OLYMPIC ENTREPRENEURS - ALICE MILLIAT: THE 1ST WOMAN OLYMPICENTREPRENEUR

Ana Miragaya & Lamartine DaCosta
Grupo de Estudos Olímpicos
Universidade Gama Filho - Rio de Janeiro

ResumoEste estudo teve como objetivos definir a posição de um empreendedor olímpico eestabelecer a francesa Alice Milliat como a primeira empreendedora olímpica.

Apartir da literatura especializada foi feito um levantamento das características deempreendedores que foram ajustadas ao contexto olímpico. A partir de então osconceitos foram aplicados resultando na identificação de Pierre de Coubertin comoprimeiro empreendedor olímpico da era moderna, Juan Antonio Samaranch como omais recente e Alice Milliat como a primeira empreendedora olímpica. Ela organizou
os Jogos Olímpicos Femininos (Jogos Mundiais Femininos) na década de 1920 e
conseguiu

ultrapassar

barreiras

depreconceito

incluindoasmulheresnas

competições de atletismo nos Jogos Olímpicos. Alice Milliat estabeleceu um modelo
para mulheres que quisessem se tornar organizadoras, gestoras e empreendedoras
no esporte olímpico.

According to the specialized literature, an entrepreneur is an individual whoundertakes and operates a new enterprise or venture, who organizes and manages
any enterprise and who is willing to put his career and capital on an uncertain
venture. Entrepreneurs are risk bearers, leaders, organizers in charge of the coordination, organization and supervision of enterprises, and above all they are hardworkers. An Olympic entrepreneur is an individual who attains all of thesecharacteristics and apply them to sports ventures in Olympism. The very first
Olympic entrepreneur of the modern era was the founder of the International
Olympic Committee (IOC), Baron Pierre de Coubertin (MacAllon, 1981).
Based on these premises, this study has the following objectives: (i) todetermine the status of an Olympic entrepreneur and (ii) to establish Alice Milliat as
the first woman Olympic entrepreneur. The importance of this research lies in thefact

that

it

shouldhelppeople

tounderstandandappreciate

Olympic

entrepreneurship as a powerful venture capable of changing not only sport butsociety. It also becomes relevant as it establishes the role played by a woman inthe leadership of a movement that helped women conquer their space in theOlympic movement as athletes and administrators.
This research utilized the historical method of research to gather, andanalyze various kinds of materials including secondary sources but mainly essential
primary sources available only at the Olympic Studies Center (OSC) located at the
Olympic Museum, in Lausanne, Switzerland, such as the Minutes of the Annual
Sessions of the IOC, the Minutes of the Executive Board Meetings, Olympic
Charters, newspapers and magazines and private correspondence.
Baron Pierre de Coubertin was the first successful Olympic entrepreneur ofthe modern era to stage the Olympic Games and to keep them taking place every
four years. He had been preceded by Zappas (Greece), inspired by Thomas Hughes
and William Penny Brookes (England), influenced by the Olympic Games ofantiquity and by modern British sport (19th century). Coubertin’s first Olympic
attempt was the proposals presented at the Sorbonne, University of Paris in 1892,
but it did not succeed. His second attempt was fruitful and he organized theInternational Olympic Congress and founded the International Olympic CommitteeIOC in 1894 in Paris. He was the president of the IOC between 1896 and 1925,
when he retired. Coubertin was the supposed ‘prototype’ of the Olympic
entrepreneur, when he personified the so many characteristics inherent toentrepreneurs.
Among other leaders, Juan Antonio Samaranch, 65 years later, from 1980 to2001, would follow Coubertin’s steps when the IOC, after a long period ofexpansion, was going through various situations imposed by political, geographical,and economic contexts (Miller, 1992). Samaranch had been the 7th President of theIOC 1980-2001, and now Honorary President for Life. Again, he represented theOlympic entrepreneurship, securing the IOC’s status as

an international leadingorganization, he structured IOC’s finances (TV rights, sponsorship programs),
keeping the Olympic flame alive during the crisis years of boycotts, undertook
major reforms to the structure of the IOC created the Sport and Environment
Commission, mended bridges between Soviet- and NATO-bloc countries following
boycotts of the Moscow (1980) and Los Angeles (1984) Games, worked out acompromise that permitted both China and Taiwan to enter Olympic teams, allowed
participation by a post-Soviet team in 1992, developed the WADA (1999),welcomed professional athletes to Olympic sport, and encouraged the election of
the first two women IOC members. Moreover, Juan Antonio Samaranch opened theOlympic Museum in Lausanne in 1993, the long-held dream of its visionary, Baron
Pierre de Coubertin.

However, this context of outstanding deeds had a contrasting failure:
women had always to overcome obstacles to participate in the Olympic Games asathletes. As sport seemed to be in male hands during the 19th century, it was very
difficult for women athletes to succeed in sport. In spite of Coubertin’s and otherconservative IOC members’ resistance to women’s participation in competitive
sport, some female athletes managed to participate in the early Games, particularly
through disciplines which were socially acceptable to women of that time such as
tennis, golf, archery, swimming and some gymnastics. Athletics was not opened towomen and those who took up any track and field discipline were looked down
upon and many times discriminated against.
Alice Joséphine Marie Million, later on Alice Milliat, became the first woman
Olympic entrepreneur as she very skillfully negotiated women’s track and field
entry in the Olympic Games. Alice Milliat became a sportswoman early in life,
devoted her life and energy to women’s sport as she wanted women’s sport to berecognized by male sports organizations. She became president of the Parisian club“Fémina Sport” in 1915 (one of the three major societies in France for women’ssports, founded in 1912), was elected treasurer of the Fédération Française
Sportive Féminine (1917), became general secretary of the Federation Française
Sportive Feminine in 1918, and was unanimously elected president of theFédération des Societés Fémines Sportives de France (FSFSF) in 1919.
Milliat organized various championships such as women’s soccer and cycling.
Moreover, she entered a plea for the inclusion of women’s track and field in theOlympic Games before 1920. As she was not heard, she organized the first
International Women’s Meeting in Monte Carlo in 1921 (Monte Carlo Women’sOlympics) with five countries and created the Fédération Sportive FéminineInternationale (FSFI) in 1921 with five nations: Czechoslovakia, Great Britain,France, the U.S. and Spain. After that she entered another plea for the inclusion ofwomen’s track and field in the Olympic Games in 1921. As again she was notheard, she organized the first Women’s Olympic Games in Paris on August 20, 1922
before 15,000 spectators. She was so successful that the August newspaper editionof “Le Sportif” compared Madame Milliat to Coubertin (Drevon, 2005).
As a result of her success, the IOC demanded that she drop the word
‘Olympic’ from the women’s Games, which then became Women’s World Games.
However, very cleverly she negotiated with the IOC the participation of women intrack and field in the Amsterdam Olympic Games of 1928 with five disciplines: 5800m, 100m, 4x100, high jump and discus throw.
Milliat continued her entrepreneurial mission with the organization of theWomen’s

World

Games

in

Gothenburg(Sweden)in1926,inPrague

(Czechoslovakia) in 1930 and in London (England) in 1934). The pressure that had
been building up on her in addition to the proximity of the war made Madame
Milliat retire from the sporting scene.
Milliat’s efforts to make female Olympians in athleticism had been rewarded
not only because of the inclusion of women in track and field but also because theexposure of women as athletes inspired millions of women who wanted to dosports. As a result, new women’s federations and clubs were founded, other
women’s championships and games were developed in various countries and more
attention ended up being given to women’s sport.
It is then possible to conclude that Olympic entrepreneurship is not a malephenomenon as Alice Milliat opened the doors of sports for women, managing toinclude women’s athletics in the Olympic Games. Alice Milliat had also set up amodel for women to become organizers, managers and entrepreneurs in Olympicsport.
Suggestions for future studies include the use of primary sources worldwide invarious languages to investigate not only women as administrators in clubs, sports
federations, institutions, of different nations, which have encouraged the practice ofsport but also women as Olympic entrepreneurs.

References
DREVON, A. (2005). Alice Milliat La Passionaria du Sport Féminin. Paris: Vuibert.
MACALOON, J. (1981). This Great Symbol Pierre de Coubertin and the Origins ofthe Olympic Games. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
MILLER, D. (1992). Olympic Revolution. The Biography of Juan Antonio Samaranch.
London: Pavilion.