The Long, Arduous Journey of Women in Sports

The Paris Olympics has always served as a special backdrop to women’s sporting history.  (Infographic above from the International Olympics Committee website Olympics.com.)

When the first Olympics was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896 — women were not given the opportunity to participate.  

Women were eventually able to compete for the first time at the next edition of the quadrennial event held in, you guessed it, Paris.

So it’s quite beautiful to behold the 2024 Olympic Games that features 50% female athletes for the first time, taking place in the same city where they were first allowed to be called Olympians.

And it only took 124 years. 

Progress has been glacial at best, but at least it’s being made, and our generation is privileged enough to witness and enjoy it.

But progress has been made only because the women who came before us fought for it and did what couldn’t be done just because society said it was unthinkable. 

Exactly a hundred years ago, in 1924, the Olympics were also held in Paris, France. Trudy Ederle, a young American woman born in Manhattan to German immigrants, was able to qualify and join a small female swim team bound for the 1924 Olympics.

Trudy had had a colorful childhood that saw her barely survive measles and left her with poor hearing, and in “The Young Woman and the Sea”, it depicted their family’s humble economic condition wherein she, her sister, and mother took on little side hustles just to afford swimming training. All this grit early in life would serve her well for her remarkable future in sports.

In “Young Woman and the Sea,” for the 1924 Olympics, support for women was portrayed as begrudging and over-protective at best, with women unable to have access to proper athlete’s meals and to train on the ship unlike the men; forced to stay in their quarters in order to be protected from the men on the ship.

As a result, Trudy did not perform as well as expected in the Olympics, and the already fragile support for women’s sports waned.

But Trudy, not one to let up, decides she will stay in France and will cross the English Channel England instead - a feat only achieved by 5 men before her.
 
During marathon swims, a boat guides the swimmer through the open water for navigation and safety purposes (to provide hydration and food, and rescue if needed). it was fun to see Trudy Ederle request for music to be played on the boat— like having giant bone-conduction earphones, to keep her company on the 21-mile swim.

Her first attempt fails, and it is famously speculated that her own coach Jabez Wolffe, who had previously attempted and failed at crossing the English channel, did not want her to succeed in the first place.

Her next attempt was done under a different coach, Bill Burgess, who was the second person to complete the English channel swim, on his 16th attempt. Shout out to all the men in history who have been allies to women pushing for equal rights!

Our heroine valiantly swims through jellyfish stings, freezing temperatures, and currents forcing her off-course.  The film portrays, and history confirms, that Trudy crossed the English Channel and beat the men’s record by nearly two hours.

Trudy came home to New York to cheers of a record crowd dubbing her “Queen of the Waves.”  Two million people showing out for an athlete, much less a female athlete in the 1920s, ain’t a bad turnout, eh?

The long, arduous journey of Trudy through the English Channel notorious for strong currents and jellyfish, draws a parallel to the journey of women towards gender parity in sports— with its own dangers and challenges such as cultural mindsets, lack of support, unique physiological challenges, even different levels of harassment. But this was collectively achieved by women who came long before us, and men who have stood as allies. We’re not there yet, in terms of pay and other factors, obviously, but this is a good start.

So next time you attempt something that’s never been done no matter how small you think it is, remember the ripple effect (pun unintended)... it has the potential to reverberate through history and pave the way for the next generations.