One would be wrong, however, to disdain croquet. It develops a combinative mind, one has only to see it transform young girls into reasoners and from reasoners into reasonable people.

The Official Report of the Paris Games, 1900

The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.

Olympic Charter, 2004

When the dream of Baron de Coubertin was realized with the first modern Olympics Games in 1896, there were no official female participants in the events held in Athens. History records that Spiridon Louis won the marathon and became a legend on April 10. Lesser known is the fact that a woman named Melpomene had run the distance from Marathon to Athens a month earlier, finishing in four and a half hours. She tried to sign up for the actual race, but was rejected by the race commissioners.

The first official female athletes at the Olympics were entrants in the genteel sports of tennis, croquet and golf at the 1900 Paris Olympic Games. The first female champion was five times Wimbledon winner, Charlotte Cooper in singles tennis. Champion women in the Olympic competition have included major stars of the game including Dorothea Lambert Chambers, Suzanne Lenglen, Helen Wills Moody, Steffi Graf, Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams and Justine Henin-Hardenne. Their stature in the game has often exceeded the gold medal winning men such as Marc Rosset and Nicolas Massu.

The number of women remained low even though they were allowed to compete in archery (1908), swimming and diving (1912) and fencing (1924) from a relatively early stage. Typical of the discrimination that women faced is the example of Sarah ‘Fanny’ Durack and Wilhelmina ’Mina’ Wylie, Australia’s entrants in the 100 metres freestyle in Stockholm. Swimming authorities considered it an absurd waste of money to send female athletes across the world to the Olympics in 1912, so both swimmers had to rely on family, friends and fundraising in order to go. Unsurprisingly they overcame the hurdles of petty officialdom and finished first and second respectively, with Durack breaking the world record in the second round of races.

Women’s events were finally added to the iconic Olympic sports of athletics and gymnastics at the 1928 Amsterdam Games after a number of separate international women’s games had been held earlier that decade. Almost immediately there was controversy in the male-dominated discipline of track and field. Reportedly the predominately male spectators at the 100 metres final were shocked when the Canadian trio of “Bobbie” Rosenfeld, Ethel Smith and Myrtle Cook hugged and kissed prior to the race.

Even more damaging to the cause of women’s sport, was the fact that competitors in the 800 metres collapsed from exhaustion when they crossed the finish line. This is so commonplace with athletes of both sexes that it goes unremarked these days, but in 1928 was seen as an example of women’s unsuitability for endurance events. Henri, Come de Baillet-Latour, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), suggested banning all women from all events in a return to the ideals of the ancient Greeks. It should be noted that the ancient Greeks, apart from the Spartans, kept their own women (except slaves and prostitutes) suitable cloistered away from all public life. While this suggestion wasn’t acted upon, women were banned from running events of more than 200 metres (a half lap) until 1960! In the men’s events at the same Olympics the ‘Flying Finns’ were dominating distance running, happily winning the 3,000 metres steeplechase, as well as the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres. No doubt they exhibited some fatigue after their races.

While Nazi propaganda tried to turn the 1936 Olympic Games into a show piece of Aryan superiority, one female athlete had a more hands-on encounter with the German fuehrer. 100 metres champion Helen Stephens found out that his response to a good, old Missouri handshake was to be subject to fanny grabbing, pinching and a “full body massage”. Surely this is the most high profile example of sexual harassment to occur at the Olympics, but pales somewhat compared to Hitler’s other crimes.

In the area of team sports, the Olympic Games have been slow to include equivalent events for women. The oldest team sports at the Olympics are water polo and football. Both appeared at the 1900 Paris Olympic Games. It would take until 1996 for women’s football to be added to the program and, in an indication of its popularity, 76,481 spectators attended the final. Women’s water polo finally made it to the Olympic program 100 years after the men at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Even then it was only in June 2000 that the IOC decided the number of women on a team would be the same as the men.

Combative sports are another area where the Olympics often have problems with the participation of women. Boxing remains an entirely male sport, despite the first recorded women’s boxing match in the USA taking place in 1876. Laila Ali will not have the chance to emulate her famous gold medal winning father, Muhammad Ali. Four freestyle wrestling events were part of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, although fourteen wrestling events were open to men. The relatively new Asian martial arts of judo and tae kwon do did have equal numbers of events for men and women at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Perhaps the potential for women shedding blood in boxing matches is too much for squeamish male officials.

Despite this catalogue of problems, there are two sports where men and women are allowed to compete directly against each other. Equestrian and yachting disciplines have mixed events and merit rather than prejudice is the criteria. Even in the physically demanding endurance section of the equestrian three day event, horse-riders such as Karen Stives, Lucinda Green, Virgina Holgate and Judith Pottinger have matched and often surpassed elite male athletes.

Encouragingly, in the last two Olympic Games in Sydney and Athens, women’s participation rates have increased significantly. In Athens, for the first time, the percentage of female athletes rose above 40% of the total and only 5 countries sent teams without any female representation. The team from Afghanistan was led into the Athens Olympic Stadium by flag bearer Rubina Muqimyar, a seventeen year old female sprinter. Having been denied the most basic of rights by the Taliban regime, it’s not surprising that she publicly stated "I will be representing the women of Afghanistan, and Muslim women around the world, who have been deprived of their rights for so long”. The Olympic movement had previously banned Afghanistan because of the Taliban’s gender apartheid and her participation was due to wild card system designed to broaden participation. In contrast to the Comte de Baillet-Latour, it was current President of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, who had insisted that she be the public representative of her country.

While equality has not yet been achieved, progress is being made to fulfill the goals of the Olympic Charter. Roll on Beijing 2008!