Women suffered from prejudice, ignorance

LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) -- Women track and field athletes suffered from prejudice and ignorance for much of the 20th century.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin's dream of a modern Olympic movement did not extend to women. They were not allowed to compete at the 1896 Athens Games and did not take part in athletics until the 1928 edition in Amsterdam where women also competed in gymnastics for the first time.

Sixteen-year-old American Betty Robinson was the first women's track champion, winning the 100 metres at only her fourth meeting.

The 800 metres in 1928 proved one of the most controversial races at any Games and had long-lasting effects. Several competitors required first aid after collapsing at the end of the race, provoking a storm of controversy.

Reaction was swift and predictably misogynist.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Comte de Baillet-Latour expressed a widely-held viewpoint when he advocated eliminating all women's events from the Games.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation was less extreme but still over-reacted by banning all events longer than 200 metres for 32 years.

Slowly the barriers came down, assisted by some remarkable women athletes.

In 1932 Babe Didrikson attended the Olympic trials as the sole representaive of the Employers Casualty Insurance Company of Dallas. Over three hours she took part in eight of 10 events, winning six.

BLANKERS-KOEN TRIUMPHS

Restricted to three events by the rules in force at the time she won gold medals at the Los Angeles Games in the 80 metres hurdles and long jump.

The 1948 London Games featured Dutchwoman Fanny Blankers-Koen who was dismissed on one count and criticised on another.

At 30, said the sceptics, she was too old. Traditionalists, who maintained that sport and motherhood were incompatible, believed she should have stayed home and looked after her two children.

Blankers-Koen overcame the critics and her own self-doubts to win the 100, 200 and 80 metres hurdles before coming from sixth to first and anchoring the 4x100 relay team to the gold.

Nobody died when the 800 metres returned to the Games in 1960. In addition the most celebrated athlete among a host of wonderful competitors in Rome was a woman, the graceful, long-limbed American Wilma Rudolph.

Rudolph sped to gold in the 100 and 4x100 relay and became the first woman to break the 23-second barrier when she won the 200.

By 1984 the IOC felt sufficiently confident in women's ability to run long distances without collapsing to include a marathon at the Los Angeles Games.

In searing heat, American Joan Benoit clocked two hours 24 minutes 52 seconds, fast enough to have won 13 of the 20 men's Olympic marathons at that time.

Soviet and East German women dominated track and field in the 1970s and 1980s, although their exploits have been tarnished by subsequent revelations of systematic drug use.

In 1989, the International Association of Athletics Federations introduced random testing. World records in 12 women's Olympic events remain unchanged since that date.

BEST FEMALE

The best female athlete of recent times has been Marion Jones, who boldly attempted to go one better than her male counterparts Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis by winning five gold medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Jones eventually won gold in the 100, 200 and 4x400 relay and picked up bronzes in the long jump and 4x100 relay.

At this year's Games the women's programme is similar to that of the men's with the exception of the 3,000 metres steeplechase and the 50 kms walk. In addition women compete in the seven-discipline heptathlon rather than the decathlon.

Next year, the gap narrows further when the steeplechase becomes an official event at the world championships in Helsinki.

Women have come a long way since they were granted five events in Amsterdam.

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