at D-50, we tell you about the first women’s Olympic Games organized in 1922

SPORT – The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are the first to display strict parity between women and men. If France is proud today, this 50-50 would never have been possible without the fight of a pioneer: Alice Milliat, who stood up to the International Olympic Committee to organize the first women’s Olympic Games in 1922, at the stadium Pershing, located in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris. This woman particularly fought against Pierre de Coubertin, promoter of the modern Games, who categorically refused the organization of “Women’s Olympic Games”.

Paris 2024 Olympic Games: how athletes manage their rules for the Olympic events – FILE

A brilliant and multilingual young woman from Nantes, Alice Milliat discovered sports in London, “which was at the beginning of the 20th century, the capital of sport and feminism », explains to HuffPost Florys Castan-Vicente, teacher-researcher at Paris-Saclay University, specialist in gender and sport. When Alice Milliat returns to France, “she moved to Paris and joined the largest sports club in the capital, Fémina Sport” of which she became president in 1915.

A long fight against machismo

At the end of the First World War, Alice Milliat then took the reins of the International Women’s Sports Federation (FSFI) and hired ” a showdown “ with the IOC to organize at all costs Olympic Games for women similar to those for men.

Anyone who deeply believes that women can practice all sports comes up against the machismo that reigns in men’s sports federations as well as medical beliefs according to which women’s bodies are weak and permanently ill. “In history, we call this the “paradigm of the eternally wounded”, specifies Florys Castan-Vicente who continues: fears crystallize especially around the uterus. Doctors feared that it would fall if there was too much sport, until the 60s and 70s.”

But Alice Milliat resists and wants to show men that women can compete in high-level sporting events. What could be better than to prove it by example, by organizing the Women’s Olympic Games in the City of Lights. On August 20, 1922, at the Pershing stadium in the 12th arrondissement, built and offered to France by the American allies, the first edition of these Games for women brought together 77 sportswomen from France, England, the United States, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia around thirteen athletics events.

A 1000 m against the advice of the IOC

The stands are crowded on this summer day. Among the 20,000 spectators, there are ” curious “of the “patriots who came to support their flag”women applauding women, men “suspected of concupiscence » and many journalists from the general and sports press to cover the event, describes Florence Carpentier, sports historian, in a publication on the HAL scientific platform. “Leaders from political and sporting circles” On the other hand, they are conspicuous by their absence.

As you can see in the photos of the online exhibition accessible here, headed by Florence Carpentier, the young women were dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. “To counter criticism from sports commentators, 99% of men dressed in loose, long and dark clothes”, explains Florence Carpentier. The sportswomen, some from the Parisian working class, also wore shoes, made of canvas or leather, which were poorly suited to the practice of sport.

It is in this outfit that these athletes embark on a 1,000 m sprint, an event which does not exist in the men’s Olympic Games. But Alice Milliat is convinced that women, gifted with endurance, have undeniable aptitude for this distance. And she is right, the crowd gathered to encourage them is won over. From a sporting point of view too, the event is a success: “eleven world records broken”title it Newspaper, August 21. And it is the English, who have the advantage of the sports culture in their country, who win these first women’s Olympics. The French finished third.

“What are these furies all possessed by a dark madness? »

Among the French women, a champion stands out. This is Violette Gouraud Morris, who leaves with a medal in the shot put. It is not only his sporting performances that impress, but also his progress over his time. She openly accepts her bisexuality and publicly appears in relationships with women. As surprising as it may seem, the 20th century press did not care about his sexual orientation. And for good reason, she is an exceptional woman idolized by the general public, analyzes Florence Carpentier: “She was an ambulance driver during the First World War, she comes from a family of high-ranking military officers, and what’s more, she’s an international champion. »

Unfortunately, a woman running gets a bad rap back in the day when they haven’t even gotten the right to vote yet. It’s a surge of hatred that drips into the articles devoted to these first women’s games. Le Figaro is more reactionary, notes Florence Carpentier, who quotes an extract from the newspaper of August 21, 1922: “This is the lesson of the 400m, this terrible ordeal for the female body, and which makes it so unlovable. Who are these furies all possessed by a dark madness? Their eyes are wild, their mouths are tight and I prefer not to talk about their chests. »

102 years later, “sport remains an issue of male domination”

Despite these incendiary articles, these Olympics will create a positive dynamic for women’s sport: “after 1922, there was an increase in women’s competitions and three other editions of the women’s Olympic Games were organized until 1934”, indicates lecturer Florys Castan-Vicente.

Women also made a timid appearance during the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928, where Alice Maillat was the only female referee. The latter negotiates with the IOC so that athletes can compete in five athletics events, including the 800m which will be controversial. “The following days, the international and French press conveyed “fake news” according to which the finalists collapsed on the track, that they had drooling on their lips…”, says Florys Castan-Vicente. Yet, as you can see in this video, athletes are not abnormally tired after exercise. After this controversy, the 800m was banned for women until the 1960 Rome Olympics.

“These games of 1922 certainly had a ripple effect, but it was not until after the Second World War that there was a real questioning of equalization,” notes William Gasparini, sociologist specializing in the study of sport. The professor at the University of Strasbourg adds that “if parity is achieved at the 2024 Olympics, equality between women and men in the sporting environment is far from being achieved. A minority of women are, for example, at the head of sports bodies”. 102 years after the first women’s Olympics, “sport remains an issue of male domination”concludes the researcher.

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