Women in the Olympics

Women in the Olympics — page 1
CHAPTER 1 OLYMPIC PIONEERS It's hard to imagine the Olympics without female athletes But that's how the modern Olympics started Women were not allowed to participate in the first modern Games held in Athens Greece in 1896 Four years later 23 women were among the 1,224 competitors in Paris France The numbers grew steadily The International Olympic Committee IOC said that 4,655 female athletes participated in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London England That's more than 44 percent of all competitors The Winter Olympics which began in 1924 experienced a similar pattern Just 13 of the 313 participants at the first Winter Games were women That number grew to 1,105 women approximately 4 Women comprised nearly half of the athletes at the 2012 Summer Games in London