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Women and Sport: BC
| 1500 BC |
Female bull jumpers in Crete defy death.
|
| 1000 BC |
Atalanta out-wrestles Peleus; the women-only Herean
Games take place in Greece. |
| 440 BC |
Kallipateira sneaks into the Olympic Games and men devise
the first sex test to keep women out. |
| 396 BC |
Princess Kyniska of Sparta is the first female Olympic
champion, winning the chariot race. |
Women and Sport: AD, 1424 - 1929
1424 |
Madame Margot outplays Parisian men at jeu de paume,
an early version of tennis. |
1805 |
Sophie Armant Blanchard solos in a gas-powered balloon.
|
1849 |
Bloomers are invented by feminists in New York. |
1900 |
Women are included on the program of the modern Olympic
Games competing in golf and tennis; tennis player Charlotte
Cooper of Great Britain becomes the first woman Olympic
champion. |
1900 |
Canadian women climb the Rocky Mountains. |
1905 |
Over the next 35 years, the Edmonton Grads win 502 of
522 basketball games and four world championships. |
1919 |
Suzanne Lenglen leaves her corset in Nice and makes
her Wimbledon debut 1922
The Fédération sportive féminine internationale organizes
the first Women's Olympic Games in Paris; in one day
alone, 20,000 spectators watch 18 world records broken
in track and field. |
1923 |
The Edmonton Grads win their first of 17 Canadian championships.
|
1926 |
Alexandrine Gibb spearheads the formation of the Women's
Amateur Athletic Federation of Canada (WAAF) to initiate
international competition for Canadian women; the second
Women's Games are held in Gothenburg, Sweden, with entries
from 10 nations. |
1928 |
Florence Bell, Myrtle Cook, Fanny (Bobbie) Rosenfeld
and Ethel Smith win the 400 yd relay at the Amsterdam
Olympic Games; Ethel Catherwood takes gold in the high
jump;
Several women collapse at the end of the 800 and the
event is declared dangerous to women and banned until
1960;
Dorothy Prior is the first Canadian woman to compete
in Olympic swimming events;
Staging the only feminist boycott in Olympic history,
the British women stay away from the Games to protest
the lack of women's Olympic events. |
Women and Sport: 1930 - 1969
1930 |
The third Women's Games are held in Prague. |
1932 |
Amelia Earhart flies solo across the Atlantic. |
1934 |
The fourth and last Women's Games are held in London,
England. |
1936 |
The Women's Games are cancelled in exchange for a nine-event
Olympic program for women. |
1938 |
WAAF (Ontario) starts the first coaching development
scheme for women. |
1939 |
Dorothy Walton wins the All-England title, badminton's
equivalent of a world championship. |
1948 |
Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands is the first
mother to be an Olympic gold medallist. |
1950 |
Track, basketball, ice hockey and softball star, coach
and sport columnist Bobbie Rosenfeld is named Outstanding
Canadian Woman Athlete of the Half Century. |
1948 |
Barbara Ann Scott wins the Olympic figure skating title.
|
1954 |
Marilyn Bell becomes the first person to swim across
Lake Ontario. |
1956 |
Skier Guiliana Chenal-Minuzzo of Italy is the first
woman to take the Olympic oath at the Opening Ceremony;
Marilyn Bell is the first woman to swim the Straits of
Juan de Fuca. |
1961 |
Doris Plewes puts the finishing touches to Bill C-151,
which becomes the Fitness and Amateur Sport Act. |
1962 |
The Fitness and Amateur Sport Act becomes law. |
1966 |
Sex tests (gender verification) for women are adopted
in international sport. |
1968 |
Enriqueta Basilio becomes the first woman to light
the Olympic flame; sex testing of women is introduced
at the Mexico Games;
Sandra Post is the first Canadian woman golf professional
to win an American tournament. |
Women and Sport: 1970-1989
1970 |
The Royal Commission on the Status of Women releases
its report. |
1971 |
Debbie Brill becomes the first woman to high jump six
feet; she will dominate her sport throughout the decade.
|
1973 |
Snooky Seely sets a world record in shotput at the Stoke
Mandeville Games. |
1974 |
The first National Conference on Women in Sport is held
in Toronto and leads to the creation of Sport Canada's
Women's Program. |
1975 |
The United Nations declares International Women's Year;
women tennis players win pay parity at the US Open. |
1976 |
Rowing and basketball become Olympic events for women.
|
1980 |
The first Female Athlete Conference is held at Simon
Fraser University and becomes the catalyst for the founding
of the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women
and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS);
Fitness and Amateur Sport establishes the Women's Program.
|
1981 |
Abby Hoffman is the first woman to be elected to
the executive of the Canadian Olympic Association (COA);
later that year she becomes the first woman to be appointed
director of Sport Canada.
Formation of the Canadian Association for the Advancement
of Women and Sport and Physical Education (CAAWS) |
1982 |
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms prohibits
discrimination on the basis of gender. |
1984 |
The first women's Olympic marathon is won by Joan Benoit
of the United States; women's cycling, synchronized swimming,
and rhythmic gymnastics are added to the Olympic calendar.
|
1986 |
Sharon Wood is the first Canadian woman to scale Mount
Everest. |
1987 |
Betty Baxter founds the National Coaching School for
Women. |
1988 |
Justine Blainey wins the right to play in the all-male
Ontario Hockey Association; the Ontario Human Rights
Commission rules that girls and women cannot be barred
from competing in male sports and on male teams;
tennis returns to the Olympic Games although fewer
women than men will be allowed to compete;
Carol Ann Letheren is the first woman to be chef de
mission of a Canadian Olympic team. |
1980s |
Marathon swimmer Vicky Keith swims across all five of
the Great Lakes. |
Women and Sport:
1990's
1991 |
Judy Kent is the first woman to be selected
as chef de mission by the Commonwealth Games Association
of Canada.
Carol Anne Letheren is the first woman to be elected
president of the COA; later that year she becomes the
sixth woman named to the International Olympic Committee.
|
1992 |
Equity and accessibility for girls and women in
sport are targeted in the Minister's Task Force Report;
Judo becomes an Olympic event for women; Canadian women
rowers win three gold medals and one bronze at the Barcelona
Olympics;
The Canada Games Council adopts wide-ranging gender
equity principles.
Canada's women's wheelchair basketball team capture
the gold medal at the Stoke Mandeville Games and at
the Paralympic Games in Barcelona. |
1993 |
Gender balance is incorporated into the guiding
principles of the Canadian Sport Council, the new collective
voice of Canada's sport community;
The International Olympic Committee adds women's soccer
and women's triple jump to the Olympic calendar.
Wheelchair track star Christine Harder is the world
champion and world record holder in 400m and 800m. |
1994 |
Biathlete Myriam Bédard becomes the first Canadian woman
to win two Winter Olympic gold medals with victories in
7.5km and 15km at Lillehammer. |
|
The International Olympic Committee confirms that women's
ice hockey and women's and men's curling will join the
Winter Olympic program in 1988 at Nagano, Japan. |
|
The first international conference on women and sport
with 280 delegates from 82 countries, including 11 Canadians,
produced the Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport,
providing the principles that should guide action to increase
female involvement at all levels and in all functions
and roles. |
|
The Commonwealth Games Women in Coaching Program gave
10 Canadian women international coaching experience and
culminated in coaching positions for each at the 1994
Commonwealth Games. |
|
Judy Kent becomes the first woman to be elected president
of the Commonwealth Games Association of Canada. |
1995 |
With the addition of women’s soccer and softball
to the calendar of the 1996 Olympic Games, women will
participate in more sports than ever before; the IOC announces
its intention to move quickly to promote “the presence
of women within sport and its technical and administrative
structures” |
1996 |
3626 women compete at the Olympic Games in Atlanta
— 32 per cent more than in Barcelona — in
part due to the recognition of women’s soccer,
softball, and triple jump as Olympic events;
The athletes on Canada’s Olympic team number 154
women and 153 men; Molly Killingbeck is the first woman
to coach Canada’s 4 x100m men’s relay team
at an Olympic Games;
Alex Greaves establishes a milestone in British horse
racing history becoming the first women to ride in the
English Derby;
The IOC holds its first World Conference on Women and
Sport;
Canada’s women’s wheelchair basketball team
repeats as Paralympic champions — the team has
recorded 25 consecutive wins since 1990;
Egyptian handball player Hanan Eid is forced to take
a sex test at the All-African Games to prove she is
not a man;
Women’s pole vault is on the program of the European
Indoor Track Championship, the first time the event
has been held a a major international championship |
1997 |
The Central Board of Basketball’s international
body agrees to propose that at least five women join
its 20-member board;
The IOC extends the women’s field hockey tournament
at the 2000 Games from 8 to 10 teams, moving closer
to the men’s total of 12 teams; the IOC approves
new women’s events for Sydney but does not raise
the limit on the numbers of athletes competing; when
women first played at the Games in 1980, six teams were
in the tournament;
For the first time, 50 per cent of the chef de missions
at the Canada Games are women;
Kayaker Caroline Brunet becomes the first woman to
win three gold medals at the world championships |
|
Anita DeFrantz of the United States first woman to be
elected a Vice-President of the International Olympic
Committee |
|
Gianna Angelopoulos is the first female president of
a bid commitee to win the right to host an Olympic Games,
Athens 2004 |
1998 |
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has approved
new women's events for the 2000 Games in Sydney, but will
not expand the limit on the number of athletes competing.
Francois Carrard, the IOC director general, said that
women's skeet and trap shooting and the duet in synchronized
swimming were added to the schedule. Carrard stressed
that the number of athletes would still be within the
10,000 approved as the maximum for the Games. |
|
The IOC has expanded the Women's Hockey competition
from 6 to 8 teams for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City
- Radio Canada, June 3, 1998 |
|
Ila Borders becomes the first female
pitcher to start a minor league baseball game - T |
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