The Women's World Games were the first international
women's sports
The participation of women and girls in sports, physical fitness and exercise, has been recorded to have existed throughout history. However, participation rates and activities vary in accordance with nation, era, geography, and stage of econ ...
events in track and field. The games were held four times between 1922 and 1934. They were established by
Alice Milliat
Alice Joséphine Marie Milliat née Million (5 May 1884 – 19 May 1957) was a pioneer of women's sport. Her lobbying on behalf of female athletes led to the accelerated inclusion of more women's events in the Olympic Games.
A member of , a cl ...
and the
Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale The Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI) – or, in English, the International Women's Sports Federation – was founded in October 1921 by Alice Milliat because of the unwillingness of existing sports organisations, such a ...
(FSFI) to compensate for the lack of women's sports at the Olympic Games. The games were an important step towards women's equality in sports. A forerunner tournament was held in Monte Carlo in March 1921.
Background
Women were allowed to take part in the Olympic games since 1900 ( II Olympiad in golf and tennis, III Olympiad in archery, IV Olympiad in archery, figure skating and tennis, at the V Olympiad swimming was added as well).
In 1919 Milliat started discussions with the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
(IOC) and the
IAAF
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
to also include women's
track and field athletics
Track and field is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of ...
1922
Events
January
* January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.
* January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...
Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale The Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI) – or, in English, the International Women's Sports Federation – was founded in October 1921 by Alice Milliat because of the unwillingness of existing sports organisations, such a ...
(FSFI) with the purpose to oversight international women's sporting events and the inclusion of women's events in the Olympics.gbrathletics - Women's World Games Retrieved 10 December 2013
A European version of the women's games was hosted in 1931 in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
and was known as the Olimpiadi della Grazia (
Olympics of Grace
The Olympics of Grace ( it, Olimpiadi della Grazia) was an early international multi-sport event for womenOlympiad of Grace GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-01-11.
Events
In response to the refusal of the IAAF to include women's events in the 1924 Olympic Games the FSFI also organized the first Women's Olympic Games in Paris in 1922.
The IOC objected to the FSFI using the word "Olympic" in the title of its events. After negotiations the IOC and the IAAF therefore agreed to include 10 athletic events in the
1928 Olympic Games 1928 Olympics may refer to:
*The 1928 Winter Olympics, which were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland
*The 1928 Summer Olympics, which were held in Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most po ...
and in exchange Milliat altered the title to "Women's World Games". They finally included only 5 events (100 meters, 800 meters, 4 x 100 meters, high jump and discus ) and only as an experiment.
The FSFI did not find this satisfactory and organised the third Women's World Games in Prague in 1930 and the fourth games in London in 1934.
Following some protracted arguments between the FSFI on the one hand and the IOC and IAAF on the other, the FSFI and an IAAF commission agreed that the IAAF should take control of all international women's athletic events in return for the IAAF recognising all FSFI records, a complete programme of women's Olympic events, and the IAAF holding the fifth Women's World Games in Vienna in 1938. In the event, while the 1936 IAAF Congress agreed to recognise FSFI records, it otherwise only agreed to proposing a somewhat expanded programme of Olympic events to the IOC (the IOC refused) and holding a programme of women's events in the 1938 European Athletics Championships in place of the Women's World Games. The FSFI ceased operations in 1938 without ever accepting or rejecting the IAAF's decisions.
Sites
Four regular events were held, a planned 5th was cancelled as women participated in the 1938 European Athletics Championships.