Women – from cricket to marathon

History shows that the evolution of women's participation in the Olympic Movement has been increasing over the years, since their first participation in the 1900 Olympic Games and especially in the last 30 years. Nowdays, it is normal to see women running the marathon, weightlifting or fencing. On the first modern Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896., there weren’t any. Women started to participate on the Olympic Games for the first time in Paris in 1900. Among 997 athletes from 24 countries, there were also 22 women. At those times, the Games were held within the famous World exibition. Both the Games and the exibition lasted for five months, from May to October. It has bees said that lots of athletes died without knowing that thay have participated in the Olympic Games.

First women who showed at the Olympic Games were Ms Broi and Onie from France.
Sport – cricket. The first female champion at the Olympic Games in Paris in 1900 was British tennis player Charlotte Cooper (backthan there were not medals). Evolution of women's participation in the Olympic Movement has been increasing especially in last three decades. This evolution has taken place within a favourable social, political and cultural framework. The work of women’s rights groups was particularly relevant to the advancement of women in sport. Access to sport has been part of international instruments and documents, which the United Nations and other institutions approved and promoted in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Olympic Movement and the sports community at large followed this movement and progressively undertook initiatives to allow broader participation by women in sport in general. What were considered "endurance sports or disciplines" impossible for women, such as the 800-metres or marathon race, weightlifting, cycling or martial arts, are now performed by both women and men.

The Olympic Movement and the sports community at large followed this movement and progressively undertook initiatives to allow broader participation by women in sport in general, especially in the last 20 years, the IOC has pressed to ensure that the women’s programme at the Olympic Games was enlarged, in cooperation with the respective International Sports Federations (IFs) and the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs). This development was further reinforced by the IOC’s decision that all sports seeking inclusion in the programme must include women’s events. The IOC also started to work on women’s involvement at leadership level in sport in 1981, under the initiative of former President Juan Antonio Samaranch, who wanted to have women co-opted as IOC members. As a result, 15 members out of 113 are women.

Following the recommendations of the Study Commission of the IOC Centennial Olympic Congress in 1994, an IOC Women and Sport Working Group was created and became the IOC Women and Sport Commission
These recommendations were also included in the Olympic Charter in 1996