WOMEN ATHLETES AT OLYMPIA

Southland Times, Issue 23308, 18 September 1937, Page 17

WOMEN ATHLETES AT OLYMPIA

Attempt To Debar Them UNEASINESS CAUSED LONDON, August 13. Considerable uneasiness has been caused among women’s sporting organizations in England following the discussion by the International Olympic Committee at Warsaw as to whether women’s events should be dropped from the Games. The fact that the German representatives raised the question gave rise to a feeling that this was another part of Herr Hitler’s campaign of keeping the women in the home, which has so effectively barred industrial, professional, and commercial jobs to so many German girls. However, this idea is understood to be an error—the German proposal is based on the argument that the Olympic programme has become overcrowded. The exclusion of women would overcome this congestion. THE TIME FACTOR The difficulties encountered last year at Berlin, when 53 countries were represented, were stupendous. Housing the competitors necessitated a complete well-knit organization to deal solely with this problem; the eliminating heats, with such a tremendous increase of actual participants, present an evergrowing obstacle if time is a factor—as it undoubtedly is. Yet each year sees the addition of an extra sport—in Tokyo in 1940, for instance, baseball will be played for the first time. Women have won their right to compete at the Olympic Games only after a whole barricade of conventional taboos was first broken down, taboos both moral and physical. Experience has shown that there are no real grounds for fearing that women will do themselves physical injury,/ and moral objections faded out over a decade ago. Their entry into the Olympic field followed a series of Women’s World Games, the first of which was held in Paris in 1922 —just after the International Olympic Committee declined to include women’s athletics in the forthcoming Games. Women’s World Games were held in 1926, 1930, and 1934. EVENTS POPULAR Women athletes were, naturally, disconcerted to hear that their tenure in the great international sports meeting was still subject to dispute. They claim that the women’s, events are popular with the public—in Britain the Women’s A.A.A. meetings are always a financial success—and that the standard is comparable with men. In their eyes it would be similar to asking for the women’s championship at Wimbledon to be dropped—and no one would be foolish enough to suggest that.