Shooting at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol

The 25 metre muzzle-loading pistol was one of the five sport shooting events on the 1896 Summer Olympics shooting programme. The armament of the American Paine brothers was disqualified because of not being "of the usual calibre" for the event (only pistols of .45 caliber were allowed). With the Paine brothers declining the offer of the Greek shooters to use their pistols, only four shooters entered the fourth shooting event. Three nations were represented. Each shooter fired five strings of six shots at a target 25 metres distant. The competition was held on 11 April and resulted in the top two places going to the Greek marksmen. Nielsen took third place and Merlin did not finish.[1]

Men's 25 metre muzzle-loading pistol at the Games of the I Olympiad
Ioannis Frangoudis
Venue	Kallithea shooting range
Date	April 11
Competitors	4 from 3 nations
Winning score	344
Medalists
Ioannis Frangoudis  Greece Georgios Orphanidis  Greece Holger Nielsen  Denmark

Background

This was the first appearance of what would become standardised as the men's ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol event, the only event on the 2020 programme that traces back to 1896. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1904 and 1928 (when no shooting events were held) and 1908; it was open to women from 1968 to 1980.[2]

Competition format

The competition had each shooter fire 30 shots, in 5 strings of 6, at a range of 25 metres. Scoring involved multiplying target hits by points scored in each string. Each target had a score of up to 6. The maximum score possible in each string of shots was 216 (6 hits times 6 scores of 6); for the 5-string total, the maximum was 1080 points. The required weapon was a .45 calibre muzzle-loading pistol.[2][3]

Schedule

The muzzle-loading pistol event was the second shooting event on the sixth day of competition, following the free pistol.[3]

Date		Time	Round
Gregorian	Julian
Saturday, 11 April 1896	Saturday, 30 March 1896	9:00	Final

Results

Rank	Shooter	Nation	Score	Hits
	Ioannis Frangoudis	Greece	344	23
	Georgios Orphanidis	Greece	249	20
	Holger Nielsen	Denmark	Unknown
–	Sidney Merlin	Great Britain	Did not finish

References

1. "Shooting at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Muzzle-Loading Pistol, 25 metres". Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
2. "Muzzle-Loading Pistol, 25 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
3. Official Report, part 2, p. 94.

• 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 978-0-7864-0379-0. (Excerpt available at )
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-86197-342-9.