It was Paris that opened doors for women in 1900

Memories die hard. Men and women may come and go, but the memories they leave behind refuse to go. You may refer to them as history or whatever you like as places associated with them become monumental.

Just a little over three months to go when Paris will be reverberating with sporting activity unprecedented in the annals of world sports. It will be the third time that it will hold its third Olympic Games, the second after 1924.

On April 16, when 100 days were left, the flame for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 was lit. It was ignited at the historic birthplace of the Olympic Games in Ancient Olympia in Greece. The Olympic flame, embodying peace and hope, is now on a journey across Greece before coming to France. After arriving in Marseille on May 8, it will travel across the entire country, and some French overseas territories, arriving at the Opening Ceremony in Paris on July 26.

It was Paris where women were allowed to compete in the Games for the first time in 1900. ow 124 years later, women’s sports have come a long way as they will stand shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. Paris 2024 has promised gender equity.

Though there are no survivors of the Summer Olympic Games when they were last held in Paris in 1924, there have been monuments or historic venues that stood mute witnesses to how the greatest athletes of those times performed and scripted history.

Paula Nichols, a Senior Editor, of Olympic and Historical Content for the Canadian Olympic Committee and a lifelong fan of the Olympic Games and the athletes who compete at them, has not only tried to recapture the glorious moments of the 1924 Summer Olympic Games but also attempted to compare them with the mega event scheduled for 2024. She says “It is a sports celebration a century in the making. After 100 years, the Olympic Games are returning to Paris in 2024”.

Interestingly, the City of Paris and the Olympic Games have a longer history than the 1924 edition. It was in that Paris held that second Olympic Games of modern times after Baron Pierre de Coubertin rejected calls for the Games to be sited permanently in Athens following the success of the inaugural Games.

Since the Paris World Fair was being held at the same time, Pierre de Coubertin believed it would help raise awareness of the Olympics. There was a loss of some credibility of the Games because the events were stretched out over five months. Some of the participants never got a feeling that they were competing in the Games.

The 1900 Games would always be remembered as the winners in each event were awarded cups and trophies and not medals. This perhaps deprived the Games of its Olympic flavour.

They were, however, significant as they, unlike in Athens four years earlier, allowed women to compete in some of the events. The 1900 Paris Games produced the first female Olympic champion in the tennis star Charlotte Cooper of Britain. Before winning the Paris Games, she had already won three of the five Wimbledon titles in her career.

The fact professionals somehow got to compete in several events, including in fencing where France’s Albert Ayat, winner of the epee, was awarded 3000 francs for his victory, illustrated how these Olympics turned chaotic to the great displeasure of Baron de Coubertin.

Two situations cannot be compared, still drawing parallels is a common human endeavour.

In 1924 when Paris, the city of lights, played host to the VIII Summer Olympic Games, it was reachable only by sea routes as there were no airways and no aircraft to transport athletes and officials from different parts of the world to the venue of the Games.

The number of nations that participated was only 44, which had sent 3089 athletes, including 2954 men and only 135 women. In 2024, there will be more than 200 nations competing in the Games by bringing to Paris 10,500 athletes, 50 per cent of whom, will be females as the 2024 Olympics will be the first with full gender equity.

The number of events, too, will be almost three times those held in 1924. And the number of journalists – about a thousand – that covered the Games a century ago will now touch a mammoth 6000. From 19 venues in 1924, competitions in 2024 will be held at 35 venues.

The Games have witnessed phenomenal growth after the revival of the modern summer Olympic Games in1896. I had an opportunity to visit Olympia in Greece, the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games. In 2004 when the Games returned to Athens, the shot put event was held at Olympia, which is 290 kilometres from Athens. My first Olympics was in Barcelona in 1992. Since then except for London 2012 and Tokyo 2020, I have been to all Olympic Games. Every edition of the Games has its unique features and challenges.

No Games of the modern era have been free from controversies. Russia and Belarus will again be debarred from participation. Instead, there will be an Olympic Refugee Team that is expected to accommodate all those athletes whose nationalities are either suspended or expelled from the International Olympic Committee.

Besides Russia and Belarus, Guatemala is also on the debarred list. Paula Nichols has drawn important comparisons between the 1924 and 2024 Olympic Games. She says “Much has changed since the City of Lights last hosted the world’s biggest sports event in 1924, not least of which is going from an in-stadium Opening Ceremony structured around protocol to a grand artistic spectacle on the Seine, highlighted by a six-kilometre route for the Parade of Nations during which athletes will be transported by boat.”

Like Paula, I am also a lifelong fan of the Olympic Games and athletes. I am looking forward to visiting one of the 1924 Paris Games venues, that will host the Olympic competitions once again.

The Stade Olympique de Colombes was the primary venue in 1924, serving as the site of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies as well as competition in multiple sports, including athletics, equestrian, soccer, and gymnastics. In 2024, it will be the Stade Yves-du-Manoir, and host the field hockey – my favourite sport – tournaments.

When I talk about the change in the face of the Olympic Games, there come the ceremonies, especially the opening ceremony.

Traditionally competitions start much before the actual or formal glittering opening ceremony. In 1924, Paris as a host city of the VIII Summer Olympic Games had a very staggered competition schedule. Rugby and soccer were held in May. Some other sports started in late June, but most were contested throughout July. The Opening Ceremony was held on July 5.

In the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the opening ceremony will be held on July 26 though some of the competitions will get underway a couple of days earlier. Starting competitions before the actual formal start of the Games has been an accepted practice in the recent past editions of the Games.

(Prabhjot Singh is a veteran journalist with over three decades of experience of 14 years with Reuters News and 30 years with The Tribune Group, covering a wide spectrum of subjects and stories. He has covered Punjab and Sikh affairs for more than three decades besides covering seven Olympics and several major sporting events and hosting TV shows.)