Women have fought hard to gain their participation in the Games.
There were around twenty of them in 1900, there will be more than five thousand in 2024: between the first Parisian edition of the Olympic Games and that of this summer, women won their place and made Pierre de Coubertin lie. Father of the modern Olympic Games and president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) until 1925, Coubertin did not hesitate to express in very misogynistic terms his opposition to the participation of women in the Olympics. “A small female Olympiad next to the big male Olympiad. What would be the point? […] “Uninteresting, unaesthetic and we do not fear to add: incorrect, such would be in our opinion this women’s half-Olympiad”he estimated in 1912 in the Olympic Review.
“He understands that women can practice sports, but not in public, and not just any sports, only sports of grace and femininity”explained sports historian Patrick Clastres recently.
Cooper, forever the first
However, at the time it was not the president of the IOC but the organizing committees who were responsible for proposing women’s events. The door is ajar in 1900 in Paris.
Women could compete in two events, tennis and golf, and three mixed sports, sailing, croquet and equestrian. Twenty-two women took part in these Games, compared to 975 men.
Briton Charlotte Cooper became the first female Olympic medalist in an individual competition by winning gold in tennis. In 1912 in Stockholm, another tennis player, Marguerite Broquedis, became the first French Olympic champion in all sports.
During the second edition of the Games in Paris in 1924, out of the 3,088 athletes, there were 135 women, twice as many as in Antwerp in 1920. Women competed in tennis, swimming and diving (2 disciplines added since Stockholm ) and for the first time in fencing. A woman, the Swiss Ella Maillart, also takes part in a sailing event.
Behind the scenes, a leader is fighting for women’s place in the Olympic Games: Alice Milliat, president of the Federation of Women’s Sports Societies of France (FSFSF), then founder of the International Women’s Sports Federation (FSFI).
In 1922, she organized the first women’s Olympic Games, which she was forced to rename the “Women’s World Games.” They were held every four years until 1934. Milliat’s stubbornness, combined with Coubertin’s resignation in 1925, changed the situation. In Amsterdam in 1928, women could now compete in athletics and gymnastics. But reluctance persisted.
2012: Women are allowed in all sports
The IOC took the great fatigue of certain athletes at the finish of the 800m as a pretext to eliminate the event, which made its return in 1960. It would be necessary to wait for the London Games in 2012 and the addition of women’s boxing to see the women allowed in all sports.
The share of women has also increased in Olympic bodies. There are now 41% women among the IOC members, but the presidency of the Committee has only been held by men.
Parity in Paris-2024
One hundred years after Paris-1924, there will be 10,500 participants this summer for the first parity Olympics in history. A global parity, each delegation not being required to apply it within its own. Furthermore, in some sports, certain events remain exclusively male, such as Greco-Roman wrestling, or female, such as rhythmic gymnastics. But this year, men will be authorized for the first time in synchronized swimming as part of the team event.
For several editions, there have also been more and more mixed events, such as relays in athletics and swimming, or in triathlon, team events in judo, etc. For the 2024 edition, a mixed relay has been established on the run. This summer, the calendar also intends to promote women’s events.
Traditionally scheduled for the last day of competition, the men’s marathon will be run the day before and it is the women’s marathon that will have this honor on August 11, a few hours before the closing ceremony.
