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A boules event was an unofficial sport at 1900 Olympic Games in Paris. It was a popular sport in France at the time. In boules, like in bocce, the players try to roll heavy balls close to a small 'jack'. Two versions were played, Jeu Lyonnais (game of Lyon) and Partie de Berges (party of Berges?).

Jeu Lyonnais is similar to the modern game of pétanque, except that the playing area was longer and players ran three steps before throwing the ball. Pétanque in its present form was not played until about 1910.

Results

It is not known if there were participants from other countries - all the winners listed below are from France.

• Jeu Lyonnais: France 21, France 11
• Partie de Berges: France 9, France 1

The disciplines of the boules sports include the following:

• Lyonnaise: In this sport, the athlete takes a run-up before releasing the boules aiming to end closest to a small target ball on a carpet. It features two events - Precision Shooting and Progressive Shooting.
  The athlete that scores the most points wins the game in Precision Shooting, while all athletes compete over a five-minute period in each round in Progressive Shooting. The athlete with the highest overall score at the end of all the rounds wins.
• Pétanque: This boules discipline is played from a stationary position and features two events - Doubles and Precision Shooting. The game ends when one team gets 13 points in Pétanque Doubles. At the end of each round, the team with the boule closest to the jack wins.
  In Pétanque Precision Shooting, each shooter performs a series of twenty shots and the athlete with the most point wins the match.

Boules Sport at the World Games

Boules sport was first featured at the 1985 London World Games. It was also featured at the 1989 Karlsruhe World Games and 1993 The Hague World Games, with just Pétanque as the only discipline in the sport.

At the 1997 Lahti World Games, Lyonnaise was added as an invitational sport alongside Pétanque. Then, at the 2001 Akita World games, Lyonnaise and Pétanque were added as main disciplines in Boules sport. 

Raffa was another boules sport discipline that featured at the 2009 Kaohsiung World Games. It was also featured at the 2013 Kail World Games and the 2017 Wroclaw World Games until it was removed at the 2022 Birmingham World Games.

The two events featured at the 2025 Chengdu World Games were Lyonnaise and Pétanque. Here are the medalists who won gold at the end of this event:

Related Pages

• Demonstration Sports and Events at Paris 1900
• Full list of all Demonstration Sports
• Sports at the Olympic Games
• About Boules Sports

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