Three athletes from Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

competed in five sports at the 1896 Summer Olympics

1896 Summer Olympics

The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was a multi-sport event celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896. It was the first international Olympic Games held in the Modern era...

in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

. Two of the three combined to win a gold medal, two silvers, and three bronzes, while Eugen Schmidt

Eugen Schmidt

Eugen Stahl Schmidt was a Danish shooter, athlete, and tug of war competitor. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens and at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris....

 earned no medals. Viggo Jensen

Viggo Jensen

Alexander Viggo Jensen was a Danish weightlifter, shooter, gymnast, and athlete. He was the first Danish Olympic champion, at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens....

 contributed one of each color, while Holger Nielsen

Holger Nielsen

Holger Louis Nielsen was a Danish fencer, shooter, and athlete. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. He is probably best known for drawing up the first modern set of rules for the game of handball.-Fencing:Nielsen's main sport was fencing, in which he competed in the sabre...

 earned the second silver and two bronzes. Shooting

Shooting sports

A shooting sport is a competitive sport involving tests of proficiency using various types of guns such as firearms and airguns . Hunting is also a shooting sport, and indeed shooting live pigeons was an Olympic event...

 and weightlifting were Denmark's most successful sports. Denmark had 15 entries in 12 events, winning six medals.

Silver

• Viggo Jensen - weightlifting, one-handed
• Holger Nielsen
  Holger Nielsen
  Holger Louis Nielsen was a Danish fencer, shooter, and athlete. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. He is probably best known for drawing up the first modern set of rules for the game of handball.-Fencing:Nielsen's main sport was fencing, in which he competed in the sabre...
  
   - shooting, free pistol

Bronze

• Viggo Jensen - shooting, free rifle
• Holger Nielsen - fencing, sabre
• Holger Nielsen - shooting, rapid fire pistol

Athletics

Denmark's three athletes had little success in the 100 metres or the discus throw. Jensen took fourth place in the shot put

Shot put

The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" a heavy metal ball—the shot—as far as possible. It is common to use the term "shot put" to refer to both the shot itself and to the putting action....

 competition, the closest to an athletics medal the Danish team came.

Event	Place	Athlete	Heat	Final
100 metres	–	Eugen Schmidt Eugen Schmidt Eugen Stahl Schmidt was a Danish shooter, athlete, and tug of war competitor. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens and at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris....	Unknown	Did not advance

Event	Place	Athlete	Best mark
Shot put	4th	Viggo Jensen Viggo Jensen Alexander Viggo Jensen was a Danish weightlifter, shooter, gymnast, and athlete. He was the first Danish Olympic champion, at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens....	Unknown
Discus throw	–	Viggo Jensen	Unknown
		Holger Nielsen Holger Nielsen Holger Louis Nielsen was a Danish fencer, shooter, and athlete. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. He is probably best known for drawing up the first modern set of rules for the game of handball.-Fencing:Nielsen's main sport was fencing, in which he competed in the sabre...	Unknown

Fencing

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

Event	Place	Fencer	Record		Touches		Round-robin	Final
			Wins	Losses	For	Against
Sabre	3rd	Holger Nielsen Holger Nielsen Holger Louis Nielsen was a Danish fencer, shooter, and athlete. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. He is probably best known for drawing up the first modern set of rules for the game of handball.-Fencing:Nielsen's main sport was fencing, in which he competed in the sabre...	2	2	10	9	3rd	None held

Opponent nation	Wins	Losses	Percent
Austria Austria at the 1896 Summer Olympics Three sportsmen from Austria competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics. Though Austria was then a part of Austria-Hungary, most sources separate Austrian competitors from the Hungarians at the 1896 Games.-Medalists:...	1	0	1.000
Greece Greece at the 1896 Summer Olympics Greece was the host nation of the 1896 Summer Olympics held in Athens. The number of Greek contestants is commonly cited as 169, but as many as 176 Greeks contested events in all nine sports. The Greeks were by far the most successful nation in terms of total medals with 46, 26 more than the...	1	2	.333
Total	2	2	.500

Gymnastics

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 save that it was less than 12.5 metres, the distance of the bronze medallist.

Event	Place	Gymnast	Height
Rope climbing	4th	Viggo Jensen Viggo Jensen Alexander Viggo Jensen was a Danish weightlifter, shooter, gymnast, and athlete. He was the first Danish Olympic champion, at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens....	Unknown

Shooting

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.

Event	Place	Shooter	Score	Hits
Military rifle	6th	Viggo Jensen Viggo Jensen Alexander Viggo Jensen was a Danish weightlifter, shooter, gymnast, and athlete. He was the first Danish Olympic champion, at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens....	1640	30
	12th	Eugen Schmidt Eugen Schmidt Eugen Stahl Schmidt was a Danish shooter, athlete, and tug of war competitor. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens and at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris....	845	12
	–	Holger Nielsen Holger Nielsen Holger Louis Nielsen was a Danish fencer, shooter, and athlete. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. He is probably best known for drawing up the first modern set of rules for the game of handball.-Fencing:Nielsen's main sport was fencing, in which he competed in the sabre...	Did not finish
Free rifle	3rd	Viggo Jensen	1305	31
Military pistol	5th	Holger Nielsen	Unknown
Rapid fire pistol	3rd	Holger Nielsen	Unknown
Free pistol	2nd	Holger Nielsen	285	Unknown

Weightlifting

Jensen tied Launceston Elliot

Launceston Elliot

Launceston Elliot was a Scottish weightlifter. He was the first British Olympic champion.Launceston Elliot was born in India. His family was an established part of the Scottish aristocracy with Lord Minto being head of the family which had strong connections with India. The 4th Earl Minto served...

 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.

Event	Place	Weightlifter	Best lift
One handed	2nd	Viggo Jensen Viggo Jensen Alexander Viggo Jensen was a Danish weightlifter, shooter, gymnast, and athlete. He was the first Danish Olympic champion, at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens....	57.0 kilograms
Two handed	1st	Viggo Jensen	111.5 kilograms