It’s the 100th year anniversary of the Olympic Games in Paris, France and to celebrate it, we’re looking into the women’s experience 100 years ago.
For the 1924 games, 44 nations sent a total of 3,089 athletes, of which 135 were female. The nations that sent women included: USA, Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Fencing, swimming, diving, and tennis continued to be offered to women. (Track and field was not open to women until 1928.) The 1924 Games were the first to introduce the closing ceremony as we know it today, meaning the raising of the three flags: the International Olympic Committee, the host nation, and the next country to host the Olympics. We’ll look at each sport that women could compete in and compare it to today. As always, we try to include trading cards when we can. First up, fencing!
Fencing was a sport for the upper class and acceptable for women because it was considered an activity that helped with fitness but didn’t jeopardize the ability to become a mother. Fencing was open to women for the first time in 1924, despite being a man’s sport since the inception of the modern games in 1896. Fencing has three competitive categories: foil, sword (or sabre) and épée. For the 1924 Games, women could only compete in the foil. Why?
In the late 19th century, fencing was a sport that was popular with the upper class but not adopted by the middle class. Starting in the 1880s in the U.S., in New York, female fencers were encouraged to learn the foil, the lightest weight of the three sword classes. Many liked how it aided their fitness in addition to the perception that fencing was a sport that proved superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race. It was popular along the east coast of the United States (Smith College in Massachusetts, incorporated fencing into their curriculum in 1895) but was thought not to have spread across the U.S. due to a lack of qualified instructors. Women were not allowed to become instructors because one had to master the epee, foil and saber. The epee and saber were considered too dangerous for women to use.
The medalists for the 1924 Games included: Ellen Osiier (Denmark) gold, Gladys Davis (GBR) silver and Grete Heckscher (DEN) bronze. The U.S. sent two athletes but neither placed.
Épée was not offered to women until 1996 and saber in 2004. What’s the difference?
Foil - The foil sword is a 43”or shorter and has a flexible, rectangle blade with a blunt tip and no cutting edge. To score, only the tip can be used and only if it touches the upper torso (shoulders to hips – no arms or legs). Electronic scoring was required as of 1956.
Sabre – Sabre (or Saber) is more like what one would think of in an acutal sword fight, where points can be scored with any side of the blade, utilizing a cutting or thrusting motion. The blade is 35” and competition swords weigh 14 oz. Points can be scored if the blade hits anywhere above the waist, this includes the chest, arms and head but not the hands.
Épée - The Épée sword is 35” long with a triangular shaped blade with no cutting edge. In 1924, the sword would have either had a three-pronged point that would tear the fibers of the opponents clothing, helping the judge determine if a point was scored or not, or the tip was died. To score, only the tip can be used. In the épée event, the entire body is a target, whereas above the waist is scoreable territory for foil and saber.
We are excited to see what 2024 bring in the fencing competition. In the meantime, we tip our helmet to the 2020 foil gold medalist Lee Kiefer.
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