The date is obviously symbolic.
On Monday March 8, International Women's Rights Day, the French sports world paid tribute to one of these pioneers, Alice Milliat.
In the hall of the headquarters of the National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), the statue of Baron Pierre de Coubertin is no longer alone.
The creator of the Olympic Games has been joined since Monday by Alice Milliat, a champion and activist, long forgotten in history and at the origin of the Women's World Games in 1922.
A 2.85 m statue, designed by the students of the lacquer materials course of ENSAAMA (National School of Applied Arts and Crafts), was inaugurated in the presence of the President of the CNOSF Denis Masseglia, the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister Delegate Roxana Maracineanu as well as President of the Paris-2024 Olympic Organizing Committee Tony Estanguet.
And here is the work produced in tribute to #AliceMilliat by the students of @ ensaama.
Commissioned by the #CNOSF, it will sit in the entrance hall of the Maison du sport français.
Find out more about the press kit: https://t.co/HcHtZOI9JX pic.twitter.com/x3K88QSuXk
- France Olympique (@FranceOlympique) March 8, 2021
“It's a bit like the
Olympe de Gouges
of French sport,” said Jean-Michel Blanquer.
Roxana Maracineanu, for her part, hailed "the activist for a just and beneficial cause, that of giving women the right to play sports".
“Since Alice and thanks to Alice, we have come a long way, but there is still some way to go for women to finally take their place in the world of sport,” she said.
Alice Milliat has done so much for women's sport
The presence of the statue of Alice Milliat in the hall of the CNOSF "is a strong act to mark the political symbolism of the presence of women within the Maison du sport français", said Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj, president of the Sports Federation. and work gymnastics (FSGT).
"I am very proud to have proposed this project on an initial idea of Béatrice Barbusse
(Editor's note: first woman to have been president of a men's professional club, Ivry Handball)
", added Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj, presidential candidate of the CNOSF.
Nantes teacher, Alice Milliat, who died in Paris in 1957 at the age of 73, was a jack of all trades.
She thus practiced football, swimming, hockey and rowing.
But above all, she fought for women to participate in the Olympic Games and created the International Women's Sports Federation and the Women's Games.
“Women's sport has its place in social life just like men's sport,” she declared on May 15, 1927. It should even come to the fore of the government's concerns: I am not exaggerating.
"
An opponent of Pierre de Coubertin
Alice Milliat notably opposed the founder of the modern Olympic Games Pierre de Coubertin, who declared a year before his death in 1937: “The only real Olympic hero is the individual adult male.
Therefore, neither woman nor team sport.
"It was not until the resignation of Pierre de Coubertin in 1925 to achieve real progress: women were accepted at the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928 in the flagship sport, athletics.
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In July 2020, the Council of Paris voted a wish that the possibility be studied that one of the future facilities built for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the future Arena 2, located in the north of the capital, bears the name of 'Alice Milliat.
The naming commission has to study that vow.