What do you think of when you hear the term Olympic Games? Perhaps you think of your country’s best male and female athletes, or perhaps a certain sport. Some people favor the Summer Games; other people favor the Winter Games. You might think about how the games began in ancient Greece. Many of you might even remember that the games had something to do with the ancient Greek gods of mythology. Do you know when your favorite sport allowed women to compete? How about when that sport first allowed Black women to compete?
The First Recorded Olympic Games
The first written record of an Olympic Game was dated 776 B.C. Held every four years, the sporting event was part of a four-day religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus and held in Olympia in the Greek city-state of Elis. While there’s no documented proof, scholars agree the games were already at least 500 years old. The Ancient Greeks so cherished the quadrantal festival that they scheduled everything around festival days. Even wars.
There was only one competition recorded in that first competition: a footrace called the stade. The stade was one length of the track in Olympia. It was a one-day event.
Wrestling and the pentathlon became part of the Games in 708 B.C. (A pentathlon included the long jump, javelin throw, discus throw, a footrace, and wrestling.)
Twenty years later they added boxing, followed eight years later by two- and four-horse chariot racing.
Another 40 years passed before they added the pankration, a brutal combat sport that combined wrestling, boxing, and street fighting.
Over time, they included athletic competitions on each of the four days of the festival. Eventually, they included a fifth day held to present awards and celebrate. And, over time, Rome rose in power, and the Greek tradition of Olympic Games declined. In 393 A.D., the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, a Christian set on erasing paganism, banned the Games.
ReAwakening
During the Renaissance, Europeans became fascinated with ancient Greek culture. In the late 18th century, some nations even held informal events they called Olympic Games.
It was a French aristocrat, educator, and historian with many interests, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who founded (or co-founded) the International Olympic Committee and got the first modern Olympic Games organized. Though he faced many obstacles, they held the first meeting in Paris on June 23, 1894, at the Sorbonne (University of Paris). They proposed that the Olympic Games be for amateur athletes, held every four years and include modern rather than ancient sports. They also set the date and location for the first modern Olympic Games. There were many accusations, concessions, and negotiations held before the first game.
The First Modern Olympic Games
At the opening of the 1896 Summer Olympic Games, King Georgios I of Greece and a crowd of 60,000 spectators welcomed athletes from 13 nations to the international competition. An initial success, the Games and Coubertin and the IOC faced many setbacks and obstacles over the years.
From Included to Inappropriate and Improper
There is historical evidence that every four years the women of Ancient Greece held a separate sports event in the same Olympic arena as the men did. They called this event the Heraia and dedicated it to the goddess Hera. The Heraia foot race was shorter than what the men ran, and participants ran in different age categories. Some scholars theorize that this was a social rite introducing marriageable women to society. Others think it may have been a prenuptial ritual. But after the Emperor banned the games, societal ideas of what was appropriate for women changed.
By the 1880s, Coubertin and many of his associates believed that women taking part in sports was inappropriate and uninteresting. Women simply did not belong in the Games.
But society changed again, and pressure on the IOC grew.
Women Re-Introduced to the Games
Under public pressure, the IOC granted women the ability to compete in “acceptable” sports for the 1900 Paris Games. Acceptable sports included tennis, golf, and sailing. Twenty-two women entered the Olympics that year. Hélène de Pourtalès of Switzerland became the first woman to compete at the Olympic Games and the first female Olympic champion as part of a sailing team on May 22, 1900.
Only six women competed in the 1904 Games, all of them in archery.
Still limited to “acceptable” events, thirty-seven women competed in the 1908 London Olympic Games. In 1912, out of 2,408 competitors, forty-eight were women.
Then World War I caused the cancellation of the 1916 Berlin Games.
Antwerp hosted the 1920 Games. There were 2,561 men and 65 women athletes. None of the females were black.
The 1924 Paris Summer Olympics boasted 135 female athletes, 4% of the 3,089 athletes. That year the first Winter Olympics took place in Chamonix, France.
The First Black Female Olympians
Two Black women, Tidye Pickett and Louise Stokes, qualified for Team U.S.A. prior to the 1932 LA/Lake Placid Olympics. Neither competed in the games after a “team” decision.
In 1936, Tidye qualified again for the U.S. Olympic team. She became the first Black woman to compete in the 1936 Berlin Games.
In 1940 and 1944, the IOC canceled the Games because of World War II.
The first Black woman to win an Olympic medal was Audrey Patterson. She won a bronze medal in the 200m event at the 1948 Olympic Games.
One day later, Alice Coachman, an American track and field athlete, became the first Black woman from any country to win a gold medal at the Olympics when she cleared the 5 feet 6 1/8 inches high jump bar on her first attempt. She set a new Olympic and American record.
Today’s Female Olympians
It was only 35 years ago (1991) that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) mandated that all new sports added to the Olympic program must include women’s events.
In the 2024 Paris Olympics, 50% of the athletes were female. Gender parity. The first time in 124 years.
There remains a huge disparity between white and black female athletes on the USA Olympic team today. Likely, the disparity exists across the entire field of Olympic athletes in Milano Cortina. Still, they are there, and they are adding to the list of Black female athletes who earned a spot on their nation’s teams and to the growing list of female athletes who earned Olympic medals.
At the Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina, 47% (~1,362) of the approximately 2,900 athletes are female. They are taking part in 50 women’s events and 12 mixed-gender events. 12 out of 16 athletic disciplines featured in these games have full gender parity.
From local schools to Olympic events, women have made huge strides in athletic events all over the world. But there is much yet to do, barriers to be broken.
You or I may not be Olympic athletes, maybe not athletes at all. But we cannot afford to ignore or enforce those barriers. We must do all we can to know and understand our shared history. We, and our male allies, must support our sisters who dream of the Olympics, who dare to break down gender and racial barriers both those who do it with an Olympic medal and those who gently tap-tap-tap against the ceiling or door holding them back. Let’s help women dare to be all that they can be.
Join me in congratulating all Olympic athletes, with a special nod to all the females.
Which of the Olympic facts in this article surprised you most?
RESOURCES
- “Ancient Olympic Games”
- “Olympic Games”
- “First modern Olympic Games”
- “Pierre de Coubertin”
- “When Young Ancient Greek Women Raced at Olympia”
- List of female Olympic medalists in athletics
IMAGE CREDITS
- Featured image by kalhh from Pixabay
- Second image purchased from DepositPhotos.com
- Third image by ha11ok from Pixabay
- Fourth image by CaptivatingtheKing, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Fifth image by Anacleto Rapping, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
- Sixth image by Agência Brasil Fotografiasderivative work: Minerva97, CC BY 2.0 <>, via Wikimedia Commons
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