Games In The Olympic Games

The modern Olympic Games are the world’s most renowned international sporting competition. Today, there are two different games (summer and winter) with more than 50 sports, 80 countries, and 10,000 athletes represented. However, the games did not start this way.

The ancient Olympics began around 776 BCE in Olympia, Greece. They were devoted to Ancient Olympian gods, and served as a religious festival to honor Zeus. These games occurred every four years, and it brought people from all around Greece together. The sports that were played were running, long jump, shot put, javelin, boxing, pankration (form of martial arts), and equestrian. The only people who were allowed to participate in these games were free males with a Greek citizenship.

Even with their urgency to include this event, the International Olympic Committee and Coubertin would not agree to this request, as they still believed women should not compete. In hope that track and field would get included, Alice Milliat, from France, created the Fédération Sportive Fémine Internationale (FSFI) in 1921. These Games were strictly for women, and they ran successfully for 12 years. Through these 12 years, a total of 4 Games were involved, and each was solely track and field events. The first of the Games took place in 1922 in Paris, with 20,000 spectators. Women from 7 different countries were represented, and they competed in a total of 11 events. Because these games were so successful, they decided to host another Women’s Olympics in 1926, in Gothenburg. These games had women from 8 countries, and the number of events had increased to 15. In between the years of 1926 and 1930, the International Olympic Committee decided to experiment with women competing track and field at the Olympics. However, these Games failed. Ironically, this failure caused the Women’s Olympics to gain more attention, which resulted in the 1930 Games in Prague to have women representing 17 countries with 15,000 spectators. The final of the four games took place in London in 1934, with 19 represented

“The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), the governing body for amateur sports in the United States” (Outstanding Women Athletes), were strong supporters in involving women in the Olympics. At first, they didn’t recognize women’s sports because of the president, James Sullivan, who voted against allowing swimming and diving for women in the Olympics. However, once James Sullivan passed, the AAU decided to become supporters of these events. This allowed the United States to bring 15 swimmers and 2 figure skaters to the 1920 Olympic Games.

There were also many groups who opposed women’s participation in the Olympics, such as the Committee on Women’s Athletics (CWA), the American Physical Education Association (APEA), and the National Amateur Athletic Foundation (NAAF). For many years, the NAAF made women fund their own training, as well as make their own competitions. Although there was not any support shown to many women athletes, these groups did not stop women from competing because they had full support from the AAU, which provided a sponsorship for US athletes to go to the