In honor of Alice Milliat – Saint-Jean-de-Braye (45800)

In order to conclude the Olympic and Paralympic days in style, the city’s elected officials, including Vanessa Slimani and Véronique Bury-Dagot, have proceeded to rename the Coubertin college gymnasium, which now takes the name of Alice Milliat. The municipality thus wishes to pay tribute to this great forgotten lady of the history of sport, and to her fight for equality in sport.

Activist for women’s rights and the right to physical education and sports for all, Alice Milliat (1884-1957) was a true pioneer. An accomplished sportswoman, she was one of the very first women to win the Audax Rowing Brevet, and above all the first leader of international sport. Founder of the Women’s World Games, she chaired, first, Femina Sport, one of the first clubs dedicated to women in France, then the Federation of Women’s Sports Societies of France. Before further broadening her fight by founding, in October 1921, the International Women’s Sports Federation (FSFI).

In August 1922, she proclaimed the first women’s Olympic Games “open” in Paris. Driven by the desire to make all disciplines accessible to every woman, she was notably at the initiative of the first football match in France, in 1917, and the first women’s cross-country, in 1918. It was also she who, after many years of fighting, obtained the right of women to participate in Olympic gymnastics and athletics events.

At the age of 52, Alice Milliat was finally forced, for political and health reasons, to leave the international sporting scene. She died in 1957 in total anonymity. Source Alice Milliat Sports Association*.

Alongside this small ceremony, the Usep organised another sports day between the CM2 pupils from the Anne-Frank, Paul-Langevin and Jacques-Prévert schools, around eight disciplines: ultimate, handball, team play, athletics, tennis, badminton, archery and laser shooting.