Paris 2024 marks an historic milestone as first Olympic Games with the same number of female and male competitors.
The journey to this point has been long and challenging with a lot of milestones along the way. Some women’s events were only introduced into the Games as recently as 2012.
Explore our timeline below of when of women were able to compete in specific sports at the Olympic Games:
Women’s Marathon: LA 1984
The women’s marathon was first included in the Olympics in 1984 – the year our charity was formed – 98 years after the men’s event was established.
Until just a few years beforehand, it was doubted that women could even cover the distance.
When they were finally given the chance, the women’s marathon field proved itself to be extremely competitive, the winner – Team USA’s Joan Benoit Samuelson – finishing in 2:24:52.
GB’s Priscilla Welch came just a few minutes behind, running the race in 2:28:54, coming in 6th position at the age of 39.
Reflecting on the first women’s Olympic marathon, Switzerland’s Gabriele Anderson-Shiess, who won silver on that historic day in 1984, said: “They had a ceremony at the start, so it was definitely kind of a historic moment. And for us runners too, because it was a big step from the longest distance being a 3,000m, going up to the marathon. They finally realised that there’s really no reason not to have women run longer distances.”
Women’s Boxing: London 2012
Boxing was the last Olympic sport to include women in and only three Olympic Games have passed since its debut at London 2012.
The decision to include women’s boxing was controversial. The Cuban team banned their women from competing, with their boxing coach Pedro Roque stating that women should be “showing off their beautiful faces, not getting punched in the face.”
This opinion was echoed around the world, with British boxing manager Kellie Maloney, then known as Frank Maloney, describing the first British women’s amateur boxing bout a “freak show.”
Despite this backlash, female boxers pursued their newly-realised Olympic dreams, with Nicola Adams and Natasha Jonas moving to Sheffield to train at the GB Boxing Club.
It was Nicola who came away with one of the first ever Olympic golds in women’s boxing in the flyweight category, 120 years after men first competed in boxing at the Games.
Women’s pole vault: Sydney 2000
Women’s pole vault made its Olympic debut in 2000, while the men’s pole vault has been included in every modern Olympic Games. But women who sought inclusion faced resistance.
The women’s event had has its first major appearance at the World Championships in 1999, where American pole vaulter Stacy Dragila became World Champion and went on to win gold at the Sydney 2000 Games
In Paris 2024, all eyes are on GB’s Molly Caudery, who has set a strong of records in the past few months, including setting a national record of 4.92 metres in June.
The 24-year-old athlete from Cornwall will now attempt to win gold in an event that women were only first allowed to compete in the year she was born.
