- Alice Milliat
Alice Milliat (born
Nantes , 1884 - died 1957) was a pioneer of women's sport in France and around the world. Her lobbying on behalf of female athletes forced the inclusion of women's events in theOlympic Games .Milliat, a translator by profession participated in the sport of rowing [http://www.caaws.ca/e/milestones/women_history/olympic_games.cfm Bruce Kidd - The Women's Olympic Games: Important Breakthrough obscured by time] ] .
A member of Femina Sport, a club founded in 1911, she helped form the Federation Francaise Sportive Feminine in 1917, becoming treasurer and later president [http://www.colacoll.edu/edenslibrary/jane/Teammates.htm Columbia College - First international track meet for women] ] .
Formation of the FSFI
On 31 October, 1921, Milliat formed La Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI) to oversight international women's sporting events. In response to the refusal of the IAAF to include women's
track and field athletics events in the 1924 Olympic Games, the FSFI decided to hold a Women's Olympic Games in 1922 [http://www.gbrathletics.com/ic/fsfi.htm gbrathletics - Women's World Games] ] .Women's World Games
The first Women's Olympics were conducted in
Paris and featured five teams including theUnited States ,Great Britain ,Switzerland ,Czechoslovakia as well as the host countryFrance .Eleven athletics events were conducted and the 20,000 strong crowd saw eighteen athletes break world records.
Infuriated by the use of the term 'Olympic Games' the IOC convinced Milliat and the FSFI to change the name of their event in exchange for adding 10 women's events to the 1928 Olympics.
As such, the next edition of the event, held in
Gothenburg, Sweden in 1926, was termed the 'Women's World Games. Ten teams took part in this edition of the Games.Two further Games were held in
Prague in 1930 (featuring other sports in addition to athletics) and in London in 1934 before the FSFI was forced to hand over control of international women's athletics to the IAAF.Football (Soccer)
In 1920 Milliat assembled a football "(Soccer)" team of women from
Paris that toured the UK and played theDick, Kerr's Ladies on behalf ofFrance in the world first internationally recognised Women's Football tournament.ee also
* [http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1977/JSH0401/jsh0401f.pdf Mary H Leigh & Therese M Bonin - The Pioneering Role of Madame Alice Milliat and the FSFI]
References
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