Pierre Payssé

Pierre Edmond Payssé (21 November 1873 – 5 December 1938) 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. In the same year, Payssé became world champion at the horizontal bar event.

Teaching career Payssé later worked as a teacher. 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.