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Notable Early Women Olympians

February 4, 2026·40 min·3 clips

Pierre de Coubertin openly opposed women in the Olympics, calling their participation 'impractical, uninteresting, un-aesthetic, and improper.'

The excerpt lands in the middle of the argument. A man defending limits on women in the Games is described as claiming those limits helped women, but the host says plainly that the writing is still sexist. One famous line often gets pulled out on its own. The wider context, the host argues, makes it worse because it treats women's athletics as impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and improper. Then Helen Preece comes into focus. She was a teenage competitor from England who registered for the Games instead of waiting for someone to invite her in. The Swedish committee refused agreement after an application from a woman who intended to compete in the modern pentathlon. That refusal matters because women's Olympic participation was still being talked about as if the question were open. Preece was not some hopeful beginner. Born in London on November 11, 1895, Dorothy Helen Preece grew up in a family that later moved to Kingsbury, where the family business became much larger. By then, Helen had already spent years riding and competing well. She had been on horses since age three, which makes her confidence feel earned rather than surprising. School did not pull her away from sport. At Corrin Collegiate, she played lacrosse and other sports, though horses stayed at the center. Jumping was what she loved most. After all the bureaucratic ugliness, the profile has some life in it: a young athlete who was ready before the institution was ready for her.

As heard by us

A pointed Olympic-history episode about Helen Preece and the rules, rhetoric, and permission structures that kept early women athletes out.

This History Class episode looks at early women Olympians through the gatekeeping around who was allowed into the Games, and who claimed the authority to decide.

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Why you'd press play

A teenager named Helen Preece registered for the Olympics without waiting to be told she could.

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