Dare to Compete

As a class, we watched a short video about women in sport and about how women got into sports and started competing. In the beginning of the video, it explained that many men looked down upon women comepeting in an atheltic event because they thought that running and anything to do with athletics that it was to strenuous for women. It was suzanna Lenglen who was first womens athlete to be recognized. she was a French tennis player who drank from her flask and one time someone spiked her flask with water and she ended up losing that match. In then 1928 olympics there was anouther issue that was being played out. The women who ran the 800 meter race could barely do anyhthing afterwards so they thought it was to hard for women so they banned the 800 meter race for like another 30 years. Another big accomplishment in the history of womens sports is young lady name Gertrude Ederle who swam the english channel and also broke records. There were some sports though that where acceptable in the sporting world like golf, tennis, badminton and any less strenuating activities.






Suzanna Lenglen was the first women's sports star. She was a French tennis player that drank during her games and jumped around like she was in ballet. Gertrude Ederle was the first woman to swim the English Channel. She beat all other records of the swim by using a "very" hard and tiring stroke that even a man couldn't pull off. She beat all the other records by 2 hours. The 1928 Olympics also slowed women's participation in sports. The runners after the 800 meter race were to exhausted and could not even stand anymore

This video was about women in sport and how and when they began to compete like the men. Back then exercise was considered too strenuous for women and was said that they could not compete in anything that the men do. In 1919 women earned the right to vote, but still couldn’t participate in athletics. Eventually women’s track and field olympics was created. In the 1928 Olympics 800 meter race women were allowed to compete, but all of the competitors became exhausted and laid out on the grass like dominos. Anyone would get tired after competing in an 800 meter race but because they were women it was a huge controversy. All nine of the women finished the race, three of the women medaled and they also set records. After this women could only run 100 meters at a time, and it was 32 years before they could run another 800 meter race. Women in sport was so looked down upon that the bicycle was said to even be too hard on a woman, worse than riding a horse. Some of the only socially acceptable ports were, tennis, golf, archery, and yachting. Women were only allowed to participate in sports where they could wear skirts and look lady like. Many things were interesting to me about this video. There were a lot of women that stood out back then. One being, Gertrude Ederle, she was the first woman to swim the English channel, and also the first person ever to swim it freestyle. She swam it in 14 hrs and 31 min, which broke the men’s record. Suzanne Lenglen was also a superstar. She would perform dance while playing tennis. She was very charismatic and set trends for many women. Suzanne had a very dramatic life and died at age 39. I thoroughly enjoyed this video and I am very thankful for what has come about for women and sport today.