Alice Milliat, the mother of the Olympics

Alice Milliat fought for women to participate in the Olympics. In 1912, the visionary father of the Games, Pierre de Coubertin, thought that having women in the Olympics was 'impractical, uninteresting, ungainly and, I do not hesitate to add, improper'. Milliat led a movement for female sports in France, organised international competitions against all odds and helped four editions of the Women's Olympics to prove that women could participate in many more sports than they were allowed. Paris 2024's gender parity is part of her legacy.

In this video, we interviewed Sophie Danger, author of La femme Olympique, a biography of Alice Milliat, and Anne-Cécile Genre, director of Les Incorrectes, a documentary on Alice Milliat (Lucien TV/UKoncept / Histoire TV / 2021).

Video by Laura Garcia and Anna Bressanin

Additional editing by Ellenoor Shameli

Archivist Cagney Roberts

Archival footage by SVT Archives, La Presse, Getty, Alamy, Agence Rol 1920 and Agence de presse Meurisse 1919, National Library of France.

 

9 August 2024