The event previously enjoyed wide competition, featuring on the Olympics athletics programme from 1900 to 1912, as well as at the 1922 and 1926 Women's World Games. The event was contested at the Amateur Athletic Union championships in the United States as an indoor event around the turn of the 20th century. Its popularity waned in the 20th century, although it maintained championship status for a longer period of time in Scandinavian countries.