Transcript Document 7522318

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.