Champions: a History of Women's Sport Between the World Wars
Until September 14, 2024, Galerie Roger-Viollet presents an exhibition in collaboration with the newspaper L'Équipe that tells this revealing story of the changing place of women in society.
For a long time, competitive sport was reserved exclusively for men. In the 1920s, it was a real challenge for women to take up athletics or soccer. These new athletes sparked a revolution in this exclusively male, conservative and often misogynistic world. These women grasped the emancipatory nature of sport. By encouraging it, heading up women's societies and creating international bodies to multiply competitions, they attracted the press to their new records and the public to their sport.
Women's athletics - 3rd Jeux Athlétiques Féminines de Monté Carlo, April 4-7, 1923 - Ivy Lowman (GB) wins the high jump - Miroir des Sports, April 12, 1923 © L'Equipe / Roger-Viollet
Swimming - La petite traversée de Paris à la nage on July 27, 1924 - Henriette Gardelle the women's winner © L'Equipe / Roger-Viollet
Women's cycling - race at Saint-Cyr on September 2, 1923 - Mme Cousin leads the peleton - published in Miroir des Sports on September 6, 1923 © L'Equipe / Roger-Viollet
À chaque étape, elles vont tenter d’échapper à la tutelle masculine qui régit le sport. Elles ont combattu l’idée de « sexe faible » et ont su s’opposer aux arguments médicaux qui les contraignaient à ne pas sauter, courir, lancer… comme le font les hommes. Pionnières du sport en compétition, elles ont pour beaucoup été oubliées, mais leurs exploits et leur détermination ont ouvert la voie aux sportives d’aujourd’hui.
Women's basketball - FRANCE-LUXEMBOURG (22-5) Pelleport stadium, November 20, 1927 - published in the Miroir des Sport on November 22, 1927 © L'Equipe / Roger-Viollet
Women's Auto cross-country championship. Mademoiselle Neveu at the footbridge. Le Bourget (Seine-Saint-Denis), 1922 © L'Equipe / Roger-Viollet
The exhibition "Championnes! Une histoire du sport féminin dans l'entre-deux guerres" can be seen at Galerie Roger Viollet, in Paris, until September 14, 2024.
