The Paris Games were a heartbreaking disappointment to Baron Pier de Coubertin, the founder of the Olympic movement and a proud French patriot. The Sporting spectacle he envisioned was reduced to a side show in the world exhibition held in Paris that year. Devastated, de Coubertin refused to take part in the staging of the Games. Attendance was very poor, organization was chaotic, and many competitors did not even realize that they were taking part in the Olympic Games. Twenty-six nations competed in the Games spread out over five months. Women made their first Olympic appearance but numbered only 19 out of 1,225 athletes.