Women, these “undesirables” at the Olympic Games | Olympic Games

Then, in a text dating from 1912, named Women at the Olympic Gameshe adds a layer.

The Olympic Games must be reserved for men, he writes. A female Olympiad could only be uninteresting, unsightly and incorrect. They constitute the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism with the applause of women as its reward.

And to add, to be certain of being understood correctly: In the Olympic Games, the role of women should be, as in ancient tournaments, to crown the winners.

Stone coubertinPhoto: Getty Images / Fox Photos

As you will have understood, women’s place in the Olympics was far from won.

As we prepare to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1924 Paris Olympics, a reminder of history is in order.

If, today, the Olympic movement prides itself on having achieved gender parity, it forgets that it took a long and bitter battle for women to be accepted at the Games.

In 1910, the misogyny dear to Baron de Coubertin experienced its first decline. After a fairly heated vote, women were accepted into the Stockholm Games, held two years later, but we are still far from the finish line. They are then allowed two sports: swimming and diving.

Until the second Paris Olympics in 1924, their participation remained marginal, with a representation that did not exceed 5%.

It is thanks to the stubbornness of Alice Milliat, a great activist for women’s sport, that women are gradually making their place in the Olympic Games.

Scandalized by the sexist remarks of Baron de Coubertin, the Frenchwoman took advantage of the change of guard to advance her ideas.

In 1924, at the Chamonix Winter Games, there were only 13 women among the 258 athletes from 16 countries. Of the 12 athletes in the Canadian delegation, there is only one woman, figure skater Cecil Smith. Paired with Melville Rogers, she finished 6th in the competition.

At the Paris Summer Games the same year, of the 3,089 athletes present, 135 were women. The Canadian delegation of 78 athletes has none.

The one who will make her mark at these Games is the American Gertrude Ederle, who achieves a hat-trick in swimming: gold in the 400m freestyle relay and two bronze medals, in the 100m freestyle and the 400m freestyle.

But this feat is completely obscured by the presence of none other than the one who, shortly after, would play the role of Tarzan in Hollywood, the American Johnny Weissmuller. The latter collected gold medals in the French capital: a hat-trick in the 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 4 x 200m relay, not forgetting a bronze medal in water polo.

Sports enthusiast Alice MilliatPhoto: Wikipedia

Alice Milliat, the sports enthusiast

But let’s return to history and the female presence in the Olympic Games. It was in 1928 that serious things began.

Before the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, Baron de Coubertin ceded his seat as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to a Belgian, Count Henri de Baillet-Latour. The latter will end up giving in to the insistent demands and the strength of conviction of Alice Milliat.

The stubborn Frenchwoman will obtain the holding of five women’s athletics events, as well as the participation of women in gymnastics and fencing, as well as the addition of swimming events.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin will be outraged by this concession, which he sees as a betrayal. This constitutes a major affront to the original grandeur and purity of this competition.he then declared, faithful to his somewhat medieval vision of women.

Let’s leave Coubertin his words from another time and let’s focus on these women who will write the first pages of Olympism.

The 100m will be the first event where the public will finally discover a female presence in athletics. It is July 31, 1928, and the public at the Amsterdam stadium does not yet know that they are about to experience an anthology race between the young 16-year-old American Elizabeth Robinson, affectionately nicknamed Bettyand Canadian Bobbie Rosenfeld.

A breathtaking 100m. A mano a mano at all times. The young American will cross the finish line with an advantage of 46 cm (18 in) over her rival. Despite a challenge from the Canadian, Robinson became the first Olympic gold medalist in the 100m, the youngest to date in this event.

Betty Robinson wins the 100m.Photo: Getty Images / Central Press

A fateful 800m for women’s Olympic future

On August 2, 1928, the Amsterdam stadium was as full as an egg. The public will witness the first women’s 800m race in Olympic history. All eyes are on Germany’s Lina Radke. She will completely dominate the race with a world record to boot.

Behind her, the women arrive exhausted, some even collapsing. The IOC and the press cry foul and call it a spectacle distressing and unworthy of the Olympic spirit. We even go so far as to declare that the constitution of women is too fragile for such distances.

Consequently, the ax will fall and the CIO will ban women from distances greater than 200 m. It was not until the 1960 Games in Rome that the event reappeared.

Meanwhile, instead of being praised, the victorious German in the 800m will subsequently be ridiculed by the media. We will even go so far as to attribute his domination to his lack of femininity!

The incomparable six

At these Games, the Canadian team has 71 members, including 7 women. They alone provide the country with 4 of its 15 medals. Thanks to them, Canada is the only country to win more than one gold medal in all five athletics events. For the men, Percy Williams won two gold medals, in the 100m and 200m.

Ethel Catherwood, nicknamed Saskatoon Lillyclimbs to the top of the podium in the high jump.

The figurehead of the women’s athletics team is of course Bobbie Rosenfeld, accompanied by Myrtle Cook, Jean Thompson, Ethel Catherwood, Jane Bell and Ethel Smith. The latter is a bronze medalist and Bobbie Rosenfeld, a silver medalist.

In the 4 x 100 m, Bobbie Rosenfeld took her revenge on the American Robinson, whose 100 m gold medal she contested. The Canadians beat the Americans and won gold with, as a bonus, a world record. These exploits will earn them the qualifier of six incomparable.

Hilde Schrader’s victorious 200mPhoto: Getty Images / Central Press

Hide this breast that I cannot see

At the Olympic swimming pool, an event does not go unnoticed by the press, who scrutinize each women’s event.

It’s final day in the 200m breaststroke.

All eyes are on German swimmer Hildegard Schrader. Not only because she is in the lead and is going to become Olympic champion, but rather because the straps holding her swimsuit have come loose and she continues her race half-naked.

Arriving at the victorious cone, she pulls up her straps and simply declares: If I hadn’t had this swimsuit problem, I would have swum faster.

The swimmer Gertrude EderlePhoto: Getty Images / Kirby

Beyond the anecdote, which made many smile and, conversely, scandalized many, these 1928 Games will mark the real beginning of the place of women in the Olympic Games.

Certainly, there were 22 of them at the first Games in Paris, in 1900, but some did not even know that they were competing in the Olympics. We will still be able to include the name of British tennis player Charlotte Cooper on the roll of honor of women who participated in the Olympics. She will be the first gold medalist in Olympic history.

On this long, winding and tortuous path, women have always been a target. We could not simply recognize that they were capable, like men, of achieving sporting feats.

A situation well illustrated by this eloquent story told by Luciano Wernicke in his book Unusual stories from the Olympic Games.

In 1932, at the Los Angeles Games, everyone was waiting to see the Polish Stanislawa Walasiewicz, nicknamed Stella Walsh, run. It must be said that the sprint specialist beats all records over 100m and that she is the undisputed queen of athletics, in her country and internationally, with 100 world or national records.

Stella Walsh won the gold medal with, as a bonus, a world record with her time of 11.9 s. But the media will attack her, denouncing her build and her features described as masculine. Some will even accuse him of being a man. She will also have to endure the humiliation of undressing in front of judges, male of course, to prove her femininity.

American Helen Stephens (left) shakes hands with “Stella Walsh” at the Berlin Olympics.Photo: Getty Images / Fox Photos

The Polish runner would then experience numerous successes on the international scene, but this false suspicion would follow her until her death. So much so that an autopsy revealed that she was intersex: her sexual characteristics were not neither male nor female.

She will still keep her Olympic medals as a woman (gold in Los Angeles, silver in Berlin).

To prove that there is still a way to go, this sad story is reminiscent of the long legal battle of South African runner Caster Semenya, which, after many years, is not yet over. Born with a testosterone level similar to that of men, she is refused to compete with women on the pretext that this advantage would be inequitable. She had to accept dangerous chemical treatment to reduce this rate if she wanted to continue competing, which she refused to do.

More than a marathon, the fight for women’s place in the Olympics will have lasted 30 centuries since they were already banned from stadiums and stands in Antiquity.

By fighting for the right to exist in sport, they also paved the way for others to become free in their respective societies.

If parity is finally achieved at the Paris 2024 Games, victory is not yet achieved in the place of women: there is, in many other areas of human activity, still a long work to do.