The 2024 Olympics in Paris mark the 33rd international competition since the first modern Olympics in 1896.
The nation of Tunisia entered the Summer Games for the first time in 1960. The country has participated every year since, except for the boycotted year of 1980.
Tunisia is located in Northern Africa, a relatively small outcropping of land sandwiched between Algeria and Libya.
Currently, the population is roughly 12 million people. In 1960, the nation had about one quarter that many citizens.
1960: During Tunisia’s first year ever in any Olympic competition, their pentathlon team became legendary as the most bumbling participants in history.
An explanation of the pentathlon: As the name suggests, it combines five sports into one challenge. They are fencing, horseback riding, swimming, pistol marksmanship, and running.
A Frenchman reimagined the sport from the original Greek Olympics to reflect the basic requirements of a soldier in battle (or at least a soldier from over 100 years ago).
The swimming contest is a 300 meter freestyle.
Fencing is a one-on-one challenge.
Shooters are given an air pistol and must hit targets at a pace of ten meters (about 11 yards).
Cross country running had been 4 km (2.48 miles) but recently was cut to three km.
The equestrian portion requires jumping a horse over roughly a dozen barriers - despite the riders never meeting the animals until minutes before the competition.
The 1960 Tunisian trio who entered the pentathlon had little experience in most of the events, and it showed.
During the swim meet, one of the Tunisian athletes had to be rescued from the pool over fear he might drown.
In the equestrian competition, the horses didn’t take to any of the three Tunisians and each man got thrown off his animal.
In the marksmanship portion, one of the men narrowly avoided shooting a judge.
Most absurd of all, though, was the fencing competition. Only one of the three athletes had any ability with an epee, so they used him all three times. They hoped the mesh mask covering his face would hide his identity. However, the judges discovered that the same man fought in all three matches and disqualified their combined fencing scores.
No other athletes before or since reached that level of incompetence.
Not all Tunisian Olympians have been such failures, however. Just four years later in 1964, Mohamad Gammoudi won medals for his country in long-distance races. He repeated that in ’68 and ’72.
To date, Tunisia has amassed 15 medals throughout the decades.
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