I am talking about the ancient Olympic games. Not only were women excluded as competitors, but as spectators as well. One woman, however, had an influence on the Olympic games when she broke taboo; she even provoked a rule change. A mother disguised herself as a trainer and slipped into the Games to watch her son's boxing match. After his victory she leaped a barrier to congratulate him and thus revealed herself. From then on out trainers, like athletes, must be naked (Golden, 67). Barred from the Olympic games women held their own Olympic games in honor of Hera, the sister-wife of Zeus. During this festival unmarried girls competed in a footrace 5/6ths the length of the men's, according to a Web page sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Golden also stated that women competed in wrestling and chariot races in the Olympics in honor of Hera, however, I found no information supporting this statement in any other source I used. Towards the end of the Pre-Christian era women increasingly became emancipated and their short races were introduced in the Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean Games.
Modern women compete in a plethora of events in the Olympics today. They do not compete against men, but they compete against each other. Also, as time goes by .
women are competing in more and more professional sporting events as well. The Women's National Basketball Association is one example created in 1997. We see .
women competing in soccer, wrestling, boxing, just this weekend I saw women competing in sumo wrestling for the first time on ESPN, women have been competing in .
this sport for the past two years. Women even played professional baseball for a short period of time during WWII. We see athletes such as Mia Hamm scoring winning goals, and Picabo Street winning medals for the fastest time on the downhill. These amazing women, among others, are setting examples for young girls everywhere to follow their dreams because they can do anything they want to do, unlike ancient Greek women.