Paul Masson

Paul Michel Pierre Adrien Masson, born on 11 October 1876, was a French cyclist who raced at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. In 1895 his application for the French World Championship national team was rejected until he won two major races later that year and secured his place. He was nineteen when he rode three track events on the same day at the 1896 Games and won all three: the 2 kilometre sprint at the Neo Phaliron Velodrome, which he won by two seconds from the Greek Stamatios Nikolopoulos and the Frenchman Léon Flameng, the 10 kilometre race, in which he narrowly beat Flameng, and the one lap time trial, which he finished in 24 seconds, two seconds faster than Nikolopoulos. After the Olympics he turned professional and changed his name to Paul Nassom, an anadrome of Masson. He died on 30 November 1944.