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
7 40 percent of the athletes at the 2014 Winter Games The first women to win gold medals at the 1924 Winter Games were in Sochi Russia Austrians Helene Engelmann and Herma Planck Szabo Engelmann With the increase won for mixed pairs figure skating in opportunities to Planck Szabo won the figure skating gold compete came the first batch of female athletic stars Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie was 11 years old when she competed in the 1924 Winter Games in Chamonix France She finished last but she didn't let that get her down Henie came back to take the gold medal in 1928 1932 and 1936 Henie remains the only woman to win three gold medals in singles figure skating Fanny Blankers Koen was another early star She was a track and field athlete from the Netherlands who set 16 world records in eight events Blankers Koen saved her best performances for the 1948 London Olympics where she won gold medals in the 100 and 200 meter dashes the 80 meter hurdles and 4x100 relay She might have won more but at the time athletes could only compete in three individual events Fanny Blankers Koen foreground clears the last hurdle in the 80 meter finals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London
