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Ch. 14 The Olympic Games
By Darlene Kluka in Women in Sport
Notes by N. Bailey
The Olympic Movement: Toward
Global Understanding
And Acceptance
Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded modern
Olympics in 1894 in Paris
No women
To encourage better understanding among
nations through sport, art, education, culture
The ancient Greek ideals: harmonious
excellence: physical, moral, cultural, artistic
Overview of the Chapter
Topics Covered:
History of participation
Performance enhancement drugs
Governance
Global understanding and acceptance
Early Summer Games 1900-1928
IOC controlled the program in 1896
Program for white male amateurs
Members represented the IOC
Apolitical – all men
Melpomene, One who also ran in the 1896
games: 4 hours, 30 minutes
Organizing Committees
Ran the events & established rules
IOC no longer controlled events
Next four organizing committees permitted
women to participate: 1900 golf, tennis;
1904 archery; 1908 added skating, tennis,
archery & demonstrations in aquatics &
gymnastics
After Stockholm in 1912
IOC took over control of events
Dropped women’s sports that weren’t
universally popular
In Europe women were refused membership
in the Sports Federations
Women’s sports clubs organized in France
Track & field.
1920 games
IOC refusal to permit women in all venues
Women organized their own track and field
Olympic Games in 1922
65 women from 5 countries in 11 events
20,000 spectators
18 world records
READ p. 259, Alice Milliat founder FSFI
IOC Outraged!
How dare those women do that
In order to control somewhat, IOC directs
International Amateur Athletic Federation to
govern international competition for women
IOC waffled on women participating
By 1924 industrialized countries had track
and field for women. Women controlled
Physicians Worried
High level training bad for women: ruin
health; masculinizes women; leads to
sterility
Competition detracted from femininity
Spectators might have questionable motives
Women might be viewed as sex objects
International Sport Federations
Supported women’s participation in sport
1924 Paris: Women’s fencing, tennis,
swimming
The press: “muscle molls, muscle-bound,
manly dames” re: fencing & tennis
“graceful, feminine, feathered” re:
swimmeres
Summer Games (1928 –48)
1928 – first official track & field for women
in Amsterdam
100 meters, 800 meters, high jump, discus,
4 x 100 meter relay
Ill fated 800 meters: 6 of 9 women
collapsed; three carried off
40 years for 800 meters to be reinstated
Never mind that Finnish man collapsed
1932 LA Games
Notable women & 4 new world records
Attendance 60,000; 1.25 million overall
Radio and press coverage best ever
Babe Didrickson & three other women set
records
1936 Berlin Games
Germany had withdrawn from the League
of Nations
Used Olympics to show case white male
supremacy
Jews were barred from German team
Summer Games (1948 – present)
Post war games held in London
First woman to win a gold won 4 gold
medals
Was a mother of two children
1952 Helsinki
Avery Brundage tried to make Olympics
apolitical
Cold war: Communist Bloc countries saw
advantage to support women for winning
medals
Supremacy through victory in sport grew
Newspaper counted the medals: Soviets
winning made big news
1956 Melbourne
Women’s swimming sold out before the
games began
READ Wilma Rudolph, p. 263
1960 Rome
Rivalries between women surfaced
800 meters returned
Soviet woman won: 2:04.5
1964 Tokyo
Women became newsworthy for the first
time
Dawn Fraser, Australian, a controversial
woman
The symbol for women in the games: talent
+ mischief!
1968 Mexico City
Political turmoil
Prior to opening ceremonies protesters
killed in the streets
Protesting poor country spending a fortune
on the games
American male track athletes protested
differential treatment of African Americans
in the U.S. as well as in Africa
Women Made News
In 1968 Woman Mexican hurdler carried the
Olympic torch into the stadium.
A first!
Woman Czech gymnast hid in the
mountains preparing for the games: feared
reprisal for political act of protest. Won 4
gold medals (signed manifesto against
Russian aggression on Czechs)
1972 Germany
Germans tried for the biggest, most
expensive, most exciting
What they got: tragedy
Games remembered for 8 Arab terrorists
killing 2 Israel team members & took 9
hostages; 5 terrorists, + hostages + 1 police
officer were killed
1976 Montreal
Africa boycotted
East German women did great
1980 Moscow
Soviets had invaded Afghanistan prior to
the games – only 81 countries attended
Boycotting: U.S., Canada, West Germany,
Japan, Kenya, Norway, Israel, Turkey
Political climate woven into the Olympic
fabric
1984-1988-1992: LA, Seoul,
Barcelona
More nations competing, so more women
Joan Benoit & official marathon: 2:24;52
Jackie Joyner competed
Zola Budd & Mary Decker controversy
Cheryl Miller, Mary Lou Retton, Valarie
Brisco-Hooks & Evelyn Ashford
READ p.266 1st Islamic Games woman
1996 Atlanta
35 countries had no women (Islamic
countries)
Germans asked IOC to ban those countries
that discriminated against women
“gender apartheid” after South Africa’s
racial apartheid
South Africa had been barred
2000 Salt Lake
Goal: equal participation between men and
women.
We will see
Performance Enhancing
Substances
Faster, higher, stronger = Olympic creed
Men in the 3rd century used herbs
1960 Danish cyclist died of drug
1963 IOC – Medical Commission
established & listed prohibited drugs
1966 Gender verification
1968 First drug testing; 2000 reversed sex
test policy
East German Officials Sued
Trial continues into 2001
Between 1974 & 1989 German sport
officials administered a state sponsored
doping program on the women
Sentence potentially: 10 years
Governance
1997- 1995 Women executive directors of
organizing committees comprised 8.5% 15.8%
Women Presidents: 3.6 to 7.9%
Presently 14 of 113 IOC members are
women
IOC adopted goals in 1996: equality in 2001
IOC Sponsored Women’s
Conference
World Conference on Women and Sport in
1996
March 2000 in Paris
That is progress!
READ p. 274
Olympic Solidarity Programs
Technical assistance and training grants
Some women were included
Rumor: Muslim countries applied for and
received $ for training women; didn’t spend
it for that
One world trophy & 5 continental trophies
for contributions to women’s participation
in sport
Global Understanding &
Acceptance
Vast differences of the place of women in
various societies around the world
Systematic hared and devaluing of women
and a patriarchal system well entrenched in
many countries
What Will It Tae To Get There?
The next generation of athletes and
administrators:
Know our history
Create a fair environment
That’s All Folks
The End.