Alice Milliat

Alice Joséphine Marie Milliat ( Million; 5 May 1884 – 19 May 1957) was a pioneer of women's sport. Her lobbying on behalf of female athletes led to the accelerated inclusion of more women's events in the Olympic Games.

A member of Fémina Sport, a club founded in 1911, Milliat helped form the Fédération Française Sportive Féminine in 1917, becoming treasurer and, in March 1919, its president. In 1921 she helped organise the 1921 Women's World Games, and then the Women's World Games, which ran for four editions from 1922 until 1934. She also managed a French women's association football team that toured the United Kingdom in 1920. On 8 March 2021, a commemorative statue of Milliat was unveiled at the French Olympic Committee's headquarters in Paris.

Early life Alice Joséphine Marie Million was born on 5 May 1884 in Nantes, the eldest of five children. Her parents were grocers. Her mother later worked as a seamstress and her father was employed in an office. In 1904, Milliat went to England. There she married Joseph Milliat, who was also from Nantes. They had no children, and he died in 1908. After her husband's death, she travelled widely, developing language skills that enabled her to become a translator when, following the outbreak of the First World War, she returned to France. A member of Fémina Sport, a club founded in 1911, Milliat helped form the Fédération Française Sportive Féminine in 1917, becoming treasurer and, in March 1919, its president. The 1921 Women's Olympiad took place on a pigeon shooting field, in the absence of a running track. In 1922, 300 athletes competed, representing seven nations. Further editions of the Women's Olympiad were held in 1923 and 1924.

Women's World Games In August 1922, the Jeux Olympiques Féminins (also known as the 1922 Women's World Games), regarded as the first Women's Olympics took place in Pershing Stadium in Paris and featured five teams, representing including the United States, Great Britain, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and host country France.

Legacy In 1934, Milliat spoke to an interviewer from the Women's Magazine Independent Woman. In her statement, she advocated for women's suffrage in France. She believed women's suffrage would lead to greater support for women's sports. Carpentier believes that Milliat's feminist beliefs have been glossed over or ignored in earlier biographical accounts, and claims that these beliefs were central to inspiring Milliat's endeavours on behalf of women's sport. There are gymnasiums named after Milliat in Bordeaux and in Paris. On 8 March 2021, a statue of Alice Milliat was unveiled at the French Olympic Committee's headquarters in Paris, in recognition of her efforts for the recognition of women's sports. In The Times later than month, Elgan Alderman wrote that the 1921 Women's World Games was a "seismic moment" for progress in women's sport at the Olympics, and that no-one had contributed more than Milliat in enabling the development. Mary Leigh and Thérèse M. Bonnin concluded in 1977 that without Milliat and the FSFI's efforts, track and field events at the Olympics would only have been opened to women much later.