The following table of statistics came courtesy of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, though we have some different opinions about women’s participation in 1900 which we have included at the end.
Women’s Participation in the Modern Olympic Summer Games
Year
Sports
Events
Countries
Participants
1896
0
0
0
0
*1900
2
3
5
19
1904
1
2
1
6
1908
2
3
4
36
1912
2
6
11
57
1920
2
6
13
77
1924
3
11
20
136
1928
4
15
26
290
1932
3
14
18
127
1936
4
15
26
328
1948
5
19
33
385
1952
6
25
51
518
1956
6
26
39
384
1960
6
29
45
610
1964
7
33
53
683
1968
7
39
54
781
1972
8
43
65
1058
1976
11
49
66
1247
1980
12
50
54
1125
1984
14
62
94
1567
1988
17
86
117
2186
1992
19
98
136
2708
1996
21
108
169
3626
2000
25
132
199
4069
*1900
6
10
5
23
* we believe the statistics for 1900 should now read as above (7 tennis, 1 sailing,3 croquet, 10 golf, 1 ballooning, 1 equestrianism)
From this table it can be seen that, apart from the 1932 and 1956 Olympics, there has been a steady and continuous increase in the number of female events and competitors since 1896. (The reason for the decline in numbers in ‘32 and ‘56 was because the games were held in the USA and Australia and it was expensive to send large teams. Where cost was an issue women tended to be left behind more than men).
In the first Olympic Games in which women competed (Paris 1900) women represented 5 countries - USA, France, Great Britain, Switzerland and Bohemia.
The Games of the New Millennium, the XXVII Olympiad, took place in Sydney between 15th September and 1st October, 2000. There were 28 sports altogether and women took part in 25.
Women did not contest 3 sports - Baseball ,Boxing and Wrestling. They competed in Softball and men did not.
There were 3 new sports in Sydney -Trampolining, Taekwondo and Triathlon. Women took part in all 3.
Women competed in the Modern Pentathlon for the first time at the Sydney Olympic Games. It is an event for fit all-rounders. Within twelve hours they compete in a tough programme of 5 events - Shooting, Fencing, Swimming, Showjumping and Running. Originally the modern pentathlon was held over 4 days.
10 women’s teams competed in the Handball competition. Sydney 2000 was the first year for the Australian handball teams - women and men.
Between 1928 and 1956 the women’s 800 metres was only held once, it was declared unsafe for women and was banned until 1960.
In 1928 Edith Payne competed for Australia in the 800 metres in the Amsterdam Olympics, in Sydney she was a guest of Honour at the Opening Ceremony, aged 94. Edith, who talks about her 1928 experiences in ‘A Proper Spectacle’ also opened the Olympic village and took part in the torch relay in her wheelchair.
Sydney had the4th torch relay. The first was in Berlin, 1936. The first Paralympic Torch relay was in 1988 in Seoul, the Paralympic torch was lit on 5th October.
The first woman to light the Olympic flame was Enriqeuta Basilio of Mexico in 1968. The first woman to take the Olympic Oath was Heidi Schuller in Munich, 1972.
British Equestrian, Lorna Johnson, became the oldest female Olympian in 1972 at 70 years.
14 year old Romanian, Nadia Comaneci, achieved a perfect score of 10 in Gymnastics at the Montreal Games, 1976. She ended the competition with a record 7 maximum marks. She was also responsible for another record, she drew a world record crowd of 18,000 to the women’s gymnastic finals.
Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands is the most known successful mother, winning 4 gold medals in the London Olympics in1948. The first successful father is unknown! The first married women competed in the Olympics of 1900.
A 17 year old Dutch swimmer, Wihemina ‘Rie’ Mastenbroek, was the first woman to win 4 Olympic medals. Rie won 3 golds and a silver in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
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