This week in Olympic history: 20-26 May – Olympic champion Jesse Owens and the greatest 45 minutes of sport

On this day – 25 May 1924: Football begins at Paris 1924

At the Olympic Games Paris 1924, most of the competitions took place between June and July, with the exception of two disciplines, which began a month earlier in May.

Rugby Union was the first sport to contest for a medal, with the competition held between 4-18 May. The USA beat the hosts to win gold.

This week, we’re looking back on football, which kicked off its sixth year of being an Olympic sport on 25 May 1924. A hundred years ago to the date, just over 18,000 people piled into Stade Olympique in Colombes to watch Italy take on Spain in a tense affair.

Ultimately, Spain would be the architects of their own defeat when Pedro Vallana‘s own-goal in the 84th minute was enough to give the Italians the win.

Here are the other games from that opening round of fixtures:

• Czechoslovakia 5-2 Türkiye | Stade Bergeyre, Paris
• Switzerland 9-0 Lithuania | Stade Pershing, Vincennes
• United States 1-0 Estonia | Stade Pershing, Vincennes

Competition debutants Uruguay would go on to win gold, beating Switzerland 3-0 in the final on 9 June. Sweden, meanwhile, got the better of the Netherlands across two legs in the play-off for bronze, winning 3-1 after an initial 1-1 draw.