They termed this as ‘inappropriate’ when women were involved in the Olympic Games, but Alice Milliat persisted…
It was 1922, two years after Paris had last hosted the Olympics. On a warm August day, about 20,000 people flocked to Pershing Stadium to witness 77 track and field athletes compete including a contingent from the United States. Armies of different nations march in parades. There are world records.
At first it was one forty year old woman named Alice Milliat who opened up Paris for all of us. This is Fédération Sportive Féminine International whose full name means Fédération Sportive Féminine International in French.
There were only female participants that afternoon.“I am here to declare open the First Women’s Olympic Games,” she said.
This statement articulated by Milliat still resonates today. The Olympics mainline dominated by men is now getting ready for Paris Olympics In 1924 they did not recognize what happened in 1922 except to protest against Milliat’s unauthorized use of “Olympic”. They reject the idea which is becoming more and more popular that women should take part in athletics.
While there were some female athletes at the 1924 Paris Olympics – 135 out of a total of 3,089 competitors – apart from certain sports like swimming and tennis they were practically barred from attending the Olypmics. Most other sports including athletics, football, rowing, cycling or even gymnastics lack women’s competitions.
CoubertinAs a key founder and head of modern Olympic movement his position has been clarified many times over the years. He declared back in 1912 that it would be “impracticable; uninteresting; inelegant; and I do not hesitate to add: incorrect” allowing females into Olympic games.
He hadn’t moved on by 1928.”I remain opposed to participation by women in the Olympics,”. And he said then. He died in 1937, a visionary in sports.
In the end – well, it’s 2024 – Milliat won the gender war. These summer Olympics are projected to be the first ones with as many female athletes as male ones.
Milliat is being recognized after one hundred years as a pioneer, the Billie Jean King of her peers, since the last Olympics in Paris. The biography will be published in France. A new documentary has been screened on television and in theaters. Milliat is featured by France’s National Sports Museum on one floor of its temporary exhibition. She is honored with a square outside the new Olympic Stadium named after her (Predictably, plans for the stadium itself to be named after Milliat were scuppered when the naming rights were sold to Adidas.)
“Alice Milliart: Women of the Olympics” is a new book written by Sophie Danger who said: “It’s mostly thanks to her that women can play sports; it’s also due to her that there are women athletes at the Olympic Games.” , French only. “Every time I put my sneakers on, I think about this lady.”
However, it seems likely few of over 5,000 female athletes scheduled to compete at the forthcoming Olympics have heard about Alice Milliat but only clutching at straws would offer much hope for this idea. “She remains symbolically on the fringes of Olympic movement,” adds Danger. “That means we keep fighting.”
Danger notes equality not being equality. Of course this doesn’t happen only at Olympics though “There are people who want to control women’s bodies,” says Anne-Cécile Genre, director of that film, who provided her own title for it in English (“Alice Milliat: incorrect”) she translated into French.
“Women’s bodies needed to be controlled so that Alyse could fight for them: between how they move and dress themselves; across continents; from tradition,” said Alyse Milliat herself. This universal thing is still something women everywhere fight for all around our globe.
Women’s sports have been neglected by The Olympics until lately and Coubertin had given several reasons why he did not allow for women to participate: twice as many competitors and events would mean that it is difficult for the organization; there were inappropriate to let women do sports in public; best athletes show but no women among them.
“In 1912, I think we have tried and must continue trying to put into practice this expression: the solemn and cyclic elevation of men in an artistic atmosphere, through fair means, based on internationalism, applauded by women as sporting capabilities,” Coubertin said.
Milliat wants to see football and rugby included among other activities which men take part in. She started her career with athletics or track and field since it was a glamorous event resembling ancient Olympic games. Proposals by Milliat to hold the 1920 Games in Belgium were rejected by Coubertin’s all-male Olympic Committee. She moved on.
Monte Carlo—Sigfrid Edström—the first president of track’s governing body internationally who also happened to be a member of International Olympic Committee—1921. Milliat did not think much of it though she felt that it was just a photo opportunity rather than something serious like competition.
She believed men wanted to control things when they put female sports under their direction. Subsequently, Milliat established International Women’s Sports Federation bringing together increasing number of national federations under one umbrella organization with its technical rules applied across athletic disciplines as well as record books kept centrally.
