A Century of Women at the Olympic Games

About 22 women appeared in Paris 1900, limited to a handful of sports such as tennis, golf and sailing. Athletics opened to women in 1928, the women marathon only arrived in 1984, and Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei sent women for the first time as recently as London 2012.

Along the way Fanny Blankers-Koen won four golds in 1948 and Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco became the first woman from a Muslim majority nation to win gold in 1984. Paris 2024 marked full parity in athlete quotas, exactly half the places for women, 124 years after Charlotte Cooper..