of the 14-metre rope. His actual distance climbed is unknown but it was less than 12.5 metres, the distance of the bronze medallist.

Athlete	Event	Result	Rank
Viggo Jensen	Rope climbing	Unknown	4

Shooting

Main article: Shooting at the 1896 Summer Olympics

Jensen and Nielsen both earned bronze medals in the shooting competitions, with Nielsen also winning a silver medal. Jensen specialized in the rifle events, taking 6th of 42 and 3rd of 20 in the two events. Nielsen did not finish his rifle competition, but performed well in the pistol events, in which he won two medals and took 5th place of 16 in the third event.

Athlete	Event	Final
		Score	Rank
Viggo Jensen	Men's 200 m military rifle	1640	6
Holger Nielsen		DNF
Viggo Jensen	Men's 300 m free rifle	1305
Holger Nielsen	Men's 25 m military pistol	Unknown	5
Holger Nielsen	Men's 25 m rapid fire pistol	Unknown
Holger Nielsen	Men's 30 m pistol	285

Weightlifting

Main article: Weightlifting at the 1896 Summer Olympics

Jensen tied Launceston Elliot for weight lifted in the first event, the two handed lift. Prince George of Greece, the judge for the event, determined that Jensen had lifted the 111.5 kilograms in better style than Elliot, awarded the Dane the gold medal. In the second event, the one handed, Jensen's 57 kilograms were not close to Elliot's 71 kilograms and thus Jensen took second place in that event.

Athlete	Event	Weight	Rank
Viggo Jensen	One hand lift	57.0
Viggo Jensen	Two hand lift	111.5

References

1. Viggo Jensen competed in athletics, gymnastics, shooting and weightlifting while Holger Nielsen competed in athletics, fencing and shooting

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Denmark 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 [1])
• 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 [2])
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.