A silver medal, won in a track cycling event at the 1900 Olympic Games, has been scored off Great Britain’s Olympic tally and reassigned to France.
Lloyd Hildebrand claimed second in the men’s 25km race over a century ago, when he was said to be of British nationality.
New information has since revealed that Hildebrand “was born and brought up in France”, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), whose executive board approved the reassignment of the medal in a meeting on Thursday.
“Even though Hildebrand was a British citizen, he was born and brought up in France, and competed for a French club before and after Paris 1900,” the IOC said in a statement.
“The medal won by Hildebrand will now be credited to France instead of Great Britain in the official records of the Olympic Games Paris 1900 and in the IOC’s database.”
At the time of the 1900 Olympics, athletes signed up for the Games using the number of their race licence, issued by the country where they tended to compete. As a British citizen, regularly racing in the UK, Hildebrand was therefore considered British.
Today, the athlete registration process is more rigorous, managed by each country’s National Olympic Committee, like the British Olympic Association for Team GB.
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As a result of Hildebrand’s nationality reassignment, France took a clean sweep in the 25km track event, which was won by Louis Bastien, an athlete who also competed in fencing at the 1900 Games.
In response to losing a historic medal, a Team GB spokesperson told the BBC: “We were aware of the change of status for the medal, and have ourselves benefited in such circumstances before.
“We shall try to win one back later this summer!”
This July, the Olympics will return to Paris, where Great Britain will be favourites in a range of disciplines, having topped the medal table in each of the last four Games.
The cycling events will open with the individual time trials on 27 July, and close with the final races on the track on 11 August. The road races will take place on the weekend of 3-4 August, starting and finishing in front of the Eiffel Tower.
