5. Alice Milliat: Untold heroism and a trailblazer for women in Sports.

The Untold Heroism of Alice Milliat: Trailblazer for Women in Sports

Join Simon and Vicky in this riveting episode of Wonder Women, as they delve into the inspirational yet unsung story of Alice Josephine Marie Milliat. Born in 1884 in Nantes, France, Alice faced personal tragedies but found solace in sports, especially after moving to England. Despite resistance from the male-dominated sports world, spearheaded by the antagonistic Baron Pierre de Coubertin, Alice became a formidable force advocating for women's inclusion in the Olympic Games. Her relentless pursuit led to the establishment of the Women's Olympic Games, shaking the foundations of sexist barriers and paving the way for future generations of female athletes. Discover the groundbreaking efforts of Alice and her unwavering resolve that have impacted the world of sports, driving towards true equality. Tune in to learn about this incredible woman whose legacy still resonates today!

Sources:

• “Alice Milliat, Olympic Games pioneer, finally honored by Benoît Hopquin (Le Monde Fr) 2024
• Alice Milliat Foundation
• The Suffragettes of Sport – Alice Milliat and the rebel pioneers of 20th century women’s athletics by David Owen (Inside the Games) 2016
• The Suffragette of Sport: Alice Milliat by theinediblelifeofme (Stories of Her) 2020
• Summer Olympics 2024 Wikipedia

00:00 Introduction to Wonder Women

00:38 Vicky's Turn: A Story of Olympic Proportions

01:31 Meet Alice Josephine Marie Million

03:14 The Baron and the Birth of the Modern Olympics

06:09 Alice's Fight for Women's Inclusion in Sports

09:32 The Women's Olympic Games

17:30 Legacy and Ongoing Struggles

27:01 Conclusion and Future Stories

Transcript

0:08

Hi everyone. Welcome back to Wonder Women. Wonder Women. I like that. I hadn't heard that one. As long as it's not trademarked by DC, I think we might be onto something. Welcome back, where we tell a story, a true story, about women present and past, who have done something amazing that's gone unappreciated. shall we say, or noteworthy who maybe haven't got the fame that they deserve or the fame it warrants. Yeah. Um, and it's Vicky's turn today. I'm Simon. And it's Vicky's turn to tell a story. So let's do it. I prepped this story months ago when it was International Women's Day, and I haven't really looked at the notes since. So if I Go a bit back and forth here, that's why. But it was too good a story not to put on the podcast, because A, it's Olympic related. We're at Olympic City right now. And also this lady is French, so a French person did something really cool. But not be more on point. Exactly, I was like, we can't miss this opportunity. So I think everyone should know about her because she's just Phenomenal, her story is so, so cool. So are you ready? Ready. Ready. Um, shock horror. We're going to start in France. It's Alice Josephine Marie million. What a name. First of all, Alastair's famous. She was born on the 5th of May 1884 in Nantes. She's the eldest of five children. Her parents were greengrocers, so really humble beginnings. Her mother later worked as a seamstress and her father was an office worker. In 1904 the family moved to England and that's where she met her husband and she got married to Joseph Milliard. He was also from Nantes, so you know, it all kind of worked out. They didn't have any children. Which is fine, that shouldn't really be a point. But he died in 1908, so they were only married for those four years. So, yeah, quite a bit of tragedy and heartbreak. Whilst in England, Alice took up rowing, and after her husband's death, this is In the nicest way, this is when things got interesting. So she travelled widely. That's when it got good. That's when things got real. So, um, she travelled widely, she learnt loads of new languages. She actually became a translator because languages were her thing, which immediately I'm jealous of. I've always struggled with languages. And then during the First World War, uh, when that broke out, she actually returned to France. She was really sporty anyway, into swimming, hockey, rowing, all these things. The First World War led to women having to be more economically active, which we know, kind of, they seized that opportunity to, what's that word, to contribute. And they're spotting the workforce. Yeah, contribute to the economy. So that's kind of one timeline that's happening. So Alice is going through this horrible husband's death. She's going through trying to find herself. World War One is ranging on. At the same time, there's a guy called Baron Pierre de Copeton. Just imagine that in a French accent. He revived the ancient Olympic Games. Okay. Um, so he's the guy who like brought it back. Um, what was that, 1908 roughly? Was it, it was around then, wasn't it? It was like really similar timelines is when she was getting married. He's the villain of the story, and I don't want anywhere said that. He isn't He, even if you Google picture Barron usually are, even when you Google a picture of him, he does look like some movie villain that would be sat in an ivory tower destroying the world. You know what I mean? Like, uh, yeah. Go. Oh, yeah, exactly. If you Google him, you'll be able to see and you'll be like, oh, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Baron Pierre du Capone. So he founded these Olympic Games based on very old, uh, aristocratic masculine ideals. The games were inherently sexist and classist. They were games for men, a certain kind of men. and only them alone. It wasn't open, it wasn't really for anybody. So even working class men were barred from the games. He compared women to weak members of society, from the children to the elderly, arguing they were not made for physical activity. Um, yeah, yeah. Are you ready for a quote? I should have like pre faced this. There's gonna be a lot of anger here, I think. So here's Direct Baron, this is direct, Baron said this. I do not approve of the participation of women in public competitions. In the Olympic Games, their primary role should be to crown the victors. Yeah, what a dick. So he argued that because of biological reasons, sports were too violent for women. Furthermore, he argued that women's athletic exhibitions would erode society's morales. It's the same arguments that, sort of, yeah, these same arguments come up over and over, don't they? It's like, we can't possibly watch women do things because it'd be too erotic for anyone else to watch. Yeah, and this is 19 something, isn't it? So the fact that you could totally see that. Well there was someone tweeting that today, couldn't you? You could totally see that on Twitter, 100%. Yeah. Exactly. It reminds me of, like, the whole crowning the victor reminds me of the pit girls they had until really recently in motorsport. It's like the men are there to do the racing and the dangerous stuff, the women are just there to be skimpy, or like the ring girls in boxing. Do they not have pit girls anymore? No, a few years ago they were stopped because there was, well, there was outcry about them. Basically, and, uh, yeah, Pit Girls, um, Grids, Grid Girls, that's stopped. Well, that's cool. I didn't know that. It might have been ten years ago or so. Oh my god, I'm so happy. That's great news though, great news for mankind. Ride that fury, but yeah, some good news for you. Thank you. Um, So whilst some might think that this attitude of Baron was like the attitude of the day, like he was just reflecting society, that's not really the case. Many men of the day argued that his attitude towards women was despicable. That's because it was, there's no need to argue. It's a reasonable argument. It's just, yeah, of course it was. The public pressure grew so great that in the 1900 Olympic Games, women were actually allowed to participate, and he wasn't happy about that, so he basically got over with it. Even then, women were only allowed to participate in golf and tennis, so Althea would have been great at that. She would have been wet in them. Absolutely. Smashed it. Yeah. He thought these were the only suitable sports for ladies. Women at the time, they kept pushing for more and more inclusion, absolutely. In 1904, archery was added, but then it was quickly removed in 1912. Didn't last long. And then even worse, at the Winter Games, which was also set up, No women were allowed at all until 1924. In 1924, they were only allowed to do the figure skating. It seems like the selection of his argument is it's either going to be too erotic or too dangerous. Then he seems to have really gone in with the sexiest, most dangerous. Sports. I mean, golf is clearly the most aggressive sport. If anyone's seen Happy Gilmore. Yeah. And the skin piece outfits as well. Like, you know, you don't want material on you and tennis will cover you. So yeah, absolutely. So that's the other timeline basically. So we've got Baron's timeline and we've got Alice's timeline. Alice, while Baron was doing his crap, was absolutely seething. She was, there was a mass movement for women in the games which was building and building rapidly and Alice knew that she wanted to be at the heart of it. In France, the Federation of French Female Sports Societies was founded in December 1917 while the war was raging on. Alice became a treasurer of that really young and because she was a widow in her 30s, um, it kind of gave her a bit of a lifeline in her life and she was elected to president really quickly of that society. So she was part of quite an organized body for women in sport. Young Alice only had one goal in life to create a program of women's sports to be included in the Olympic Games. That was her goal, she set on it. You know, I imagine she manifested it. It was happening for her and she was, she decided the only way to do this is she's got to go up against the establishment. She, she totally picked up on Baron as being her opponent. And, um, it's so dramatic and he was not one man that could be easily beat. So, um, she knew, she knew she was in for like an upheaval. You know, I mean, a quote from her at the time was, I came up against a solid wall of refusal, which led me directly to create the women Olympic Games. Separate event. Yes. So that quote I've written in my notes from ages ago reminded me of Michelle Obama, when she was like, when they go low, we go high. And even though that was like literally 100 years later, the precedence is the same, isn't it? She is like, well, I'm going to go and do it anyway, basically. Yeah, just create your own rules and crack on. Yeah, so Alice wanted all women in all Olympic games and wouldn't accept no less. That was her goal. She was really clear on that. Alice was a cunning and intelligent woman. She knew that she didn't have a chance of getting women into the actual Olympics, so why not create her own games? Because she had this federation with her as well, she decided that she could hold a Women's Olympic Games, which included all sports open to men, really, really specific, all sports open to men. This was at the start of the 1920s, a period of great cultural upheaval. So you're in between the two world wars, you've got kind of the feminist movement happening already. Yeah. They seized the opportunity for many like Alice, the fact that women were only allowed to compete in two Olympic sports in the 1920 games in Antwerp was the straw that broke the camel's back. So she was like, no, I'm not doing it then. So it was definitely Barron's decisions that were leading her to do this. It was definitely him that was making sure that it was happening. So the first game specifically for women, she got it. happening. She got it up and running. It was held in Monte Carlo in 1921. Unsurprisingly, she found support hard to come by, so she had to do with whatever she could take her, what am I trying to say? She had to do with the best with what she got. Yeah, like she had to be resourceful, which I think is a theme of stories, isn't it? It's a definite theme and that, um, like making your own rules and going your own way, if they wouldn't allow you to do it in the normal structure, make your own structure. Yeah, it seems to be quite an effective, like, in to prove the concept and get the acceptance there. And then the mainstream, picks it up and like with Althea talking about the particular tennis club that she went to and the sort of Black Tennis Players Association that she was supported by and part of. And even someone who is like in quite a privileged position and in modern day, so someone like myself, what those stories tell me is that it's okay to be a rebel, like it's okay to make your own rules and if you know that you're doing it for the right reasons. That is a theme in these stories, isn't it? Just go and be a rebel and ray the bulls. It's not, no. A lot of these rules are just arbitrarily decided by someone else. And they're sort of self appointed, who say they've got the better idea. Yeah, 100%. So Alice did find support hard to come by. So she actually did the games, the Montreal Carla games, in a pigeon shooting field. Yeah. So she was just like, this'll do. She got women from France, England, Italy, Norway and Sweden to compete. Um, athletics and a basketball tournament where, um, like the stars, they were like the big events of the show. The basketball was actually won by the British. Um, much to the French's upset. That's the last time. It was so good that she did another one. So in 1922, it was even bigger. 300 ladies competed, representing seven nations, and the game would be held every four years. It was decided at that point. In the end, 38 countries and five continents were there, and they didn't want to be quiet. They wanted to make a noise. So this is a really powerful time then. Between the wars. She's just captivating. Women into the workforce. She's just making the most of the opportunity, which I, Yeah. So like, I don't, and obviously some of that is outside her control, obviously. I'm pretty sure she would have done it regardless, but it really gave momentum. 1928 when women got the vote. Yeah, I guess that's involved as well, isn't it? Actually, like, this is just before that. Yeah, it makes perfect sense. And also, I think it was her beliefs as well. So Alice firmly believed that confidence and sport bred confidence and helped develop her personality as it did for her. So it was using that tragedy or becoming a widow so early on. To doing something monumental, you know, she's saying that sport saved her life. And I'm sure that's true for so many people. Uh, so she did one as a trial and the second one was her like official start that she took place in Paris in 1920, 102 years ago, where Olympics is still going on today. It was international, went really well. And then she was due. To take place in the same city the next time around. On average, the first of women Olympic games drew a massive crowd of 15, 000 people. Alice put special bus services on to get the spectators to the venue and she actually made them the best that they can be. She was so resourceful making it work. properly. And she was actually kind of flaunting it in Baron's face because obviously he was French as well. He knew it was happening. He was like, look at this. Despite all her effort, actually, it didn't get that much coverage in the media. So the Times could only do a hundred words on it. And. Moor words at the time, really sad little fact, so Moor words in the same edition was given to half a million herrings descending on Scarborough. I mean, hey, don't go knocking herring news. So Moor words were given to that. This is the big event of the 1920s. They refused to call the games the Women's Olympics because Because people didn't want to call it the Women's Olympics, basically, because they didn't want to, like, affiliate with it. But what happened was all this noise going on in Paris, Barron can't avoid it. What Barron's response to that was, oh, you know, all right, then we'll add fencing. Women can join fencing in our side. Another violent sport. So it was a very small win. Um. So later on that year, things are working. So the governing body of athletes, which is called the IAAF, I didn't know that, decided to formally recognize women athletes, which is about time really. And that is purely down to these games. Even though it acknowledged that women can be athletic, it stipulated that they should never be allowed to participate in the Olympics. Alice's organization were unveiling their plans of the women's Olympics, right? So that was her response to that. She was basically saying it's not good enough. So she unveiled four more games. They all went ahead. They were regularly drawing crowds of 20, 000 people. They went all out to promote the games, like I said. They were gaining influence, they were gaining power, and they were gaining traction. So much so that the International Olympic Committee, which I think is what it's called today, the IOC. Um, they actually tried to shut her down like it got that bad. They were like, um, and it's just pure sexism. They had no reason. Baron had no reason other than sexism to shut it down. They were But Alice kept on demanding, she kept on pushing, she demanded that they should be allowed to participate in the Olympic Games in all events. The IOC, so Barron's organisation, was very much like, fine, fine, we'll let you into a few sports, but not them all. He was like, okay, that'll do. And that was his way of stopping the revolution that she had started. He was like, you can do a little bit here and a little bit there, um, but I'm not having it. Sorry? Just trying to placate them. Yeah. Um, I'm guessing it wasn't very successful. Well, um And this is the thing for Alice, like her, she was very strong on her morals and her goals and what she wanted. And she was like, no, it's all sports or nothing. Like, I'm going to carry on until you get us into all sports. Yeah. Baron had never met anyone with Alice's steely resolve, it says, and boundless courage, which is such strong compliments, aren't they? Imagine being complimented that, amazing. Amazing. So in response, the IAC, which is Barron's team, ordered a cease and desist on Alice's use of the word Olympics. Highly litigious to these, to this day. Yeah. It's really protective. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Alice, you're right, 100%. Alice agreed if the organization would relent on its sexist position, then she would. In principle, Barron's team. said okay fine a vote was passed in 1926 that women's athletics would be added to the 1928 olympic games in amsterdam so she got it she got athletics in there so she managed to first of all have women acknowledge women's athletics acknowledged and then she managed to get it in the olympic games I think that's pretty damn amazing, and also so unknown, so if you think of all those women competing today, they're competing because of this, they're competing because of her, and because she made such a noise. Yeah, so much like the inertia stands out and people are maybe very happy to say, oh yeah well I don't agree with it. But then they don't do anything. Yeah. And they don't actually speak out. And if you, like, ask people and do a survey, they may well be annoyed about it. But it takes what sounds like decades of resolve. It's action, isn't it? Yeah. And that sort of attitude of not just being, uh I'm not saying people shouldn't be grateful, but Like, his efforts to add one or two sports, it would have been all too easy to be, oh look, you know, a small victory. Yeah. Sounds like she was just clear cut, it's all or nothing. So this isn't really where the story's The story ends, which is quite sad. It gets quite complicated and I remember when I actually presented this at work I couldn't do it in an entertaining way because it was basically what happens for the next However long is that Alice and Baron just take chunks out of each other They just continue to fight on this case of the rest of her life, basically And the image that I had in my presentation was you know how giraffes fight? Just swing their necks at each other and that's the image that I had of her the rest of her life fighting Baron basically is just that it was tit for tat all the way through because all right they They came to this agreement that in reality, like with many of these agreements, it just didn't, it didn't happen. So in the 1928 Olympics in Antwerp, for example, um, there were five events for women and there were 22 events for men. And Alisa's like, that's, you know, that's not really good enough. Yeah. She's also up against the, the media as well. So Times Newspaper, the Herring. People, the Herring Publication. That's like we'll now forever know them. The Herring Times. The Herring Times. They said that the 800 metre race, which athletics, may not warrant a complete condemnation of the Girl Athletic Championships, but it certainly suggests Unpleasant possibilities so the idea that having women races unpleasant it also made me think of you know when they wouldn't even allow women to do the Marathon and they like dragging that woman of It's just I don't understand so after that after the Antwerp and games The next games, women's athletics were completely removed. Alice was growing tired. The French government also reduced the funding for her corporation. So the FSFI in 1928, and they removed all funding by 1936. In 1932, at the Olympic Games, women were back in the athletics camp. They were allowed to compete that year, but until, um, full inclusion was allowed, the women's world games would continue. So that's what she renamed it, the women's world games. In 1930, the Women's World Games were held in Prague over four days, drew 60, 000 spectators. In 1934, they went again in London. So, Alice never got her dream, essentially, in her lifetime. It never happened. She, she fought tooth and nail for so long. And it was like they gave a little bit then they took it back and they let women in a little bit more and then they took it back and it was just so hard and they never sort of truly relented and changed their mind about it they were just doing as little as they possibly could and obstructing as much as possible yeah and it continues up to today so this is the first olympic games where the number of men and women is pretty much equal and that's today so Even if she, I don't know, um, was like a Doctor Who and could live on forever and ever and ever, it'd be a hundred years till she got what she was asking for, until she got what she wanted. It is so hard to get really accurate figures on this because you have mixed teams as well, like you have mixed doubles and stuff like that, so it is hard to get it. the 2024 games will be the first really where it's like a proper equality. I think it's like 49. 9 percent to 50. 1 percent or something like that. I never would have guessed it was still a thing, still an issue. Well it's really interesting because even the, and the fact that France, France kind of see it as like a bit of a win now, like they use it as like a bit of a branding thing. So there was part of the article that I read that the, the logo. Of the Paris 2024 games is a woman's face and they're like using it as a win and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa If we miss out all the details, let's just completely ignore alice's story completely then but you know They are kind of totally writing her out of history. Yeah, I wonder are there any sports these days that women still Aren't allowed or don't compete in. Yeah, I don't know because boxing they're in boxing, aren't they? Um, I think they're in that speed climbing and boulder climbing Oh yeah, Baldwin, definitely. But in swimming? I don't know, maybe there is. Someone will tell us, someone will correct us. Um, but she does have a legacy, so this is not to undermine anything she achieved. Um, she was the, she was the starring of this. This transcendence. There is an Alice Milliott Foundation, which is the first European foundation dedicated to women's sports. It was founded in relation to what Alice was doing. In 2024, a book has been released called La Femme Olympique by Sophie Danger. Um, like I said, they've been included in the, in the logo this year. The tagline for the Paris Olympic games is four people. So it's allowing that they're very much focused on inclusivity. But yeah, imagine if we didn't have her, you know what I mean? Yeah. She really laid the groundwork and got it underway. A hundred percent. So, and I think that's another important thing about these women is that fine. They don't have the accolades. They don't have the Nobel peace prizes. They don't have anything like that, but they did so. But they did so much groundwork for that. So, um, even though it's a messy story. I think it's a pretty cool one. Definitely. I mean you still, just thinking about sport in general, today, a lot more of it, and particularly, like UFC, there's a lot more about fighters, uh, women fighters in the UFC getting a lot of headlines, and a lot more coverage, and in football, Yeah, they're getting a lot more, but still that preconception in like what are considered predominantly male sports, I guess, like football, I still hear a lot of almost anger around like female commentators or female presenters or pundits or the coverage that it gets, still irritated by that as if they're a lesser version rather than just being another person who does this sport who knows about this sport. It's such an interesting take because when I was doing all that I'd never even thought about that there is like a There's a whole industry of support mechanisms, isn't there? There's the media, there's the, like you were saying, the pit girls and the ring girls. There's so many roles in sport and jobs and things out there, but I guess we don't see, do we? Like, you see the odd coach, don't you, on the gymnastics rings and stuff like that, but you, you know, actually, the inequality would have been there as well, wouldn't it? The inequality seeps out into so many things. So it's not just getting people in sports. No, I mean, we're maybe now seeing the sort of generation that's coming through where more of the coaches used to be athletes and performers and they're getting more prominence. And now like the female pundits in football have been foisted upon us in a good way. F1 racing, like the F1 presenting, presenting staff on the pundit staff. Um, I mean, I love F1 and the podcast I listen to the most. hosted by Jenny Gao most of the time. Uh, she's fabulous and they have other female pundits, they have female engineers, there's a big drive in these things. So it's definitely not there yet but it's still on this trajectory. In the sort of, I'm gonna accuse the older generation of this, still in the older generation who grew up with men's sport being very different to women's sport, there is still this. It should just be sport. It's just sport, yeah. And also when you and also amazing when you see some You know those women on the podium collecting their golds and collecting, you know, Katherine Johnson Thompson, you know She's set from I don't know if she's got one, but she's going for a medal, isn't she? Um, they're there because of this woman They're there because of this lady right here. And I think that's such a it's such a cool story So i'm pleased that we've been able to tell people about it. Excellent And I should say, for listeners, Althea that we're speaking about is Althea Gibson, who was the first black woman to win at Wimbledon, and previous podcast subject, go and give that a listen. And also, we talk about people who aren't in sport. We're in a really sport heavy zone, aren't we? Sport heavy zone, it's Olympic season, isn't it? Come on, let's get the sport ones out the way. Yeah, but I think We've got so many other so exciting stories to tell you as well. Coming up we've got pirates and a female Schindler, so you know. Yeah man, stick around for those. What more do you want? That should be our trailer. Brilliant. All right, well thanks. Thanks Vicky. Thanks, we'll see you soon. Love it. Catch you soon, yeah. Cheers folks, bye.