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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 and the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (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 Swis ...
(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 fo ...
to also include women's track and field athletics events in the 1924 Olympic Games. On refusal Milliat organised a first competition in 1921 called the Women's Olympiad in Monte Carlo; further editions were held in
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 ...
and 1923. In 1924 the
1924 Women's Olympiad The 1924 Women's Olympiad (formally called ''Women's International and British Games'', French ''Grand meeting international féminin'') was the first international competition for women in track and field in the United Kingdom. The tournamen ...
was held at Stamford Bridge in London. On 31 October 1921, Milliat then formed La Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (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 ...
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 The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad ( nl, Spe ...
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 The 2nd European Athletics Championships was a continental athletics competition for European athletes which was held in two places in 1938. The men's event took place in Paris, France between 3–5 September while the women's events were in ...
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.


Further reading

Ofer Idels (2021)
How to lose gracefully in an internationally selfish world: gender, the “New Jew” and the underestimation of athletic performance in interwar Palestine
''Journal of Modern Jewish Studies''


References

{{defunct athletics competitions Defunct athletics competitions Recurring sporting events established in 1922 Defunct multi-sport events Recurring events disestablished in 1934 Women's athletics competitions