16 April 2008

Women Go from Spectators to Champions

The role of women at the Olympics has evolved

 

Kelly Holmes of Great Britain wins the gold in the women's 1500 meters at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. (© AP Images)

Kelly Holmes of Great Britain wins the gold in the women's 1500 meters at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. (© AP Images)

By Alexandra Abboud

Women’s participation in the Olympic Games has come a long way since the ancient Greeks barred women from participating in Olympic sport.

During the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, France, Filleaul Brohy and Marie Ohnier of France competed in the sport of croquet and became the very first women to compete in Olympic events. That same year, tennis player Charlotte Cooper of Great Britain became the first female champion. A century later, during the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, the birthplace of the Olympics, 4,329 women competed, accounting for 40.7 percent of the total athletes and setting a record in women’s Olympic participation.

But women’s participation in the Games goes beyond athletics, and the history of women’s roles in the Olympics shows an evolution of women from spectators to champions and influential administrators.

The goal of the Olympic Charter is "to encourage and support the promotion of women in sport at all levels and in all structures with a view to implementing the principle of equality of men and women." The Olympic movement brings an influential alliance of organizations to that task: the International Olympic Committee (IOC); the National Olympic Committees (NOCs), comprised of representatives from participating states; and the International Federations (IFs), nongovernmental organizations that administer sports at a world level.

As a result, the IOC, NOCs, and IFs have established goals to promote women in Olympic decision-making positions. Currently there are 15 female members of the 155-member IOC, up from 12 in 2005. 

In March 2008, during the 4^th IOC Conference on Women and Sport, held in Jordan, 600 male and female members of the Olympic movement met to discuss diverse issues, such as new opportunities to increase the participation of women in sport, female athletes as role models for young girls, and how culture determines women’s access to sport. 

One result of the conference is the Dead Sea Plan of Action, which outlines ways “to use every opportunity available in the Olympic Movement to advance the cause of women in sport and through sport,” including stressing gender equality in national teams, their leadership, and technicians, and encouraging women sports journalists to actively cover the Games.

On the ground, women are working to encourage participation in sports in their home countries. One athlete, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, the first female and the youngest minister of youth and sports in Malaysia, was recognized by the IOC for, among other things, her work in establishing almost 600 community centers that enabled nearly 100,000 women to participate in sports activities.

On the most basic level, each aspiring woman athlete has a role to play in ensuring equality in the Olympics. In an IOC podcast, Barbara Kendall, an IOC member and Olympic champion in windsurfing, has a message for young girls around the globe: “If you really want to do something you will always find a way.… Follow your dreams, that’s the thing that starts any story.”