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A History of Women and the Olympics · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephane.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Never told your production of I Heart Radio. Samantha. Do
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: you get into the Olympics, It's according to what's happening.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I get into the hype after I hear something good,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: but the initial performance really makes me nervous and anxious. Again,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I don't like it. I used to watch a lot
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: more of the winter sports, so I skating as such
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: was kind of my thing. Yeah, I know, with the
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: gymnastics and Simone Biles, I might be a little more
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: interested in seeing what's happening there, but yeah, not so much.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: What about you, I'm kind of the same where I
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: get it's like a level of empathy where I'm worried
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: about people that they're kind of fall or whatever it is.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: And I mean, they're professionals and usually it's fine and
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: they don't read my concern, but I do. I do
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: get worried. I I also really enjoyed ice skating and gymnastics.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I usually watch and swimming. But I have friends, a
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: group of friends who happen to be the friends that
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I'm going to the beach with soon, and we have
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: a lot of good memories of just kind of having
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: them on and getting into it, and so we're excited
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: for for that potentially, because this is going to be
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: an interesting Olympics. And yeah, as we release this, the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Olympics are underway. I believe the day this comes out,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: which is July, is the opening ceremony. So just starting
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: happy Olympics if that's something you're into. But yeah, disclaimer,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: there are a lot of issues to unravel with the Olympics,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: and specifically these Olympics in this case of you know, classism, sexism, racism,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: questions of who gets funding, of sexual assault of athletes
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: able is um this year. The pandemic still very much
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: not under control in Japan. Uh In fact, back when
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: I was searching this a couple of weeks ago, I
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: think a state of emergency was declared for Tokyo, which
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: means spectators will not be present. I just heard today
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: that they athletes we'll have to take medals off of
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: a tray and put them on themselves instead of having
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: someone put them on, like all of these different things.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I know that the city of Tokyo and a lot
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: of people in Tokyo don't want to be having the Olympics,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: but it's not really up to them. So yes, all
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: of that just just to say very aware that that
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: is all happening, and we hope that they can be
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: as safe as possible and everybody going can be safe.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: For this episode, though, we did want to look back
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: into some of the history of women in the Olympics,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: and you can see an episode I did with Eves
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: are Very Lovely friend and co worker Eves on this
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: day in history class, where I talked about this is
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: much shorter, but you're gonna hear a lot of similar
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: information that I thought we could share again. Um, and
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: also we'll get into some current issues surrounding the games,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: not too in depth, because honestly, each of them could
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: be unpacked into a whole episode and should be, but
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: just to go over some of those things, and also
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: some some things that maybe we remember and we're inspirational
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: for us when we witnessed them. At least I have
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: a few of those moments. So yeah, let's get into it.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: So a lot of the story has to do with
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: French feminist Alice Milia and her Women's World Games, which
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: took place from nineteen twenty two to nineteen thirty four,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and let the Olympics letting women compete in events on
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: a much wider scale. Yeah, there's a lot of acronyms
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: in this one, so bear with us. The Women's World
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Games where Milliall's response to the International Olympics Committees or
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: the IOCs and the International Association of Athletics Federation i
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: a A f the state and fear a first wave
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: feminist gaining ground and a lot of women wanting to
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: compete in certain events like the eight hundred major track event,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: events that did not recognize women or have been d
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: unfit for women. Yes, this eight track event, we're going
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: to get into it, but it caused a lot of
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: controversy when it came to women competing. So at this time,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: people and particularly in this context Europeans were already talking
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: about gender equality. The term feminism is thought to have
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: been coined in the eighteen eighties by a French activist
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: by the name of ubertineau Claire. Around the same time,
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  Speaker 1: Baron Pierre du Couberton, who was also French, founded the
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: modern iteration of the Olympics and the IOC day. Couperton
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  Speaker 1: outright opposed women's participation in sports, and this bled over
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: into what events he believed women could and should compete in.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: When it came to the Olympics day, Cooperton allegedly said
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  Speaker 1: that the Olympics were created for quote the solemn and
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: periodic exaltation of male athleticism, with quote female applause as reward. Wow.
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  Speaker 1: He went on to say, quote it is indecent that
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: spectators should be exposed to the risk of c the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: body of a woman being smashed before their eyes. Besides,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: no matter how tough a sportswoman, maybe her organism is
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: not cut out to sustain certain shocks. Her nerves rule
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: her muscles. Nature wanted it that way. WHOA Again, Dave
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Coopertown reasoned that quote as no women participated in the
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: ancient games, there obviously was to be no place for
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  Speaker 1: them in the modern ones, which, just as a brief aside,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: isn't the whole shoes It's not really the point, but
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: he's wrong in general. Yes, So the Games were the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: first that allowed women to compete, though not officially sanctioned.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Twenty two out of the competitors or women, and they
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: competed in tennis, golf, sailing, equestrian and croquet. Only golf
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and tennis had all women events. Margaret Abbott was the
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: first American woman to win an Olympic event she wanted
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: in golf. Nice and over the years, things like women's
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: swimming were added, but track and field events were pretty
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: much non existent for female competitors. And why track and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: field historians aren't quite sure, but there are a few theories,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: including some physicians thought women exerting themselves to the point
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: of visible sweat was unhealthy. Oh man, I'm dying. Then
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: it was thought to be possibly bad for the uterus
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: and definitely viewed as unladylike and unattractive for men. Weirdly enough,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: still happening, I guess in a way, since they keep
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: disqualifying women from a lot of the track events if you,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and mainly women of color. But whatever, So the Victorian
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: woman was not meant to be muscular, it would break
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: traditional gender norms and make her look too mainly so
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: definitely some homophobia going on here as well. Some also
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: speculate that men at large at the time wanted to
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: be stronger than women surprise, and that they wanted women
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: to depend on them for protection and may have even
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: wanted to be able to overpower them. Is disturbing. It's
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: still happening today, Yeah, exactly. A lot of that is
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: still happening today when we talk about people's discomfort with muscular,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: muscular women and this idea that it's not safe for
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: women to be as competitive or athletic and yeah, let
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the men do this like tough manly thing. The whole
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: idea of that still around. Yeah, there were so many
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: myths about the health of women exercising during Victorian times,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: especially during a ministration, women and especially upper class white
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: women because they were the ones with the time and
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: money to exercise and play sports for leisure just in
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: general at the time push back on these narratives and
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: feels like bicycling, tennis and swimming, and also we've talked
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: about a lot of this, these myths around women and
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: exercising and several past episodes if you're if you're curious
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: in learning more about that. The first French women's athletic club,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Femina Sport, which was founded a night team eleven, put
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: together frances very first women's national championship for track and
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  Speaker 1: field in nineteen seventeen. That same year, some of FAMINA
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  Speaker 1: Sports founders created the Federation Society feminine sport to use
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: de France Women's Sports Federation of France I hope I
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: did not completely butcher that well. Enter Alice Milia, one
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: of these founders. She formally requested that women's track and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: field be added to the Olympics in nineteen one. She
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: was turned down, so she decided to host her own Olympics.
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  Speaker 1: She founded the f s f I or I s
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  Speaker 1: f I on On March twenty four of nineteen twenty one,
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  Speaker 1: the organizations hosted the inaugural Women's Olympiad in Monte Carlo,
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  Speaker 1: complete with eleven track and field events and five countries represented.
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  Speaker 1: It was meant to persuade the IOC to add women
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  Speaker 1: to the Olympics, and despite the fact that it was
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: success that IOC rejected their appeal once again, that did
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  Speaker 1: not stop Milia. The following year, the I s f
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  Speaker 1: I took it up a notch and host the first
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  Speaker 1: Women's Olympic Games, with the idea of following the same
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: four year schedule smart. The first one took place in
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  Speaker 1: Paris and five countries, including the United States, participated, and
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: it was attended by around twenty thousand spectators. I love this.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I've stopted to do the ole event. But day cooperton
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  Speaker 1: in the IOC and I A have really didn't like it,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: and yes, so so many acronyms to keep track of.
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  Speaker 1: Here they decrete the I A a F should be
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  Speaker 1: in charge of all track and field events, including women's.
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  Speaker 1: This was a graph for control over the Olympics brand
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  Speaker 1: image and rules around who could compete. After these two
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  Speaker 1: organizations agree that yes, the IOC and I A A
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  Speaker 1: F should each govern women's track and field events, acknowledging
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: it was a thing, so at least they were like, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: women can do this. Um. They also immediately agree that
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: women and would not have the right to appear in
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  Speaker 1: track and field events in the nineteen twenty four Olympics.
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  Speaker 1: As a result, the I S F I did strike
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  Speaker 1: the Olympic from their event and renamed it the Women's
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  Speaker 1: World Games to get the IOC off their backs. Such
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a bit of babies. The show went on, though, and
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  Speaker 1: four years later the second Women's World Games, set in Sweden,
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  Speaker 1: drew athletes from nine countries. The io C was furious
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: and wanted to shut it all down. They attempted to
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  Speaker 1: compromise and added five women's track and field events in
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  Speaker 1: the nineteen eight Olympic Games compared to the twenty two
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  Speaker 1: events men would compete in Milia wasn't satisfied, although some
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  Speaker 1: others in the I s F I were The British
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  Speaker 1: women's team was on Milia side and boycotted the nineteen
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  Speaker 1: eight Games. Yes, and even though it was historic, a
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: lot of the press at the time did not report
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: on it in a positive light. Price Oh yeah. Take
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: this cope from the New York Times, the final of
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: the women's hundred meter run, in which Frau Lena Radka
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: of Germany said a world record plainly demonstrated that even
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: this distance makes too great a call on feminine strength.
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  Speaker 1: At the finished six out of the nine runners were
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: completely exhausted and fell headlong on the ground. Several had
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: to be carried off the check. The little American girl,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Miss Florence McDonald, who made a gallant try but was outclassed,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: was in half a feint for several minutes, while even
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: the sturdy Miss hit Tomy of Japan, who finished second,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: needed attention before she was even able to leave the field. Okay,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: so there's a lot of very gendered little miss h
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: try Like how condescending. Right. Also, like when you get
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: to the end of a very intense, very intense physical activity,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: you might need a minute to recover. Right again, See
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Samantha and I running this race recently and it we
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: were not pushing herself, aren't at all? It was bad.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: I was pushing myself. It just wasn't great, MIAs I
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: like to call it. Ye. So, women's participation in the
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: eight hundred meter run in particular was controversial, and the
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: IOC prohibited women from competing in this event again until
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty. The nineteen two Olympic Games only allowed women
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: to compete in the one hundred meter dash, which, to
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: be fair, I couldn't do either. This is difficult. Yeah,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: it's just I don't know why there's eight hund This
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: hang up around the eight run I find odd. But yeah,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: that back to that original entry of women in the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: n Olympics. The New York Evening Post ran a story
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  Speaker 1: headlined eleven Wretched Women, about the women whom and they
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: entered me to run. Yeah, what a story better? But
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I would like I would hold on wretched to be
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: like damn, Yeah, I feel like that's what we do
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: now when they try to call us anything. We're like,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: you know what, Okay, I'm gonna keep winning. We do
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: have some more history for you, but first we have
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: a quick break for a word from our sponsor back,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you sponsored. So Compared to the Olympics, the nineteen
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: thirties Women's World Game hosted twelve track and field events
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: and competitors from seventeen different countries. Women's World Game was
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: even bigger, with nineteen countries competing in thirteen track and
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: field events. With the success of these games, Million demanded
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the nineteen Olympics include what she called a quote full
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: program of women's events, or make the Olympics from male
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: competitors only. Because the I s F I was doing
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: just fine. Thank you very much, she said, the I
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: A a s ARM and they eventually conceded to a
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: nine event program at the Olympics and to acknowledge the
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: records set at the Women's World Games, and the uphoming
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: ninety eight Women's World Games became the European Athletics Championships.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: It is a lot to keep track of all these names,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of shifting moving parts. We've got a lot
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: of acronyms. Million died in nineteen fifty seven, but she
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: did live to see women in France get the right
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: to vote in nineteen forty four. The contributions of her
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: and the women competitors in these games, it's a big
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: deal for women's equality. Um. These were women who did
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: not take no for an answer and made their own
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: games where they could compete, where people weren't telling them
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: what they could and couldn't do, and they were successful
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: enough that the IOC had to listen to them. And
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: to think of all the amazing, strong female athletes we've
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: seen in the records. They've broken, the feats, they've accomplished,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the girls they've inspired. I. Yeah, I'm a runner and
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I'm competitive. I've definitely missed my Olympic window. But if
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: I had grown up not seeing women compete in track
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: and field events at the Olympics, there's no way for
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: me personally, at least that would not have impacted me
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: and what I thought I could accomplish. I had enough
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: insecurities around running when I first started. I might have
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: put limits on myself and running when when I do
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: it correctly and healthfully, it makes me feel powerful and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: strong and confident, and I owe at least some of
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: that to the women before me who fought for this
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: chance to compete. Right, yes, and of course big asticks.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: We're mostly talking about white women and upper class white
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: women here. Uh. Still at this point, despite being limited
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: in the number of competitors and events that allowed women
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: to compete, historically, women have been more than pulling their
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: way in the U s when it comes to medals.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: At the Winter Olympics, the US won four gold medals,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: and two of them were earned by women, despite the
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: numbers being so disproportionate in terms of the high number
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: of male athletes rivers in the US and the low
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: number of female athletes. At the nineteen seventy two Winter Olympics,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the US sent seventy seven men and twenty six women.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: All three of the gold medals were earned by women.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: This trend continued over the next several Olympic Games. At
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the nineteen win Our Olympics, for example, all five of
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the US's gold medals were won by women. Also, during
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the fifties, many majority white universities did away with women's sports,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: while many predominantly and historically black universities did not, which
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: did impact kind of the future of athletes in this country. Right,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the right of women to participate in sports was officially
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: recognized at an international conference, the Convention on the Elimination
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in nineteen seventy nine.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: This followed in the footsteps of a nineteen sixty four
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: survey at the Tokyo Olympics where women reported that they
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: quote became stronger, the even greater stamina, and worm more
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: balanced in every way after having a child. The passage
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: of Title nine in nineteen seventy two open doors for
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: women and girls looking for athletic opportunities in the US,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: which furthered this whole push and conversation, and it was
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: something that had an international influence. The International Working Group
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: on Women in Sport was formed in nineteen ninety four
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: at their inaugural World Conference. It also gave way to
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: the Brighton Declaration, an international treaty of looking to provide
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: an equal playing field in the world of sport and
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: physical activity. The following year, the UN organized the fourth
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: World Conference on Women Action for Equality, Development and Peace
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: in Beijing, where they released the Beijing Declaration and Platform
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: for Action that for the first time specifically mentioned sport
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: as a tool for women's empowerment and equality. The IOC
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: updated the Olympic Charter in nineteen With this, the role
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: of the IOC is to lead the promotion of Olympiasm
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: in accordance with the Olympic Charter. For that purpose, the
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: io SEE strongly encourages, by appropriate means, the promotion of
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: women in sports at all levels in all structures, particularly
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: in the executive bodies of nation and international sports organizations,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: with a view to the strict application of the principle
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: of equality of men and women. They also held their
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: first Role Conference on Women in Sports that year, and
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: with these three goals, create awareness about women's roles in sports,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: assess the progress made in the area of gender equality
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: in sports, and define future priority actions to promote women
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: in sport. They made a goal of having twenty percent
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: of leadership roles be filled by women in two thousand five,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: which was later revised towards a goal they reached with
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: thirty six women in leadership positions out of one hundred
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: as of twenty twenty. The first woman was elected to
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: the IOC Executive Board. In nineteen fourteen, the IOC made
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: the pledge to work towards women participants and to add
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: mixed gender events. The IOC launched the Ginger Equality Review Project.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: In women won more medals than men for the very
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: first time, and they also took home twenty nine a
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: team USA's forty six gold medals. Women accounted for forty
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: five of the participants at the games in Brazil, five thousand,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: seventy six women out of eleven thousand, four hundred and
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: forty four athletes in the one Tokyo Olympics that numbers women.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: According to the IOC, again, things are changing kind of
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: rapidly as we record this. They've also instituted scheduling policies
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: to ensure equal visibility for female and male athletes and
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: introduce a new requirement that all national Olympic committees have
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: at least one female and one male representative on their teams,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: and are encouraged to have a man and woman carry
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: their flag at the opening ceremony. In terms of the Paralympics,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Tokyo has issued a rule that forty of the competitors
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: must be women. This is about a forty bump from
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: the twenty sixteen Games, which is substantial. Yeah, and yes,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: this isn't say there have not been problems. In February,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: the head of the Tokyo Olympics had to apologize after
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: saying something along the lines of women talk too much
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: in meetings, so that's why he didn't invite them to meetings.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: They took too long, right, And he was like, oh
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: my bad, he didn't. It's such a way where he
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: was like, well, we all know I'm not wrong, right,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: but okay, I'm sorry, right, And then they just left
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: him there and everybody's like, wait, you're gonna let him
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: represent Like, oh, okay, well, we'll bring another man as
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: a part of this instead. And I'm like, wow, you
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: guys cannot read a room. Good job. Women that perform
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: quoted too well haven't long been subject to suspicion and punishment,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: as we've seen often forced to take tests to prove
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: their gender. This practice, called the nude parade, started regularly
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty eight as a response to the discomfort
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: of American audiences in the face of muscular women athletes
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: competing of the Soviet Union separate issue. But this may
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: have been a part of a state sponsored program that
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: fit athletes vitamins that were actually steroids, so yeah, that's
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the thing. Still, the outcry against the new parade caused
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the IOC to pivot is said to less than reliable
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: chromosomal tests. Yes, and Heinrich Dora Ratchian was one of
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the first gender scandals of the Olympics in ninety six,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: when Ratchien placed fourth in the high jump competition due
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: to a genital scar. Doctors had identified Ratching as a
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: girl at birth, but Rotchen had always identified more as
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: a boy. Wasn't until he was arrested for being a
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: quote man and woman's clothing in the police's eyes that
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Ratchian had to tackle this gender identity thing more head on.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: And yeah, this whole thing has impacted and continues to
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: impact intersects and trans athletes particularly hard. And obviously, as
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: we're having this conversation, it's also a very binary of
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: like male or female athletes, right, so that is absolutely
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: still an issue. Yeah, um, and the IOC abolished a
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: gender verification tests in but that has by no means
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: prevented gender suspicions. When Castor Samnia really destroyed the two
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: thousand nine African Junior Championships race, the IOC made her
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: submit to sex testing, and they further went on to
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: put in place mandatory testings for high testosterone in two eleven,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: even though there's no scientific evidence that higher levels of
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: testosterone boost strengthen athleticism. Um. And by the way, yeah,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: men do not have to undergo such tests, and yeah,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: it has been a disqualifier this year. Still angry about this. Yeah,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: me too, And like, I think the whole thing is bogus.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: But the fact that men don't have to do it,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: that just really infuriates me. Because you can have like
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: some really high testosterone man, right then we need to Yeah,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: but you that too. Again, I think the whole thing
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: is nonsense. But yeah, there's many infuriating levels. We do
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: have some more infuriating things, but also some uplifting things
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: that we wanted to talk about. But first we're going
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: to pause for one more corporate for a word from
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you sponsors. So there
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: are so many names and so many first we could
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: go through, and perhaps one day we will when it
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: comes to the Olympics, and a lot of the things
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: we talked about, UM, we could dig into more. But
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: in the meantime, here are some things in recent history
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: and some things that are happening right now that we
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: wanted to highlight. And I guess disclaimer, I personally have
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: not looked too in depth into all of these athletes
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: lives and what they have said. So I guess what
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: I'm saying is the equivalent of, like a retweet is
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: not an endorsement, if that makes sense, Just because we're
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: talking about them doesn't mean we're endorsing them. Well, I
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: just don't necessarily know. Like, maybe after I saw this
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: thing that I thought was really cool, uh, something else
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: went down. But people can be disappointing. They absolutely they
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: can be. They absolutely can be. But Okay, that being said,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: I did want to start with the Magnificent Seven because
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: these Olympics and Olympics were held in Atlanta and I
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: did get to go. Not to this, I went to
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: a rowing event and I thought it was so cool
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: that I could hear all these different languages around me.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: That's what I really remember. I like it. But yes,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the women's gymnastic team became the first American team to
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: win a gold medal in the women's gymnastics team all
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: around competition, meeting out Russia. And I remember this, I
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: remember that all the excitement around it. And yeah, I
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: when Carrie struggle like stuck that landing with an injured
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: ankle are just and made our an icon for sure. Oh,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: it definitely definitely did. So that's one thing that I remember,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: because I got into gymnastic scepter that I think I
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, I want to do this, And I
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: had a lot of fun with gymnastics, but I was
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: never very good at it because the balancing thing that
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: we spoke about, right, I was always a chunky kid.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: So I think I was a little too bottom heavy,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: That's what I assumed. I think we both are selling
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: ourselves too short. I know, not that we're Olympians, but
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: I was decent enough that I got asked to compete,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: but I was so insecure I turned the opportunity down.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Not in the Olympics, but like at a competition, right, yes, yes.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: So also in nine, the women's soccer team. It was
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: a very inspiring year for women athletes. I guess. The
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: team won two to one to it's China. Women's soccer
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: had just officially been added to the lineup of Olympic events,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and at the time it drew the largest crowd ever
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: to attend a women's sporting event. I also remember this
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: and my roommate in college have a mia hand poster
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: on her wall, and she was so into which I'm
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: actually thankful for because she would get me to watch
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: the games. She would like know all the statistics, and
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: she played soccer and I kind of played soccer because
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: she did so. Again, Yeah, another kind of inspirational. I'm
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: not sure I would have done that if that had
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: not happened. Yeah, I didn't have a soccer in our county,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: my city, but I loved it, and I knew who
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: mia Ham was, like she was an icon in that
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: way too, as you're like, wow, she is really. Of
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: course they got paid nothing and still do so that
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: different conversation, but to actually have a name out there
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: for very male dominated sport, international sport was phenomenal. And
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: we've talked before about how despite the fact, once again
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: the US women's soccer team is consistently better. Yeah, they
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: get paid a lot lesson an art provided with the
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: same opportunities, whether it comes to marketing or even the
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: training facilities and equipment or any of the such and
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: seeing In just released a documentary on HBO mask called
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: lf G, all about the whole thing and the fight
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: for equal pay and just f y, the men's team
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: didn't qualify for the one summer Olympics. Not that we're
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: gloating about that because we want everybody to make it,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: but I feel like this is one more argument as
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: to yes, the US women's soccer teams should be paid
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: more and equal at least equal. I know it's one
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: of those things where I've read the heavy quotes like
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: reasoning from officials as to why, but they're ridiculous. One
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: But when you just like, the US women's soccer team
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: is amazing and they've done all this despite these obstacles,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: and it's like, why are we even having to fight
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: for this? It should be like, yes, the proof is here. Right. Also,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: as we discussed in a recent or upcoming classic I
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: can't recall, uh, surfing will be at the Tokyo Olympics
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: for the first time and women will be competing in that,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: which is exciting. I think the number is like seven,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: so it's not a lot, but that's that's interesting. And
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: as we said in that classic, there are a lot
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: of issues there with whitewashing and stuff like that, but
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: I'm intrigued to see where it will go. And I
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: also kind of like, I guess it's similar to snowboarding
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: I don't mean to offend anybody who's like pro these things.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I'm just I'm not good at determining how you'll score that. Well,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: there's already surfing competitions, the style and waves and all that.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: I know those are big things. Uh, difficulty levels and
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: how long you say up those. But of course we
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: can't talk about the Olympics without talking about a legend
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: of Simone Biles. Uh. And despite again the ridiculous scoring
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: system and how messed up it is, a Simone Biles
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: continues to inspire and dominate and no o how hard
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: they try to pull her back, she just keeps saying,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: you know what, it's fine. They just can't keep up
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: with me. And that is a queen act. She has
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: a move named after her, maybe two Like she's awesome,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: it's amazing. I love the future athletes will be like,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna one day, I'm gonna learn to do this
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: some mom Biles. That's beautiful. And yes, as you kind
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: of alluded to, Samantha, there has been an outcry over
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: a recent spain of Olympic officials policing black athletes, and
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: particularly black women athletes. Um, it's really unfortunate. We continue
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: to see these stories like it's frustrating that so many
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: of these things that we talked about and like the
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: history are still here right. Well, the fact that that
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: changes didn't occur except for the past five years, like
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: that's the most absurd of it all, is like, wait,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: it was five years ago that these changes were implemented.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: I can't believe it. And then of course we want
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: to also talked about New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard becoming the
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: first trance athlete to compete in Olympics. Excited to see that. Um,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: of course we've still been seeing some disappointing transphobia, constant
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: disappointments constantly even from other Olympic athletes, which is not
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: surprising and still disappointing. Yes, yes, yes, yes, so those
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: some ups and downs real roller coaster here, it was.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: It was It's kind of like the Olympics is it
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: has been, especially when it comes to women trying to
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: compete in all these intersections of UM find it of
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: like racist and ablest and transphobic and homophobic things and
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: trying to make spaces for everyone to compete. But yes,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: that is what we have to say about the Olympics.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: For now. If you would like to contact us listeners,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: you can. Our email is Stephania mom Stuff at iHeart
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: media dot com. You can find is on Twitter at
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: mom Stuff Podcast or on Instagram at Stuff I Never
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Told You. Thanks as always to our super producer Christina,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Thank you and thanks to you for listening. Stuff We
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Never Told You is a production of iHeart Radio. For
• 31:10
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• 31:12
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