Francis Henríquez de Zubiria

Francis Henriquez de Zubiría competed in tug-of-war with the Racing Club de France team that finished second at the 1900 Paris Olympics. For many years the same Henriquez de Zuberia (as it was then spelled) was considered to have competed in both rugby football and tug-of-war. From a photograph of the rugby team, he was considered to have been the first black Olympian and research traced him to Haiti as Constantin Henriquez. However, photographs of the tug-of-war team exist and no dark-skinned athlete is present. With research aided by the Spanish Olympic historian Fernando Arrechea, it is now felt that Constantin Henriquez, the Haitian, competed only in rugby football, and the tug-of-war competitor was a French national named Francis (or Francisco) Henriquez de Zubiría.

Francis Henríquez de Zubiría was born in Paris to Ricardo Carlos Henríquez and Maria Ana Antonia Clemencia de Zubiría y Osse, and was a French citizen until he took Colombian citizenship in January 1917. Henríquez de Zubiría studied medicine and worked at the Colombian embassy in Paris, also serving as a French doctor during World War I. He competed in many sports, including boxing, fencing, cycling, and shooting. In 1898, he married Maria del Carmen Florentina González (1871-1932), the adopted daughter of the millionaire Lino Martinez.