Women's World Games

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The Women's World Games were international competitions for women that were held before women were generally admitted to the Olympic Games . Until then, women were only allowed to play a few Olympic sports: 1900 golf and tennis , 1904 archery , 1908 tennis, archery and ice skating , and swimming was added in 1912 . The Women's World Games were organized by the International Women's Sports Federation FSFI (Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale, founded on October 31, 1921).

Forerunner 1921

Before this organization came into being, there had already been the “First Women's Olympic Games” in Monte Carlo from March 24 to 31, 1921 . This “Proto-Women Olympiad” was organized by the International Sporting Club de Monaco ; around 100 women from England, France, Switzerland and Italy took part. Running competitions (between 60 and 800 meters, hurdles and relay sprints), high and long jump, javelin throw and shot put were held. There was also a basketball tournament as well as demonstrations of gymnastics and the push ball game. Hockey and football games announced in the official program were canceled , although numerous female athletes from Fémina Sport Paris took part in the event. English and French women shared all titles.

The events of the FSFI

The FSFI Women's World Games were held four times. Thereafter, the FSFI was dissolved in a deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) . The IOC included women's competitions in the Olympic program, and the FSFI waived its own world championships for this.

77 women athletes from five countries ( France , USA , Great Britain , Czechoslovakia , Switzerland ) took part in the first games in 1922, but many of them lived in the Paris region. FSFI President Alice Milliat opened the one-day games with the sentence “I declare the games of the world's first Women's Olympiad open”. Here athletics competitions were even more central to the event than in 1921, but with longer running distances, and there were two long jump competitions (with and without a run-up). The most successful participants came from Great Britain and the United States ; the host only won the 1000-meter run by Lucie Bréard.

Four years later, in Sweden , the number of female athletes (104) and countries of origin (10) had increased. The USA and Switzerland were not represented this time; women from Belgium , Italy , Japan , Latvia , Poland , Sweden and Yugoslavia took part for the first time. Most athletic competitions were won by the British before the French. Overall, Germany was the most successful because several associations took care of women's sports here and there was no women's sports association of its own in the interests of inclusion .

  • 1st Women's World Games - August 20, 1922 in Paris (held as Women's Olympics )
  • 2. Women's World Games - August 27-29, 1926 in Gothenburg ( renamed Women's World Games after protests by the IOC and IAAF )
  • 3rd Women's World Games - September 6-8, 1930 in Prague
  • 4th Women's World Games - 7-11 August 1934 in London

literature

  • Laurence Prudhomme-Poncet: Histoire du football féminin au XXe siècle. L'Harmattan, Paris 2003 ISBN 2-7475-4730-2

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Prudhomme-Poncet, p. 97
  2. ^ Arnd Krüger : The Unfinished Symphony. A History of the Olympic Games from Coubertin to Samaranch, in: James Riordan , Arnd Krüger (Ed.): The International Politics of Sport in the 20th Century. London: Routledge 1999, 3-27.
  3. ↑ Prudhomme-Poncet, p. 99
  4. ↑ Prudhomme-Poncet, p. 100
  5. ↑ Antje Fenner: The first German Miss Miracle: the development of women's athletics in Germany from its beginnings to 1945. Helmer, Königstein / Ts. 2001, ISBN 3-89741-072-9 .