But with the decline and the subsequent demise of the Olympic Games and the arrival of the Middle Ages women's athletics, and sports in general, entered a (very) long period of total absence. In fact the first reference to a modern sportwoman, is that to Mary, Queen of Scots, who lived in the 16 century and was known to be an avid golfer. It is sad that the Renaissance did nothing to change the situation as far as women physical activities were concerned. There were even pseudo-scientific theories "explaining" the situation. Using the writings of Aristotle (who unfortunately wrote treatises on many subjects he did not really master) medical authorities declared that physical actvity would render the women infertile. According to those "authorities" women had a "limited amount of energy" and already the monthly hormonal expenditure was using most of it. Thus the women belonging to the affluent class should refrain from exerting themselves: their female servants were doing all the hard work for them (even after the abolishment of slavery). A consequence of the "limited energy" argument was that women should not spend too much time in studies. The anti-education fertility argument was based on the observation that women who had graduated from colleges had a tendency to have fewer children. Which was totally natural since, having been educated, they had professional careers which were incompatible with too large families. And which led President Roosvelt to accuse the families sending their daughters to college to conspire to commit "race suicide".
The experience of Vassar College was not unique. Soon women started participating in athletics but their activities did not obtain offical recognition. Things did change thanks to the struggles of A. Milliat. I wrote a long post telling this story of the woman who, almost single-handedly, brought women athletics to the Olympics. In 1919 Milliat petitioned the IOC for the inclusion of women's athletics events in the 1924, Paris, Olympiad. As was to be expected, they refused. Milliat then set out to organise the Women's Olympiad and founded the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI) which would oversee international women's sporting events.
The 1922 edition of the Women's Olympiad saw the addition of a pentathlon in the program (60 m, 300 m, high jump, javelin and shot put, both two-handed). The pentathlon would survive in the 1923 organisation only to disappear in the 1924. The Women's Olympiad marked a departure from the Monte Carlo organisations and was held in London (under the moniker Women's International and British Games). The Women's Amateur Athletic Association was founded just the previous year and the first British women's championships were held that same year. M. Lines was present winning four events, 100 yd, 440 yd, 120 yd hurdles and long jump. The organisation in Great Britain brought a change in the program with imperial distances appearing alongside metric ones. The programm thus comprised: 100 yd, 250 m, 1000 m, 120 yd hurdles, 1000 m walking, 4x110 yd relay, 4x220 yd relay, long jump, high jump, discus throw, shot put and javelin throw (the last two, two-handed).
The 1928 Olympics saw a great competition in the 100 m where the OR was broken several times and the WR equalled in the final. In the absence of the long jump in the program K. Hitomi opted for the 100 m, but exited in the semis. She then decided to run the 800 m (late entries were possible at that time) despite the fact that she hadn't run the distance before. In a memorable race she finished just behind L. Radtke, with a time better than the standing WR. The canadian sprinters took their revenge after their defeat in the 100 m by winning the 4x100 m relay. E. Catherwood broke the high jump WR and H. Konopacka did the same in the discus throw. The anti-feminist mafia did not like the success of the women and managed to cook up a 800-gate in order to curtail the women's aspirations at a program parity.
Milliat pursued her struggle organising the third World Games in Prague, in 1930. The program saw at long last the disappearance of imperial distances, standing jumps and two-handed throws. It comprised 60 m, 100 m, 200 m, 800 m, 80 m hurdles, 4x100 m relay, high jump, long jump, shot put, discus throw, javelin throw and a triathlon(!). The events of the latter were 100 m, high jump and javelin throw. K. Hitomi was first in the long jump, second in the triathlon, and third in the 60 m and the javelin throw. She was the best all-around athlete of the world. (And let us not forget that at one time she held the WR for the triple jump). The sprint events in Prague were won by S. Walasiewicz. Quercetani writes: "Her masculine appearance gave rise to perplexity in some querters. Unfortunately, suspicions were confirmed in 1980, when she was shot dead. An autopsy revealed a situation certainly not compatible with women's sports".
In 1931 were organised in Florence the Olimpiadi della Grazia, an essentially european track and field event. The program saw the disappearance of the 800 m and the two relays were 3x100 m and 4x100 m(!). The 1932, Los Angeles, Olympics comprised one more event compared to the Amsterdam Games: 100 m, 80 m hurdles, 4x100 m, high jump, discus throw and javelin throw (but since the 800 m had exited the program, there were two new events, the hurdles and the javelin). Notice that the longest distance the women were competing on was the 100 m, while men were competing over the Marathon and the 50 km racewalk. The heroine of the 1932 Games was Mildred (Babe) Didrikson: she won the hurdles, the javelin throw and was second in the high jump (having being arbitrarily disqualified in the jump-off for the first place). To this date she is the only athlete having won olympic medals in running, jumping and throwing.
In 1934 were celebrated in London the second British Empire Games (the Games survive to this day under the less pretentious name of Commonwealth Games). On this occasion a women's athletics competition was figuring for the first time in the programm with 100 yd, 220 yd, 880 yd, 80 m hurdles (yes, that's right, the distance was metric), high jump, long jump, javelin throw and two relays 110-220-110 yd and 220-110-220-110 yd. Gladys Lunn won both the 880 yd race and the javelin throw while Marjorie Clark won the hurdles and the high jump. In the same venue and right after the Empire Games took place the World Games. The program had been fleshed out consisting in no fewer than 12 events: 60 m, 100 m, 200 m, 800 m, 80 m hurdles, 4x100 m relay, high jump, long jump, shot put, discus throw, javelin throw and a pentathlon (100 metres, high jump, long jump, javelin and shot put). It was as close as one could get to a world championship with 19 nations present and 200 participants. Meanwhile the first European athletics championships took place in Torino and of course there was no women's program.
The last pre-WWII major organisation were the 1938 European Games. Once more the mistrust towards women's athletics manifested itself by having two distinct competitions: one for men in Paris and, two weeks later, that for women in Vienna. The program was now comprising 9 events: 100 m, 200 m, 80 m hudles, 4x100 m relay, high jump, long jump, shot put, discus throw and javelin throw. It would remain the same for all major championships till 1960. Notice that for the first time women's shot put was appearing in an official program. Up to that point it was banned from the Olympics since de Coubertin hated that event for women. The competition was dominated by german athletes competing under the nazi flag (their male teammates did the same in the men's competition). And one notices an appearance at a podium, with two bronze medals in the 100 and 200 m of Fanny Koen. (She had participated in the Berlin Olympics, finishing 5th in the high jump and again 5th in the 4x100 relay). By 1938 F. Koen had ran her first world record with 11.0 s in the 100 yd. She married J. Blankers in 1940 and from then onwards she was going to be known as F. Blankers-Koen. And she went on to dominate the post-war women's athletics, known as "de vliegende huisvrouw" (the flying housewife).
When I set out to write this post I thought that I could cover the history of women's athletics from ostracism to parity in one article. And then I discovered that there was so much to tell. The history of women's athletics is incredibly rich. So, after having written a very long post I barely arrived at the end of the 30s. It is clear that I have to stop somewhere and this is probably the best point. In a future post I will write about what happened after the war but by that time women's athletics had only to fight for parity and not for their very existence anymore.
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