By Mutaz Alshabrawi, KUNA,
Kuwait : A law passed in 404 BC stipulated that sportsmen and their coaches had to participate naked in the Olympic Games, to force women to stay away after Kalipatera disguised herself as a man to enter the stadium and watch her son compete.
Women found violating this order were thrown off the mountain, and as this sixth part of the KUNA report will show, women were not only banned from participating in the games, but also from entering the city of Olympics — all except the priestess of the temple and her virgins.
Kalipatera was the only women to escape the harsh punishment of being thrown off the mountain, after pleading with the judges that she was the wife of a deceased Olympic champion who died while training her only son, prompting her to take over.
With the revival of the Olympics in the late 19th century, the founder of the modern games Pierre Fredy, Baron de Coubertin, was not for the participation of women in the competitions, perhaps under influence of traditions of the Ancient Games that he studied so closely.
Women did not take part in the first Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896, but against the objections of de Coubertin, they were allowed by the International Olympics Committee to compete four years later in Paris.
Charlotte Reinagle Cooper of Middlesex, England, became the first female Olympic champion after winning two gold medals for the tennis singles and mixed doubles with her partner Reginald Doherty.
Princess Kyniska, daughter of Archidamos, King of the Spartans may be the first female Olympic champion in ancient history, figuratively speaking, as awards for the carriage race were bestowed on the carriage owner and not the driver — she won in 396 BC.
Female participation in the modern games remained small and symbolic, and restricted to “light” sports. When swimming and diving competitions were held in the 1912 Games, one official resigned in protest of the “indecency” of the female participants.
With the outbreak of the First World War, women began to take up jobs that were previously limited to men, and called for more civil and employment rights. They insisted in greater participation in athletics, and this was made possible in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.
However, women’s participation in the 1928 Games was a burden. Many fainted in the 800-meter race, and this was used as an excuse to cancel this event for the next 32 years.
Soon enough, women proved their excellence in the games. America’s Babe Didrikson won gold medals for the 80-meter hurdles and javelin, and the silver medal for the triple jump at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, while her countrywoman Dorothy Poynton Hill won two gold medals and two silver ones in the 1932 and 1936 Games for diving.
All of this was before Dutch sprinter Fanny Blanker-Koen brought female sports under the spotlight by winning the 100, 200 and 400-meter sprints, the 80-meter hurdles in the 1948 London Olympic Games. The 30-year-old mother of two defied calls for women to stay at home by becoming the first woman in history to win four medals, and she received a historic welcoming by her people upon arriving home.
With the progress of the female sports movement after the Second World War, political and social developments also took place. The Soviet Union sent its first female team of athletes to the 1952 Games, and its members won gold medals that marked the beginning of a sports “Cold War.” Soviet women dominated competitions in track and field and gymnastics for decades.
In the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, 80 percent of the population had their eyes on the Japanese female volleyball team as it played its game, making this the highest audience percentage for any event in that country.
It was only in 1984 that women ended their long struggle and were allowed to participate in the marathon, and it was in this same year in the Los Angeles Games that Moroccan sprinter Nawal El Moutawakel won the 400-meter race and became the first Muslim Arab woman to win a medal.
In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, women participated in all games, including judo.
There is also an event that is exclusively for women — synchronized swimming.
With all of these achievements by female athletes, the latest Athens Olympics saw 4329 women competing compared to 6296, and this is expected to increase in the Beijing Games.
Women’s fight for their right to prove their sports excellence has not been an easy one, and their achievements are among the most outstanding in modern Olympics.