It has, however, enjoyed a brief spell in the Olympic spotlight; four days, to be precise, between August 5 and 8, 1900, in the French capital Paris.

As a free spectacle, the competition was a considerable success, with more than 20,000 spectators said to have been attracted in total to a stretch of the Seine adjacent to the elongated, 850-metre-long Swan Island (Île aux Cygnes), where a replica of the Statue of Liberty is located.

This actually means that the event was located much closer to the heart of the 1900 Exposition Universelle, or world's fair, of which the 1900 Olympics was an adjunct, than most other sports contests.

Women were among the nearly 600 fishing competitors who each paid three francs for the right to enter. This was regarded as a major achievement for an activity then largely practised by working men with no leisure-time at their disposal during the week.

Paris 1900 took place in an era long before the concept of autonomy for international sports bodies had gained any serious traction, and the French State was in firm control of the angling event along with everything else.

In his report on proceedings, Émile Ehret, a former Interior Ministry official who was President of the angling association charged with organising the event, justified inclusion of a fishing competition in terms of the need to drive down French imports of freshwater fish.

"We must react, because our waterways, which are today ruined, ought to contain wealth that can be valued at around a billion francs," Ehret said.

He went on: "There are at least a million and a half anglers with rods in France. If fish stocks are increased, that number will double in a very short time."

The Seine nonetheless contained at the time of the Games a diverse range of species. These included roach, chub, common bleak, gudgeon, bream, varieties of grey mullet, small barbel, carp, perch and pike. Scarcer but also present were dace, tench, monkfish and eel.

Unfortunately, on July 27 and 28, just a week before its scheduled start, the event suffered a severe setback when pollution downstream from the Concorde bridge destroyed about 30,000 kilograms of fish.

While large quantities of small fry, that could quickly be put back in the water, remained in the river, these episodes changed the character of the entire competition.

The opening one and a half-hour session on Sunday August 5 in front of a particularly big crowd had been earmarked for non-French anglers. These included in their ranks Britons, Netherlanders, Belgians, Germans and Italians.

Understandably, with two-thirds of the prize-money on offer promised to the competitor who caught the biggest fish, this was exactly what the contestants - who were limited to a single line with at most two hooks - endeavoured to do.

With big fish now in extremely short supply after the previous week’s incidents, nearly all came up empty-handed.

Only 17 fish in total were caught and every single non-French competitor eliminated.

A second group of contestants, from Amiens, focused on capturing smaller specimens, and enjoyed far greater success, with just over 100 fish landed.

The two groups of Parisian anglers scheduled to perform on the competition’s third day, meanwhile, put previous efforts firmly in the shade, capturing more than 900 fish between them.

The fourth and last day was, in effect, a final, with the 57 best performers from the previous sessions reassembling on the riverbank. 

Once again, fish were in plentiful supply, with 881 caught over the contest's two-and-a-half-hour duration.

The biggest fish, although we do not know how big, was landed by one of the Amiens anglers.

As for the other prizes, based on the number of fish caught, first place went to an angler from Louveciennes, in the capital's western suburbs; second was a competitor from Amiens, while Parisians captured third, fourth and fifth places.

Just as the 1900 Games predated serious notions of sports autonomy, they predated Olympic volunteers.

The commissaires stewarding the angling contest were all paid and came from the Seine Prefecture and the Ministries of Agriculture and Public Works.

On each of the four days, the Honorary Presidency of the event was held by a different senior Government official; the Minister of Agriculture had the honour of fulfilling this role for the grand finale.

Sadly, the event was anything but a financial success, with costs exceeding 18,000 francs and receipts totalling just 1,546 francs.

As the Official Report commented drily: "The snack bar barely covered its costs."