As I wrote in my previous post, in Paris (1900) women participated in competitions which would be later recognised as "olympic". This was only due to the fact that de Coubertin, and the Comité d’Organisation des Jeux Olympiques, were forced to withdraw from the Paris scene leaving the organisation in the hands of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques and D. Mérillon, who was “Délégué Général aux concours d’exercices physiques et de sports". Monsieur Merillon delegated the responsibility of organising some of the contests, such as tennis and golf, to the Parisian clubs, which explains why women were invited to participate.
St. Louis (1904) was a totally different business. Here the big boss was J. Sullivan. He was the "Grand Manitou" of US sports. Once again de Coubertin withdrew from the organisation and let Sullivan organise a slew of contests which he labelled "olympic". Although on bad terms with de Coubertin, Sullivan shared the latter's antifeminist views. As a consequence there were no women's competitions in St. Louis. With one exception. Women participated in the USA National Championships in archery. And then (as it happened with the All-Around competition) the archery championship was a posteriori baptised "olympic". On the other hand, although tennis and golf were on the program for men, they were not open to women as they were in 1900. Sullivan opposed this and that was that.
As I have on several occasions pointed out, the Olympic Games were saved by the organisation of the 1906 Intercalated Games (and de Coubertin manifested his gratitude by denying to the 1906 organisation the "Olympic" label). Women were officially present in Athens participating in the tennis competition. But perhaps the most important event was the gymnastics exhibition, by a team of Danish female gymnasts, an exhibition which met with the highest success.
Then came the 1908 London Olympics. (In fact the organisation was initially awarded to Rome but following the Vesuvius eruption the organisation was offered to Great Britain). As luck would have it, once more the Games were coinciding with an international fair, the "Franco-British exhibit" (but this was going to be the last time). Starting with London, the International Sports Federations were involved in the selection of athletes, although the final say was that of the British Olympic Council. Women participated in tennis, skating and archery competitions. But most important was the fact that once again there were swimming and diving, with girls from Sweden and Iceland, and a gymnastics exhibition, again with a team from Denmark. And the presence of gymnastics was a highly non-trivial one. In fact, while tennis and archery were sports reserved to an aristocratic minority, gymnastics was a physical activity for women which developed elsewhere than within the "gentry". And, in fact, it was pointed out that the vast majority of the danish gymnasts originated from the working classes of the country.
In the official London report Th. Cook writes: “The successful appearance of ladies in the competitions suggests the consideration that since one of the chief objects of the revived Olympic Games is the physical development and amelioration of the race, it appears illogical to adhere so far to classical tradition as to provide so few opportunities for the participation of a predominant partner in the process of race-production. More events might be open to women, whether they are permitted to compete with men or not". Fortunately, not everybody had the same deeply ingrained anti-feminism as de Coubertin.
What is essential to keep in mind is that de Coubertin and the IOC really had almost no say in the Olympic Program. And the situation persisted till 1924 (is this a coincidence or is this somehow related to the fact that de Coubertin was presiding the IOC till 1924?). Thus there were no rules saying that women were not allowed or were excluded. And the decisions were taken by the (male) members of the Organising Committees, based on the experiences of the previous Olympic Games and influenced by the social and cultural codes of the time.
And thus we arrive at the 1912, Stockholm, Olympics and the thorny affair of the Modern Pentathlon involving Miss H. Preece. This competition, involving five diverse and unrelated sports was proposed by de Coubertin himself. I have already presented my opinion concerning this outdated sport which, due to his "noble" paternity continues to haunt the Olympic Games. The first olympic competition of Modern Pentathlon was programmed for Stockholm and a distinguished british equestrian, Helen Preece, submitted her candidacy. The Swedish Organising Committee was not prepared for such a request and so they asked de Coubertin. He answered in a most hypocritical way but the message conveyed to the Swedish Committee was clear: they had to refuse the entry of H. Preece. Which they did.
Archery was deleted from the Stockholm program but women's swimming was accepted and it was a great success, with 42 participants. What is also important is that no fewer than 236 women, from the scandinavian countries, gave demonstrations of gymnastics with a huge success. Still women were not allowed to take place in the gymnastics competition.
Ladies swimming competitions had been accepted by the IOC following the 1910 meeting. However, as the last say was that of the national federation, US women were blocked, thanks to the diktat of J. Sullivan who did not like women competing. Fortunately for women's sports he died in 1914. A tentative program of the Olympics was elaborated in 1912, submitted to the Paris IOC congress in 1914. However it was never published due to the disturbance caused by the war. And thus de Coubertin profited in order to give, in 1919, a version of the report distorted so as to be less unflattering to him. In fact de Coubertin tried in 1914 to get women out of the Olympics. He tried it three times during the 1914 Session, asking the same question, and three times was he outvoted by the majority. He felt so defeated that he threatened to resign. For the very first time he could not prevail in something which went deep down in his own convictions and which was an integral part of his upbringing and his beliefs.
The aftermath of the war was particularly harsh for de Coubertin. Before the war he was the one paying for most of the proceedings and festivals out of his own pocket. However the war left him totally broke. Having lost all his money he had to depend on his wife’s little pension money. He had to accept the charity of the city of Lausanne, which provided him with free accommodation resulting in the transfer of the IOC headquarters to that city.
In 1920 the IOC set down to establish a program for the Olympics. In fact the proliferation of sports and disciplines were threatening the very existence of the Games. And the magic solution proposed by the IOC was ... to cut down the women's events! For de Coubertin that was consistent with the position he had been holding all through his life. But by now de Coubertin's influence was becoming if not negligible at least not decisive any more. The main reason for this is that each nation was contributing financially to the IOC and thus had a say in every decision. And the second reason is that the IOC was by now endowed with an Executive Board, which, as per the statutes, could overrule de Coubertin.
Still, even thus, it is amazing that the proposal of suppression of female events was tabled. And what is even sadder is that this strategy continued from Session to Session that dealt with the problem of the reduction of the size of the Games until 1957! Does Olympism rhyme with misogyny? At times one may wonder.
The admittance of women became official in 1924. The text stipulated that “Women are admitted in certain competitions in the Olympic Games. The Program will mention the events in which they may participate”.
de Coubertin retired in 1925. And in 1926 women were admitted to compete in Athletics. But this is a story we shall tell in some other post.
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