THE PROCESS OF INCLUSION OF
WOMEN IN THE OLYMPIC GAMESOLYMPIC ENTREPRENEURS
ALICE MILLIAT: THE 1ST WOMAN OLYMPICENTREPRENEUR
Ana Miragaya & Lamartine DaCosta
UGF

ENTREPRENEUR Definitions• undertakes and operates a new enterpriseor venture• organizes and manages any enterprise• is willing to put his career and capital on anuncertain venture

ENTREPRENEUR Qualifications• Risk bearer• Leader• Organizer (co-ordination, organization &supervision)• Hard worker

ENTREPRENEUR Qualifications
One who• creates opportunity• has the desire to achieve• has nurturing quality• accepts responsibility• rewards orientation

OBJECTIVES
1. to determine the status of an Olympic
entrepreneur
2. to establish Alice Milliat as the first woman
Olympic entrepreneur

RELEVANCE OF THE STUDY•

Important for people to appreciate andunderstand Olympic entrepreneurship as a
powerful venture capable of changing not only
sport but society•

Important to establish the role played by awoman in the leadership of a movement that
helped women conquer their space in theOlympicmovement
asathletesandadministrators

METHODS The historical method of research was used togather, and analyze materials.
 Essential primary sources available only at theOlympic Studies Center (OSC) located at theOlympic Museum, in Lausanne, Switzerland.
 Use of secondary sources

METHODS: primary sources Minutes
oftheAnnual Sessions oftheIOC
 Minutes
oftheExecutive
Board
Meetings
 Olympic Charters
 Newspapers
andmagazines
 correspondence

The Olympic Studies Center(IOC, 2006)

Two ladies driving a synoris (biga) with dexterity Detail on a frescofrom a sarcophagus, Minoan Palace, ca. 1600 BC

Women in chariot Mycenian art
fresco ca.1400 BC

"Bull- leaping" fresco, East wing.of the Palace. Different phases ofthe sport are shown. The bull- leapers were both men and women
15th century BC (Minoan Culture)Spartan Women Girls: trained to become healthy, vigorous
mothers of strong sons and daughters
 Women: have children, excel in householdtasks such as spinning and weaving, manage
the household, handle their husbands’
properties, appear outside the home, and leadmore public lives

Bronze Statuette of a girl runner,probably from Sparta, ca. 500 BC(British Museum)Bronze Statuette of a girl runner,probably from Dodona, ca. 600 BC(British Museum)Exclusion of women from theAncient Olympic Games







‘Male-oriented culture’Religion
Military purposes (war) - violence
Non-written traditions
Sport and power
Segregation of womenParticipation of women in the Heraia






What? A festival honoring Hera
Who?
When?
Where?
Purpose?

Women running at the Heraia(Museum of the Vatican)

Four Amazons yoking their horses
to a tethrippon

PIERRE DE COUBERTIN
The first successful Olympic
entrepreneur• Preceded by Zappas• Inspired by Thomas Hughes and William
Penny Brookes• Influenced by Greek Olympic Games andBritish sport

PIERRE DE COUBERTIN(1863-1937)• aristocrat (Baron)• Paul, Albert, Pierre, Marie• dark complexion, not tall
• fencing and riding; rowing and boxing• personality traits: rebellious, hyperactive,patriot• Externat Saint Ignace (11-18)

L’enfant Coubertin

The young Coubertin

Active Coubertin

Externat Saint Ignace(1874-1880)• Pierre was well-educated in rhetoric
prolific speaker and writer• Pierre learned several languages,including English  direct and frequent
access to the British culture and Englishspeaking countries

Externat Saint Ignace(1874-1880)• Pierre received training in the various
rituals of a religious school  rituals headopted as renovator of the OlympicGames• Pierre did well in the school’s competitions
and contests an intellectual athlete,experience necessary to think up and linkintellectual competitions to physicalcompetitions

Externat Saint Ignace(1874-1880)• Pierre served as an officer in theacademies at the school future mission
as founder and president of the IOC• Pierre was very good at Latin and Greek
 contact with ancient Greek and Romancultures, establishing a link that took himto his dreamExternat Saint Ignace(1874-1880)• only boys, no girls• Coubertin read:– Thomas Hughe’s English classic ‘Tom
Brown’s Schooldays’ in 1875 (no girls)– Hippolyte Taine’s “Notes sur l’Anglaterre”,
Anglophilia (chapter on education - powerful
influence over Coubertin)“Tom Brown’s School Days”(1857)

Thomas Arnold(1795-1842 )Thomas Hughes(1822-1896)

After school, Coubertin• renounced the church career• gave up the army
• refused the political career that was open
to him• wanted to become a teacher and an
educator– reform education in France, redistributing thehours a boy would spend at school: physicalexercise and intellectual life

After school, Coubertin• went to England in 1881, 1883, 1884,1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1890
• went to the U.S. in 1889
• enrolled in the École Libre des Sciences
Politiques (1885)• organized a congress in Paris in 1889 aspart of the Universal Exposition• conducted a postal survey in the Englishspeaking countries(Anthony, 1997)Coubertin also
• developed a friendship with Dr. Brookes• met Brookes personally in 1890
• wrote "If the Olympic Games that Modern
Greece has not yet been able to revive still
survives today, it is due, not to a Greek,
but to Dr. W. P. Brookes“ (1890)• was made Honorary Member of the Much
Wenlock Olympian Society in 1891

Coubertin’s Olympic attempts• 1892 - first speech at the Sorbonne,
University of Paris• 1894 - International Olympic Congress
June, 1894, in Paris, when the IOC wasestablishedBritish Influence• Modern sport  British development• Public school system for boys (‘le régimearnoldien’)• Muscular Christianity• Fair play
• Late-Victorian influence, particularly
related to womenCoubertin’s British influences aboutwomen• Late-Victorian period• “Biology as destiny” (reproduction)• Women’s dependence on men• False beliefs about women doing sport• Women could not sweat• Women were not supposed to compete• Women belonged to a ‘private sphere’

Absence of women from Coubertin’s
Olympic Games
Basic 19th century European principles:• religion• muscular Christianity• preparedness for wars• militarism• ancient Olympic Games• Victorian England• powerIOC Formation, 1894

The International OlympicCommittee• founded by Pierre de Coubertin in 1894,
with his thought, action, and financial input• included conservative and aristocratic
males with upbringing in the 19th century,
the century in which men, and not women,
shaped modern sport• initially a private male club, but...

Olympic Entrepreneurs of theModern Era

Modern Olympic Entrepreneur
Juan Antonio SamaranchPresident of the Spanish
Olympic Committee
IOC member since 1966
Served in several
commissions
Spanish ambassador tothe Soviet Union andMongolia 1977-1980

Modern Olympic Entrepreneur
Juan Antonio SamaranchVice-president of the IOC
1970-1974
Member of the Executive
Board in 1970
7th President of the IOC
1980-2001
Honorary President forLife

Juan Antonio Samaranch• Defended theOlympic cause• Secured the IOC’s
status as aninternational nongovernmentalorganization• Structured IOC’sfinances (TV rights,sponsorshipprograms)

Juan Antonio Samaranch• kept the Olympic flame alive during thecrisis years of boycotts• undertook major reforms to the structure ofthe IOC• created the Sport andEnvironment Commission

Juan Antonio Samaranch• mended bridges between Soviet- andNATO-bloc countries following boycotts of
the Moscow (1980) and Los Angeles(1984) Games• worked out a compromise that permitted
both China and Taiwan to enter Olympic
teams• allowed participation by a post-Soviet
team in 1992

Juan Antonio Samaranch• developed the WADA(1999)• welcomed professional
athletes to Olympic sport• encouraged the election of
the first two women IOC
members

Juan Antonio Samaranch• IOC Conference calls for more female
participation in sport (March, 2000 Paris)

Juan Antonio Samaranch
Opened the Olympic
Museum in Lausanne in
1993, the long-held dream ofits visionary, Baron Pierre deCoubertin and theaspirations of its driving
force, IOC President Juan
Antonio SamaranchJuan Antonio Samaranch
Modern Olympic Entrepreneur• Untiring worker• Successful diplomat• Charismatic leader• Risk-taker• Organizer• Motivator

WOMEN IN THE MODERN OLYMPICGAMES• Participation of women as athletes• Organization of the Olympic Games– 1896 - 1912
– 1920 - 1938
– 1938 - 1981

1896 Olympic GamesExposition Universelle, Paris 1900

1900 Female Olympians• Official number: 22• Yachting - 1• Equestrian - 2• Croquet - 3• Lawn tennis - 7• Golf - 10
• Ballooning - 2• Total Number: 25 – 2= 23

Santos Dumont taught women howto fly

Santos Dumont’s Olympic diploma
1905

1904 Olympic Games, Saint Louis(IOC, 2006)

1904 Saint Louis Olympic Games
Women’s Archery: 7 American women (not 6)
The Double National Round Lida Howell, Jessie Pollock,
Emma Cooke, Laura Woodruff, Mabel Taylor and L.
Taylor
The Double Columbia Round had Lida Howell, E. C.
Coolen, Jessie Pollock, Laura Woodruff, L. Taylor,Mabel Taylor
The Ladies’ Team Champion was the Cincinnati ArcheryClub (Lida Howell, Jessie Pollock, Laura Woodruff,
Mabel Taylor). In 2nd, the Potomac Archers, fromWashington, D.C.

1906 Olympic Games advertisingposter1906 Female Olympians, Athens(Mallon, 1999)

LAWN TENNIS• Esmee Simirioti (Greece)• Sophia Marinou (Greece)• Euphrosine Paspatis (Greece)• Marie Decugis (France)• Sophia Marinou (Greece)• Aspasia Matsa (Greece)

1906 Female Olympians, Athens(Mallon, 1999)1908 Female Olympians• Official number: 36women athletes• 25 in archery• 10 in lawn tennis• 1 in sailing• Total number: 71• 8 in ice skating• 27 in demonstrations.

1908 London, Women's archery: Ladies
Doubles National Round (IOC, 2006)

1908 Danish Gymnasts

Role played by the IFs“The Olympic Movement is no longer thework of a single organization, the IOC, butthat of an understanding and collaboration
between the IFs, the National Olympic
Committees and the IOC” (Minutes of theAnnual Session of the IOC, 1911).

1912 Female Olympians• 42 swimmers• 15 tennis players (lawn tennis)• 236 women athletes from Sweden (48),Norway (22), Denmark (148), and Finland(18)1912 Female Olympians

Marguerite Broquedis

World War I

1914-1918• Women in Europe and North America– increased their participation in the job market– conquered their right to vote in some nations– were fighting for their emancipation– became more aware of their new roles in society– had more access to education– participated more in sports and physical activities• Social roles were beginning to change andwomen were having more access to jobs
and power

ALICE MILLIAT(1884-1957)
THE FIRST WOMAN OLYMPICENTREPRENEURALICE MILLIAT(1884-1957)• Alice Joséphine Marie Million• Had good education• Lived in England• Traveled extensively (Europe & the U.S.)• Spoke several languages (translator)

ALICE MILLIAT(1884-1957)• Became a sportswoman(rowing)• Devoted her life to women’ssport• Wanted women’s sport to berecognized by male sports
organizations

ALICE MILLIAT• Became president of the Parisian club“Fémina Sport” in 1915, one of thethree major societies in France forwomen’s sports, founded in 1912
• Became treasurer of the Fédération
Française Sportive Féminine (1917)

ALICE MILLIAT• Became general secretary of theFederation Française SportiveFeminine in 1918
• Became president of the Fédération
des Societés Fémines Sportives deFrance (FSFSF) in 1919

FEMINA SPORT (1912)

Milliat organizedvariouschampionships suchas women’s soccer
and cycling

ALICE MILLIAT• Entered a plea for the inclusion ofwomen’s track and field in the Olympic
Games before 1920
• Organized the first International Women’s
Meeting in Monte Carlo in 1921(MonteCarlo Women’s Olympics) – 5 countries

ALICE MILLIAT• Created the Fédération Sportive Féminine
Internationale (FSFI) in 1921 with 5nations: Czechoslovakia, Great Britain,France, the U.S. and Spain.
• Entered another plea for the inclusion ofwomen’s track and field in the Olympic
Games in 1921 (Drevon, 2005)

ALICE MILLIAT• Organized the first Women’s Olympic
Games in Paris on August 20,1922:
15,000 spectators

The U.S. team

ALICE MILLIAT
Success: “Le Sportif” compares Milliat toCoubertin

RESULTS• Milliat had to drop the title ‘Olympic’ andused the expression Women’s WorldGames• More women wanted to do sports• New women’s federations and clubs werefoundedRESULTS• Other women’s championships and games
were developed in various countries• More attention started to be given towomen’s sport

Comments• To have authority is a man’s quality but awoman’s fault• Milliat had a strong personality• Straight and frank talk

ALICE MILLIAT
1926 - The FSFI meets with theInternational Amateur Athletic Federation(IAAF) and agrees that a proposal
concerning women's track and field eventsin the 1928 Olympics be submitted to the8th Congress of the IAAF. The proposed
events are 100m, 800m, 4x110 meters
relay, the high jump and the discus

ALICE MILLIATJanuary 8, 1928, a special committee of
the IOC meets in Amsterdam and decides
on an experimental program of women's
track and field events to be included in the1928 Olympic GamesALICE MILLIAT
Organized the Women’s World Games in:• 1926 (Gothenburg, Sweden)• 1930 (Prague, Czechoslovakia)• 1934 (London, England)

ALICE MILLIAT• Negotiated with the IOC the participationof women in track & field in theAmsterdam Olympic Games of 1928
• 5 disciplines were included: 800m, 100m,4x100, high jump and discus throw

Alice Milliat at the 1928 OlympicGames

Alice Milliat, 1922

Alice Milliat and the athletes

ALICE MILLIAT
Modern Olympic Entrepreneur• Untiring worker and manager• Successful negotiator• Risk-taker• Organizer• Motivator• Charismatic leader

Alice Milliat

CONCLUSIONS• Olympic entrepreneurship is not a malephenomenon• Alice Milliat opened the doors of sports forwomen• Milliat managed to include women’s
athletics in the Olympic Games• Alice Milliat set up a model for women to
become organizers, managers andentrepreneurs in Olympic sportSUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURESTUDIESUse of primary sources worldwide invarious languages to investigate not only
women as administrators in clubs, sports
federations, institutions, of different
nations, which have encouraged thepractice of sport but also women asOlympic entrepreneurs