ALICE MILLIAT is a French athlete who pushed for the inclusion of women’s events in the Olympic Games.
As a young adult, Alice worked as a translator but also participated in rowing, swimming and hockey. She was a member of a sports club for women, and later helped form another – the Fédération Française Sportive Féminine. She served as treasurer and later president of this group, and organized the first international women’s sporting events, the Women’s World Games, held in Monte Carlo in 1921 and two subsequent years).In 1919, Alice requested the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) to include women’s track and field events in the 1924 Games. The group refused. A seat at the table was denied. So Alice built her own table, and formed the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI) which started organizing international sporting events for women athletes.
As a part of this effort, the first omen’s Olympics were held in Paris on August 20, 1922. 77 women on five teams competed in 11 events. Twenty thousand people attended the one day event, and 18 world records were set.