#11: Ballooning — Paris 1900
The 1900 Paris exposition included extensive ballooning contests involving distance, duration, altitude, accuracy, and other aeronautical challenges. Because the Olympic Games were deeply entangled with the exposition, these competitions are sometimes casually described as Olympic ballooning. Modern historians are more careful: ballooning was not part of the medal program recognized today by the IOC. Still, the spectacle belongs to the wonderfully chaotic world surrounding Paris 1900, when organizers seemed willing to consider practically anything involving competition, machinery, or somebody floating dramatically above France.
