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Toulouse Olympique are a French professional rugby league team from Toulouse, in the southwest of France. They were founded on 22 October, in 1937 two years after the founding of the French Rugby League Federation. Between 1995 and 2002 the club were known as Spacers de Toulouse, due to links with the local aerospace industry. In 2009, Toulouse joined the Co-operative Championship after being denied a Super League licence. They returned to the Elite One Championship after the spell was considered unsuccessful. There were no finishes higher than 8th place. However, they still continued to play in the Northern Rail Cup. Toulouse have played in six Lord Derby Cup finals, but have never won the competition; they have however been champions of France on four occasions, as well as runners-up in five years. For 2016 Toulouse will again join the RFL system, this time in League 1, the third tier of British/European rugby league. ==History== In March 1937, the Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII decided to establish rugby league in Toulouse. They bought the Arnauné stadium (Stade des Minimes) and formed Toulouse Olympique. The first match Toulouse played was on 24 October 1937 against Albi. In 1938, Toulouse Olympique merged with another club in the city, Galia Club Toulousain. In 1939, TO reached the Cup final in France for the first time. During the war years, like other rugby league clubs in France, the club opted to play rugby union following the ban on rugby league by the Vichy regime in France. In 1944, Toulouse reached the Semi-Final of the French Cup in rugby union. In the meantime the Arnauné stadium was confiscated by the State, like most of the assets of the French Federation of rugby league. Following liberation by the Allies and the restoration of the French Championship, the club were on the losing side twice when they met Carcassonne in the finals for the 1944-45 and 1945-46 competitions. After a decade away from the top, another strong team emerged that included Pierre Lacaze and Georges Aillères. In 1995, Toulouse Olympique changed their name to Spacers de Toulouse (or Toulouse Spacers) and kept this until 2002. In 2000, the club won the championship. Toulouse's ambition to join the European Super League grew but in 2003, their application was rejected by the Rugby Football League in favour of Catalans Dragons. In 2005 Olympique became the first French club ever to reach the semi-finals of the Rugby League Challenge Cup, when they defeated European Super League side Widnes 40-24. They went on to lose 56-18 to world champions Leeds in the semi-final at the Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Toulouse Olympique」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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