The Women's World Games were the first international
women's sports
Women and girls have participated in sports, physical fitness, and exercise throughout history. However, the extent of their involvement has varied depending on factors such as country, time, geographical location, and level of economic develo ...
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; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...
(IOC) and the
IAAF
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...
to also include women's
track and field athletics
Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...
1923
In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days was skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, 15 February ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Thursday, 1 March ' ...
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
and was known as the Olimpiadi della Grazia (
Olympics of Grace
The Olympics of Grace () 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 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 Vie ...
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.