FEMALE OLYMPIANS IN THE EARLY OLYMPIC GAMES (1900 – 1912) THROUGH
THE MINUTES OF THE IOC SESSIONS, OFFICIAL REPORTS OF OLYMPIC GAMES, AND
OTHER DOCUMENTS FOUND AT THE OLYMPIC MUSEUMA TRIBUTE

Ana Miragaya
UGF - Ph.D. Candidate
Article for the Postgraduate Research Grant Program
Museum and Olympic Studies Center
International Olympic Committee
Lausanne, Switzerland
2005

This paper aims to recover and review information related to the participation of female
Olympians in the early Olympic Games before World War I, in a tribute to the very first women
who defied their time by writing their names in the history of modern sport. As technology andcommunication systems evolved and women had already become part of the Olympic Games,
those truly sports heroines became more visible after 1920. For methodological concerns,
recognition of pioneer actions is also a category of historical and scientific research giving
legitimacy to the scrutiny of the first modern female Olympians appearance.
Most of the information available about early women Olympians tends to be related to thenumber of women who earned medals, to the percentage of their participation in the Olympic
Games, especially in relation to the participation of male athletes, and to the sports and events
women contested. Very little has been published about these heroines in the history of sport
due to the scarcity and paucity of information since women were not supposed to take part incompetitive sport. Women did not belong to what was considered at the time the male world ofsports. The little data that exist are scattered around in various primary and secondary
sources, most of which not readily available to the researcher due to their location and thelanguages the information was recorded in. In addition, because of new methodologies ofinvestigation and the overcoming of gender barriers, new numbers and names of women havebeen disclosed as research progresses. There is still a lot of controversy as for numbers,
names and spellings. From all documents that have been found and analyzed, we have opted
for the spelling of official reports as much as possible. This paper not only displays updated
numbers of women athletes who participated in any kind of event in the Olympic Games from1900 till 1912 based on official documents but also reveals the identities of many of these
women through their names and the circumstances of their participation. When it was notpossible to retrieve their original names, the titles Mrs., Mme and Miss were used for gender
identification as they appear in the Official Reports.
The official documents found at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, indicatethat 112 women Olympians competed in the Olympiads before World War I: 22 athletes in1900 in Paris (France), 6 in 1904 in Saint Louis (United States), 36 in 1908 in London(England) and 48 in 1912 in Stockholm (Sweden). However, as information from other official
sources is taken into consideration, the number of female Olympians goes up to 416 when
including 3 other women who competed in the 1900 Paris Games but have not yet been
acknowledged by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ; 2 more women who competed
in archery in 1904 (there were 8 and not 6 according to some other official sources) ; 7
women who competed in the 1906 Olympic Games in Athens - recognized only as Interim orIntercalated Games by the IOC - in addition to 8 women who contested two events in ice
skating in 1908 and 268 female Olympians who took part in demonstrations, which were notcompetitions for medals, during the 1906, 1908 and 1912 Olympic Games. This paper also
pays homage to the women athletes who wanted to participate in the Olympic Games but had
their entries refused. They were not included in the total number of the participants as they did
not compete in Olympic Games. These would-be-Olympians were Stamata Revithi in 1896
and Helen Preece in 1912. According to Tarassouleas (1997), who did research in thenewspapers published in Greece in March and April of 1896, Stamata Revithi was anextremely poor Greek woman who wanted to participate in the Greek marathon of the 1896
Olympic Games because she thought she would win money to help support her starving baby.
She went before the (organizing) Committee, but they used the excuse that the deadline had
expired in order to dismiss her. Thus, still thinking about the money, which she would neverreceive, she ran 42 km in 5:30h on March 30th 1896, one day after the official marathon.
Helen Preece, according to Tedder & Daniels (2000), was an outstanding British rider andjust 15 years old. She applied to compete in the Modern Pentathlon at the Stockholm Games of1912 (Lyberg, 1996). Although there were no rules or legislation about women’s entries at thattime, the Swedish Organizing Committee chose to accept Pierre de Coubertin’s opinion andrefused Helen Preece’s application, saying it would be impossible to accept a woman
competitor in that sport.
Although Baron Pierre de Coubertin, IOC founder and President from 1896 to 1925, wasagainst the participation of women in competitive sport, the IOC had no control of the 1900,
1904 and 1908 Olympic Games as they happened during expositions that had their own
organizers. The 1900 Olympic Games took place in Paris during the World Exhibit and received
the name of International Games (Jeux Internationaux, as it appears extensively in thenewspapers of that time) lasting from May 14 to October 28. The 1904 Olympic Games took
place in Saint Louis, Missouri, United States during the Louisiana Purchase International
Exposition from July 1 to November 23. In 1906, Greece organized their second edition of the1

Olympic Games (the first one had taken place in 1896), which was not recognized by Coubertin
andbecame later the Intercalated Olympic Games, from April 22 to May 2, a very short

edition of the Olympic Games. The 1908 Olympiad, organized by the British Olympic Council[occurred] culminated with the Games occurred during the Franco-British Exhibition in London
from April 27 to October 31. The 1912 Olympic Games, organized by the Swedish Olympic
Committee and held in Stockholm, from May 5 to July 27, was not attached to any exhibition.

1900 Olympic Games Paris
The official information of the IOC shows that 22 women competed in the 1900 Olympic
Games in Paris: 7 in lawn tennis, 10 in golf, 3 in croquet, 1 in equestrian sports and 1 inyachting. However, 3 women have not yet been acknowledged by the IOC: 2 in ballooning(sport later on not considered Olympic by the IOC), and another 1 in equestrian. In ballooning,
Mme. Maison competed with her husband in the distance and endurance discipline for top
balloonists in Paris on 9th – 11th October, sailing for 11.38 hours and covering 650 km from
Paris to reach Keulroth, in Silesia, arriving in fourth (Daniels & Tedder, 2000) and Mme.
Lemaire sailed with her husband towards Juchmès in the very first distance event (Drevon,
2000). Mlle Moulin participated in the equestrian event (Drevon, 2000), but was not placed.
In Paris 1900, yachting was an ‘open’ sport, with men and women competing together.
Hélène Barby (U.S.), later Countess de Pourtalès (Lyberg, 1996), was the very first woman
Olympic medalist in a mixed event, and, by participating on May 22nd the very first female
Olympian. She was able to sail on the river Seine, on the Franco-Swiss ‘Lerina’ with her
husband to win her first race, followed by another victory on 23rd June and a second place on
25th June – two Olympic gold medals and a silver (Daniels & Tedder, 2000; Drevon, 2000).
In equestrian sport, Elvira Guerra competed for France on her own horse, Libertin, in theChevaux de Salle (Hacks and Hunter Combined) event on May 31st, though she was notplaced.
Three French women competed in croquet on 28th June in two events against men:
Madame Filleaul Brohy, Marie Ohnier and Madame Déprès. However, according to Mallon(1995), neither Madame Filleaul Brohy nor Marie Ohnier progressed to the second roundand Madame Déprès did not finish the event.
Lawn tennis was the sport with the most available information. In spite of the small
number of women competing, only 6, the standard was high with all the top international
players competing, including British Wimbledon champion Charlotte Cooper, the U.S.
champion, Marion Jones, and the leading players in Europe: Hélène Prévost of France andHedwiga Rosenbaumova of Bohemia. The event took place between July 6th and 11th at theÎle du Puteaux Club in the middle of the River Seine, ironically the same club the sportman

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Pierre de Coubertin used to play his games. Charlotte Cooper was the very first Olympic gold
in a women-only event. She also won the mixed doubles tide with her male partner of GreatBritain, making her a double gold medal winner. Lawn tennis had two events: singles andmixed doubles. In singles the champion was Charlotte Cooper (Great Britain); 2nd place,
HélènePrévost(France),

and

3rd

place,

Marion

Jones(U.S.)

andHedwiga

Rosenbaumóvá (Bohemia). In the mixed doubles event, the champions were: Charlotte
Cooper (Great Britain) and male partner; 2nd place, Hélène Prévost (France) and malepartner, and 3rd place, Marion Jones (U.S.) and male partner together with Hedwiga
Rosenbaumóvá (Bohemia) and male partner.
Ten women contested the Olympic Golf competition on October 3rd in Paris: 4 American and
6 French women. According to the Official Report of the 1900 Olympic Games, the champion
was Margaret Abbott (U.S.), 2nd place was Pauline Whittier (U.S.); 3rd place, Daria Pratt(U.S.); 4th place, Mme Froment-Meuriœ (France); 5th place, Mme Henri Ridgway (France),
6th Mme Fournier-Sarlovèze (France), 7th place, Mary Abbott (U.S.), 8th place Baronne
Fain (France), 9th place Mme Gelbert (France) and 10th place Mme A. Brun (France)

1904 Olympic Games Saint Louis
Although the Olympic Games of 1904 had a large number of sporting events, women only
competed in archery. Since it was very costly to send athletes overseas, needless to say
female athletes, who had very little participation in competitive sport at that time, only 8
American women participated in two archery events with the following results according to
Spalding’s Official Almanac for 1905 as there was no Official Report for the Saint Louis Olympic
Games. The Double National Round had Lida Howell, Cincinnati, as champion; 2nd place went
to Jessie Pollock, Cincinnati; 3rd place to Emma Cooke, Washington, D.C.; 4th place toLaura Woodruff, Cincinnati, 5th place to Mabel Taylor, Cincinnati and 6th place to L. Taylor,
Cincinnati. The Double Columbia Round also had Lida Howell as champion; E. C. Coolen in
2nd position; Jessie Pollock in 3rd place; Laura Woodruff in 4th place, L. Taylor in the 5th
position and Mabel Taylor in the 6th position. The Ladies’ Team Championship was theCincinnati Archery Club winners: Lida Howell, Jessie Pollock, Laura Woodruff, and Mabel
Taylor. In 2nd position came the Potomac Archers, from Washington, D.C.

1906 Olympic Games Athens
Althoughnotrecognizedasofficial

Olympic

Games

but

as

Intercalated

Games,

Intermediate Games, Interim Games, or almost IIIb Games by the IOC, the Second
International Olympic Games in Athens (Lennartz, 2002) had the participation of 19 women
Olympians with an innovation: sports demonstrations or displays in which participated 12
Danish women gymnasts (Trangback, 1996), whose names could not be retrieved. According
to Cook, cited in Mallon (1999), the Danish girls gave ‘the most pleasing exhibition’, besides it

3was the very first time women entered an Olympic stadium. However, the only sport womenathletes contested was lawn tennis, which had two events: singles and mixed doubles,
similarly to the Paris 1900 events. Seven women athletes from Greece and France competedand had the following results: in the singles event, Esmee Simirioti (Greece) was champion,
followed by Sophia Marinou (Greece) in 2nd place and Euphrosine Paspatis (Greece) in 3rd
position. The mixed doubles event had Marie Decugis (France) and male partner as
champions; Sophia Marinou (Greece) and male partner in 2nd place and Aspasia Matsa(Greece) and male partner in 3rd position. Since these women were not international
champions such as the French, the British or the Americans, their names are rarely mentioned
in any research.

1908 Olympic Games London
According to the IOC, 36 women athletes participated in the 1908 Olympic Games in
London: 25 in archery, 10 in lawn tennis and 1 in sailing. However, this number goes up to 71
if the other participating women are included: 8 in ice skating, and 27 in demonstrations. As
times were changing and sportswomen becoming more visible, the Swedish female swimmer
Ebba Gisico and 6 Icelandic sportswomen were invited to give demonstrations of diving andswimming (The London Times [in] according to Leigh, 1974) while 20 Danish female athletes
displayed gymnastics on the very first day of the London Games (Trangback, 1996), a verymuch appreciated event according to research done by Leigh (1974). Archery and lawn tennis
for women were the most awaited events as they had already appeared in previous Olympic
Games. The results for archery are the following: the National Round had Sybil Fenton‘Queenie’ Newall (Great Britain) as champion; Charlotte ‘Lottie’ Dod (Great Britain) in 2ndplace and Beatrice Geraldine Hill-Lowe (Great Britain) in 3rd place. Lawn tennis had 10
participants in two singles events: the out-of-doors courts had Dorothea Katherine
Chambers (Great Britain) as champion; Penelope Dora Harvey Boothby (Great Britain) in
2nd position; Ruth Joan Winch (Great Britain) in 3rd place; Miss A. M. Morton (Great Britain)
in 4th position and Angela Nora G. Greene (Great Britain) in 5th place. The champion of
singles in indoor courts was Gwendoline Eastlake-Smith (Great Britain), followed by Angela
Nora G. Greene (Great Britain) in 2nd place and Märtha Adlerstrahle (Sweden) in 3rd
position. The 1908 Olympic Games also introduced ice skating for women with the following
results: in figure skating, the champion was Florence ‘Madge’ Syers (Great Britain); 2ndplace was for Else Rendschmidt (Germany); 3rd place, Dorothy Greenhough Smith (GreatBritain); 4th place, Fröken Montgomery (Sweden) and 5th place, Miss Lycett (Great Britain).
In pair skating, the champions were Anna Hübler (Germany) and male partner; the 2nd placewent to Phyllis Johnson (Great Britain) and male partner and the 3rd place was for Florence‘Madge’ Syers (Great Britain) and male partner. Official IOC documents also show that
Frances Clytie Rivett-Carnac of Great Britain crewed with her husband in the seven-meter4

class aboard the ‘Heroine’ and won the Olympic gold medal. In addition, according to theofficial 1908 Olympic Games report, although not placed, the following women athletes
became Olympians: (i) in archery Mme K. Csery (Hungary), Mrs. G. W. Honeywill (GreatBritain), Miss Hyde (Great Britain), Mrs. E. Leonard (Great Britain), Miss K. J. Mudge(Great Britain), Mrs. Priestley-Foster (Great Britain), Mrs. N. Robertson (Great Britain),Miss Thackwell (Great Britain), Miss Wadworth (Great Britain), Mrs. A. H. Wadworth(Great Britain), Miss Wood (Great Britain), Mrs. S. H. Armitage (Great Britain), Mrs.
Bowen (Great Britain), Mrs. Buddam-Wheathan (Great Britain), Mrs. C. Cadman (GreatBritain), Mrs. Rushton (Great Britain), Miss J. Vance (Great Britain), Mrs. L. Weedon(Great Britain); (ii) in lawn tennis Miss M. Coles (Great Britain), Mme C. Fenwick (France),
Mrs. B. Hillyard (Great Britain), Miss V. M. Pinkney (Great Britain), Miss Pietrzikowski(Austria), Mrs. C. R. Sterry (Great Britain), Mrs. G. E. Smith (Great Britain), Mrs. E.
Wallenberg (Sweden); (iii) in ice skating, Miss J. Herz (Austria).

1912 Olympic Games Stockholm
The Olympic Games that took place in Stockholm in 1912 had 57 women athletescontesting swimming and lawn tennis events, according to the IOC. However, the number goesup to 293 when the women athletes that gave demonstrations in gymnastics are included. At
the same time that archery was deleted from the 1912 Games, swimming was introduced andbrought with it a larger number of women competitors: 42 in only three events. The results
were the following: in 100 meters, free style, the gold medal went to the champion Sarah‘Fanny’ Durack (Australia); the silver medal went to Wilhelmina Wylie (Australia) and thebronze medal for Jennie Fletcher (Great Britain). The 400 meters team race (teams of 4) had
as champions the female Olympians from Great Britain: Isabella Mary Moore, Jennie
Fletcher, Annie Speirs and Irene Steer; 2nd place went for Germany: Wally Dressel,
Louise Otto, Hermine Stindt and Grete Rosenberg and 3rd place for Austria: Margarete
Adler, Klara Milch, Josephine Sticker and Bertha Zahourek. Greta Johanson (Sweden)
was gold medalist in high plain diving; Lisa Regnell (Sweden) earned the silver medal andIsabelle White (Great Britain) won the bronze medal. Lawn tennis had 15 women athletescompeting in four events. The results are as follows: (i) the gold medal in the singles out-ofdoors courts went to champion Marguerite Broquedis (France); the silver medal to Dora
Köring (Germany) and the bronze medal to Mola Bjurstedt (Norway); (ii) the mixed doubles
in out-of-doors courts had Dora Köring (Germany) and male partner as champions; Sigrid
Fick (Sweden) and male partner in 2nd position, and Marguerite Broquedis (France) andmale partner in 3rd position; (iii) in the singles covered courts Edith Hannam (Great Britain)
earned the gold medal; Thora Castenschiold (Denmark) won the silver medal and Mabel
Parton (Great Britain) earned the bronze medal; (iv) the mixed doubles in covered courts had

5Edith Hannam (Great Britain) and male partner as champions; Helen Aitchison (GreatBritain) and male partner in 2nd place and Sigrid Fick (Sweden) and male partner in 3rd
position. The success of gymnastics demonstrations that had started in Athens 1906 andrepeated in London in 1908 also took place in Stockholm with a much larger number of womenathletes: 236. There were 148 gymnasts from Denmark, 18 from Finland, 48 from Norway, 48
from Sweden (letter from Lyberg to Leigh, 1974, pg. 122), whosenames are still to be

retrieved.
The Official Report of the Stockholm Olympic Games lists the following women who
although not placed also became Olympians. Swimming had E. H. Andersson (Sweden),
S.A.M. Andersson (Sweden), E. Björklund (Sweden), Greta Carlsson (Sweden), Daisy
Curwen (Great Britain), E.M. Edström (Sweden), E.D. Eklund (Sweden), Mme Guttenstein(Belgium), Sonja Jonsson (Sweden), T.M. Järvi (Finland), Regina Kari (Finland), P. Kellner(Austria), Mary Langford (Great Britain), K. Lundgren (Sweden), B. Moore (Great Britain),Dagmar Nilsson (Sweden), Aagot Normann (Norway), Elsa Regnell (Sweden), I. M.
White (Great Britain), M. E. Adlerz (Sweden), Hanny Kellner (Austria), A. V. Larsson(Sweden), Vera Thulin (Sweden). Lawn tennis had E. Amheim (Sweden), E. Brusewitz(Sweden), M. Cederschöld (Sweden), A. Holmström (Sweden), M. Bjurstedt (Norway),and Ebba Hay (Sweden).
As society started to change and accept better the idea that women were also able to do
sports so rose the number of women Olympians not only in competitions but also in thedemonstration events that later became official Olympic sports for women. But it was a longway before women were finally accepted as athletes with the same rights as men.
During the first period of the development of the women’s program, 1896-1912, before
World War I, women moved from the shadows of occasional participation to official acceptanceby the IOC in 2 sports in 1912: lawn tennis and swimming. The circumstances that favored theparticipation of women in golf and tennis tournaments in the second Olympics (1900) and in
an archery tournament in St Louis (1904), sports which were socially acceptable for women,
led to the competitions in lawn tennis and archery events in the 1908 London Games for
women athletes. By the 5th official Olympiad in Stockholm in 1912, according to IOC records,
113 women from more than 10 countries had pioneered in international sport competition andestablished themselves as part of the Modern Olympic Games, which initially would not favor
women’s participation, according to words of the founder. However, if all participating women
are included, 416 had taken part in the Olympic Games of 1900, 1904, 1906, 1908 and 1912.
It is [interesting] significant to notice that at the same time that scholars and nonacademic observers were looking for names of women who ‘participated’ unofficially or ‘almost’participated in the early Olympic Games, names of true Olympians, women who indeed
participated in the Games, have been forgotten. As the 1906 Games are still not considered
official Olympic Games by the IOC, the tendency seems for [scholars] researchers to overlook

6the names of women who were not ‘internationally’ known. The question behind this possibility
refers the reductionism and even prejudice often found among sport historians when analyzing
evidences of emancipation for sport minorities matters, as depicted earlier by DaCosta (2001).
Finally, [B] by displaying all the names possible to be retrieved of the 416 female
Olympians who participated in competitions and demonstrations in the Olympic Games from1900 until 1912, this paper pays a tribute to those who so much devoted themselves tocompetitive sport and who paved the road for future female participation and equality insports.

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