Olympic Games
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Women at the Olympic Games
Participation in the ancient Olympic Games was limited to male athletes only. The only way women were able to take part was to enter horses in the equestrian events. Even in the early years of the modern Olympics, women were not well represented. Women first competed at the 1900 Paris Games in lawn tennis and golf. Over time more women events were added, and currently Boxing is the only Summer Olympic sport that does not include events for women, though this is set to change in 2012.
Milestones
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At the first modern Olympic Games in Athens 1896, no women competed, as de Coubertin felt that their inclusion would be "impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect."
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Women first competed at the 1900 Paris Games. Eleven women are allowed to compete in lawn tennis and golf. The first woman to win an Olympic event was England's Charlotte Cooper, who won the tennis singles in 1900.(more firsts)
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Women competed in swimming events for the first time in 1912, but none of them were from America, which did not allow its female athletes to compete in events without long skirts. The first women's swimming gold medal was won by the Australian Sarah 'Fanny' Durack, who won the 100m freestyle in 1912.
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In 1928, women competed in track and field events for the first time; however, so many collapsed at the end of the 800-meter race that the event was banned until 1960.
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Women's shooting events were first included in the Olympics in 1984. There were three events, three position rifle, air rifle and sport pistol.
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The 2000 Olympics was the first time that women were allowed to compete in the Olympics in weightlifting.
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There are only two Olympic sports where men and women compete against each other, sailing and equestrian.
Great Female Olympic Achievements
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In 1948, Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals, the equivalents of the ones Jesse Owens had won twelve years earlier. She holds the world records in the high and long jumps, but does not compete in those, as rules prohibit women from competing in more than three individual events.
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British Equestrian, Lorna Johnstone was 70 years and 5 days old when she rode at the 1972 Games, thus being the oldest woman ever to compete at an Olympic Games.
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Joan Benoit of the USA won the first women's Olympic marathon in Los Angeles in 1984.
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Soviet Maria Gorokhovskaya - unhindered by the limits set on female competitors at earlier Games - in 1952 sets a record for most medals won by a woman in one Olympics, with two golds and five silvers.
Related Pages
- Gender Testing at the Olympics
- Olympic History
- Olympic Trivia
