International Women’s Day: Five historic firsts for female Olympians 

From the first-ever female Olympic gold medallist to the first to score a perfect 10, here are five incredible women who broke down barriers and set new standards in their sports. 

6 minBy Sean McAlister
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In 1900 in Paris, a group of 22 women became the first in history to compete at an Olympic Games. Some of them - including golf gold medallist Margaret Abbott - weren’t even aware they were participating in the Olympics, yet they were unwitting pioneers in a glorious history of women at the Olympic Games.

At Paris 1900, there were only five events in which women could compete - tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrianism and golf.

Today, as the Olympics prepares to return to the French capital for Paris 2024, 5,250 female athletes will represent their countries at the Games - the exact same number as men for the first time in history.

Over the last century, there have been thousands of noteworthy performances by female Olympians that could - and indeed have - filled history books. Here are just five of those great moments where women have broken down barriers in their sport.

Helene de Pourtales: The first female Olympian and first woman to win an Olympic medal

The first female Olympic champion was Helene de Pourtales, a Swiss-American countess born in 1868 who was passionate about horses and sailing.

On 22 May 1900, she boarded the yacht Lérina as part of the Swiss crew that won the first of two 1-2 ton class regattas that would take place at the Paris 1900 Games.

Her performance that day made her not only the first-ever female to participate at the Olympics but also the first woman to win a medal at the Games. The following day, her crew came home in the silver medal position in the second 1-2 Ton regatta, making her the first female multiple medallist in history.

The 1900 Games featured a number of other historic firsts for women, including when Great Britain’s Charlotte Cooper became the first female individual champion in Olympic history with her victory in the tennis competition, and when the aforementioned golfer Margaret Abbott became the first female American to win gold at the Games.

But with the sailing competition taking place some two months before Cooper’s tennis victory, De Pourtales stands as the first woman to ever top an Olympic podium.

Alice Coachman: The first black woman to win gold at the Olympics

By the time Alice Coachman was seven, she was already one of the most talented athletes in her home town of Albany. Yet that didn’t mean she had access to the same sports facilities as white children in the segregated southern US state of Georgia.

Instead, Coachman improved her stamina by training barefoot on dirt roads and made herself a high jump crossbar from rope and sticks.

As an all-around athlete, Coachman was a phenomenon, winning national titles in 50m, 100m and 400m relay. However, it was in high jump that she truly excelled. She won the US national title 10 times in a row - still a record to this day.

Having missed out on the chance to compete in the Olympics during her prime years due to the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Games, Coachman travelled to London for the Olympics of 1948 to compete in the high jump.

With her very first jump of the competition she lept over the bar at 5ft 6ins (1.67 metres). And while the mark was equalled by Britain’s Dorothy Tyler on her second jump, Coachman was crowned champion having gone over the bar on her very first attempt.

It was the first-ever gold medal won by a black woman in the history of the Games and the only by an American woman at London 1948.

Joan Benoit Samuelson: The first female Olympic marathon winner

It took until 1984 for women’s marathon to appear on the Olympic programme, but when it did the winner went down in history both for her victory and her story.

Just 17 days after undergoing knee surgery, Joan Benoit Samuelson lined up for the US Olympic trials, racing to victory to achieve a feat that many had thought impossible.

Months later at the Los Angeles 1984 Games, the American world record holder raced to the front of the women's marathon race early in a brave move that saw her run 33km of the 42.195km race completely alone.

But the courage she showed paid off as she passed the line first to become the first-ever female Olympic marathon champion.

It was a highly symbolic victory that put paid to many long-held beliefs that women could not race in marathons for health reasons.

In 1987, she once again played her part in dispelling misconceptions about women in sport when she ran the Boston Marathon while three months pregnant with her daughter Abby. And in 2022, at 65 years old, she and Abby both finished the London marathon, with Joan coming home in a time of 3:20:20 to win her age group.

Nadia Comaneci: The first artistic gymnast to achieve a perfect 10

Never in the history of Olympic artistic gymnastics had a perfect score been awarded to an athlete. That was until Romania’s Nadia Comaneci took part in the Olympic Games Montreal 1976.

After an uneven bars routine that was as close to perfection as anyone had ever seen, the judges awarded Comaneci with a score that could not be beaten - a perfect 10.

Even the technology at the time couldn't keep up with such brilliance, as the scoreboard flashed up 1.0 at the end of her routine.

Now considered a living legend, Comaneci would go on to repeat her perfect score five times during the Games winning three Olympic gold medals in the all-around, uneven bars and balance beam.

Cathy Freeman: The first indigenous Australian to win individual Olympic gold

Cathy Freeman had already made history in 1992 when she became the first Aboriginal Australian to compete at an Olympic Games.

However, at Sydney 2000 - her home Olympics - she stormed to victory in 49.11 in front of a 110,000-strong crowd to become the first-ever Aboriginal Australian to win individual Olympic gold.

Freeman’s victory that day held even more significance as it was the 100th gold medal in Australian Olympic history.

She was also honoured by being chosen to light the Olympic Cauldron to declare the Games open at the Opening Ceremony.

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