Pierre Payssé

Pierre Edmond Payssé was a French gymnast and teacher. He won two gold medals at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece, and later worked to increase participation in women's sports.

Gymnastics career

At the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, Payssé competed in the Men's all-around gymnastic event, a 16-event competition that was the only gymnastics event at the Games. He finished fourth, behind fellow Frenchmen Gustave Sandras, Noël Bas and Lucien Démanet. At the 1903 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Payssé came joint second with and Jules Lecoutre in the horizontal bar event. At the 1905 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Payssé was part of the French team that won the men's team all-around event. He came third in the individual horizontal bar and parallel bars events.
Payssé won both the Individual all-around, 5 events and Individual all-around, 6 events competitions at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece. This made him one of only 16 people to win two or more gold medals at the Games. In the same year, Payssé became world champion at the horizontal bar event.

Teaching career

Payssé later worked as a teacher. In 1912, he helped to set up Fémina Sport. Fémina Sports started out as a gymnastics club, but later focused on other sports. Payssé found a permanent location for the club in 1918. In 1915, Fémina Sports competed in France's first all-female interclub athletics competition. In 1917, Payssé helped organise football matches for women's football team Fémina Sports Paris against male opposition. The matches were played for six months until they were blocked by the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques, who banned men's football teams in their union from playing women's football teams. In December 1917, Payssé helped to set up the Fédération des Sociétés Féminines Sportives de France.