1866 - 1915

Donald Mackintosh, acclaimed in his day as the finest marksman in the world, attended the 1900 Paris Olympic Games, which were something of an appendage to an international fair, the Universal Paris Exhibition. He was almost certainly unaware that he was competing in the Olympics. Those were confused Games, and it was not until many years later - well after his death in 1951 - that the International Olympic Committee was able to document all the results.

Mackintosh, who started shooting rabbits with an ancient muzzle-loader not long after he first attended primary school at Rockbank, outside Melbourne, joined his first gun club at the age of 10. He became champion of the Melbourne Gun Club, began touring overseas in 1895, and won big prizes by shooting pigeons in Europe. He won the Grand Prix of Monte Carlo twice, the London Gun Club Challenge Cup (five times), the Grand Prize of Italy, the Grand Prize Aix les Bains, the Belgian championship, the Milan Grand Prize and the Madrid Grand Prize. The Jockey, a respected sporting journal, hailed him as champion of the world.

During the strange turn-of-century marriage between the Olympics and the Paris Exhibition, Mackintosh won first prize in the Prix Centenaire - which attracted 166 entries - with 22 successive kills. In the Grand Prix de l’Exposition he finished third, with 18 kills. In 1992, the IOC announced that Mackintosh was now considered as deserving gold medal status. Thankfully, the 1900 Games represent the only occasion when Olympic events were devoted to the killing of animals.

Harry Gordon, AOC Historian