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Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, Eve's here. We're doubling up today with two

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Speaker 1: events in history on with the show Welcome to this

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Speaker 1: day in History Class, and we have another special guest

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Speaker 1: on the podcast today. That special guest is Annie Reese,

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Speaker 1: who is the host of Stuff Mom Never Told You,

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Speaker 1: a really amazing feminist podcast, and the co host of

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Speaker 1: Savor where she talks about all things food and she

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Speaker 1: visits really cool cities to explore their food culture. Right Annie, Yes, yes,

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Speaker 1: And I'm so thrilled to be here with you. Eves. Eves,

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Speaker 1: you've been on Stuff I've Never Told you with me, Um,

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Speaker 1: we always have a great conversation, Yes, we do it.

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Speaker 1: I'm really looking forward to our conversation today, which is

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Speaker 1: about the Women's Olympiad which started on March nine, right, yes,

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Speaker 1: that is correct. So yeah, we're talking about French feminist

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Speaker 1: Alice Milia and her Women's World Games, which took place

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Speaker 1: from nineteen one to for and led to the Olympics

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Speaker 1: letting women compete in more events. That's a really big deal,

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Speaker 1: isn't it. I Yes, I almost wrote, like paragraphed after

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Speaker 1: a paragraph after paragraph of why I think this is

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Speaker 1: such a big deal and I will kind of end

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Speaker 1: on that note. But I tried to, you know, shave

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Speaker 1: it down so that people won't get tired of my soliloquies. Well,

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Speaker 1: this is what you do. You talk about women's history

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Speaker 1: all the time and what's going on today with women.

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Speaker 1: But tell me a little bit about what the Olympiad

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Speaker 1: actually was, what happened during the Olympiad. Sure, and and

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Speaker 1: before we get into it, just quick disclaimer. There are

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Speaker 1: a lot of acronyms in this, okay, so bear with me. Acronym,

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Speaker 1: queen knowledge, common knowledge. So yes, it is. It's like

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Speaker 1: on a plaque on my desk. The Women's World Games

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Speaker 1: were Alice Milia's response to the International Olympic Committees or

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Speaker 1: the IOC UM and the International Association of Athletics Federation

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Speaker 1: the i a A f their disdain and fear of

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Speaker 1: first wave feminist gaining ground and um of women wanting

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Speaker 1: to compete in certain events like the eight hundred meter

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Speaker 1: track event. This one was particularly controversial UM events that

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Speaker 1: did not recognize women or had been deemed unfit for women.

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Speaker 1: So some context, at this time, people, and particularly here

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Speaker 1: we're talking about Europeans, were already having conversations about gender equality.

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Speaker 1: The term feminism is thought to have been coined in

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Speaker 1: the eighteen eighties by a French activist by the name

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Speaker 1: of Hubertine Aauclaire. Around the same time Baron Pierre de Coubertin,

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Speaker 1: who was also French, founded the modern iteration of the

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Speaker 1: Olympics and of the IOC. Dave Kuberten out right opposed

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Speaker 1: women's participation in sports, and this bled over into what

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Speaker 1: events he believed women could and should compete in. When

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Speaker 1: it came to the Olympic Games, Soames were the first

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Speaker 1: that allowed women to compete at all in tennis and golf,

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Speaker 1: nothing else. Okay, yeah. Over the years they did add

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Speaker 1: things like women swimming, but track and field events were

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Speaker 1: pretty much non existent for female competitors. And if you're

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Speaker 1: asking why track and field, the answer is lost of time.

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Speaker 1: Some physicians thought women exerting themselves to the point of

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Speaker 1: visible sweat was unhealthy for women. Um, So maybe it's

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Speaker 1: that it was definitely in either case, you just unladylike

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Speaker 1: to sweat in public and possibly bad for your uterus. Um.

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Speaker 1: Although I have to say I have built up quite

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Speaker 1: a sweat playing tennis that was gonna be my question,

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Speaker 1: why why do they think you can't sweat when you're

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Speaker 1: doing certain sports that they both take levels of physical exertion. Right. Well,

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Speaker 1: one interesting thing, and this is just me wondering if

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Speaker 1: if it had something to do with this, but the

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Speaker 1: tennis uniform for women at this time was essentially covering

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Speaker 1: all of your skin, so maybe they just couldn't see

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Speaker 1: you sweat. I don't know, classic trickery, I can't see,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't exist. It was like a weighted down skirt.

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Speaker 1: It did not look comfortable for playing in the hot weather.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, um. The first French women's athletic club, Femina Sports,

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Speaker 1: which was founded in nineteen eleven, put together France's very

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Speaker 1: first women's national championship for track and field in seventeen.

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Speaker 1: That same year, some of famina's sports founders created the

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Speaker 1: Federalsonda Society Feminine Sportive de France are Women's Sports Federation

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Speaker 1: of France. And this is when Alice Milia enters the picture.

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Speaker 1: She was one of the founders of this organization. She

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Speaker 1: formally requested that women's track and field be added to

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Speaker 1: the Olympics. In that's when she put in a request

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Speaker 1: was turned down. So what does she do? She decides

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Speaker 1: to host her own Olympics. Pretty much. The first step

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Speaker 1: was founding the I s f I, and on March

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Speaker 1: that organization hosts the inaugural Women's Olympiad in Monte Carlo,

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Speaker 1: and it's complete with eleven track and field events, five

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Speaker 1: different nations represented. It was meant to show the IOC, hey, look,

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Speaker 1: we can do this, um and persuade them kind of

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Speaker 1: a proof of concepts um, we should add these categories

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Speaker 1: to the Olympics. And despite the fact that this event

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Speaker 1: was a success, the IOC rejected their appeal, but that

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Speaker 1: did not stop Milliah. The following year, the I s

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Speaker 1: f I took it up a notch and hosted the

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Speaker 1: first Women's Olympic Games, with the idea of following the

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Speaker 1: same for your schedule. I love this. It's like, we'll

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Speaker 1: have our own Olympics then we don't need you. And

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Speaker 1: I like how they already planned for the four years.

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Speaker 1: We know this is happening, right, We're going for this,

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Speaker 1: we're staying committed to it exactly. I mean. It was

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Speaker 1: essentially the Olympics but for women, and the first one

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Speaker 1: took place in Paris. Once again, Five nations, including the

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Speaker 1: United States, participated and it was attended by around twenty

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Speaker 1: thousand spectators. Guess who did not like this? Who Day

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Speaker 1: Cooper DN, The IOC and the I A A F

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Speaker 1: I would imagine, Yes, they were not happy. They decreed

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Speaker 1: that the I A A F should be in charge

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Speaker 1: of all track and field events. This was a grab

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Speaker 1: for control over who is allowed to compete and over

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Speaker 1: who can use the Olympic brand. They didn't want this

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Speaker 1: other organization coming in and using Olympic in the name.

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Speaker 1: After these two organizations agreed that yes, the IOC and

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Speaker 1: the I A A F should each govern women's check

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Speaker 1: and fields events, so they acknowledged it was a thing,

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Speaker 1: women's check and field is it exists? They also immediately

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Speaker 1: agreed that women and would not have the right to

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Speaker 1: appear in track and field events in the nineteen Olympics.

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Speaker 1: So they got control and then shut it down. Wow,

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Speaker 1: talk about a reversal. Yeah. Um. As part of this

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Speaker 1: whole thing, the I S F I, which is what

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Speaker 1: Milia was associated with, did strike the Olympic from their name.

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Speaker 1: They renamed their event the Women's World Games to get

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Speaker 1: the I O C off their backs. The show went on, though,

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Speaker 1: and four years later the second Women's World Games, set

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Speaker 1: in Sweden, drew athletes from nine countries, and the IOC

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Speaker 1: was furious and wanted to shut it down. Even more

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Speaker 1: so that organization that IF the attempted a compromise and

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Speaker 1: added five women's track and field events in their nineteen

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Speaker 1: Olympic Games. And this is compared to twenty two events

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Speaker 1: that men could compete in. By the way, Milia was

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Speaker 1: not satisfied with this compromise, although some other members in

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Speaker 1: the i s f I were. The British women's team

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Speaker 1: was on Millie out side and boycotted Olympic Games altogether.

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Speaker 1: And even though these five events being added to track

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Speaker 1: and field in the Olympics, in these games it was historic,

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Speaker 1: a lot of the press at the time did not

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Speaker 1: report on it that way. Take this quote from the

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Speaker 1: New York Times the final of the women's eight d run,

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Speaker 1: in which Fraulina Radka of Germany said, a world's record

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Speaker 1: plainly demonstrated that even this distance makes too great a

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Speaker 1: call on feminine strength. At the finish, six out of

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Speaker 1: the nine runners were completely exhausted and fell headlong on

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Speaker 1: the ground. Several had to be carried off the track.

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Speaker 1: The little American girl, Miss Florence McDonald, who made a

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Speaker 1: gallant try but was outclassed, was in a half fet

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Speaker 1: for several minutes, while even the sturdy Miss Hitomy of Japan,

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Speaker 1: who finished second, needed attention before she was able to

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Speaker 1: leave the field. And that's real. Yes, you know, it

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Speaker 1: almost seems comical. It does because so many words in there.

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Speaker 1: I could go into why they're problematic. For some reason,

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Speaker 1: the words sturdy stood out to me. Yes, you've got

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Speaker 1: the table, but yeah, just the language that's used is

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Speaker 1: just so obviously biased in that quote. Yeah, and demeaning

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Speaker 1: women's participation in the eight run in particular, like I mentioned,

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Speaker 1: seemed to be controversial, and the IOC prohibited women from

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Speaker 1: competing in this event again until nineteen sixty. The nineteen

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Speaker 1: thirty two Olympic Games only allowed women to compete in

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Speaker 1: the one hundred meter dash, a short distance compared to

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Speaker 1: these longer, longer tracks. The nineteen thirties Women's World Games,

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Speaker 1: on the other hand, featured twelve track and field events

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Speaker 1: and competitors from seventeen different countries. Ninety four is women

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Speaker 1: World Games were even bigger, with nineteen countries competing in

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Speaker 1: thirteen track and field events. With the success of these Games,

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Speaker 1: Milia demanded the nineteen thirty six Olympics and who what

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Speaker 1: she called a full program of women's events or make

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Speaker 1: the Olympics for male competitors only, because the I s

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Speaker 1: F I was doing just fine, thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: She twisted the I A a f arm and they

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Speaker 1: eventually conceded to a nine event program at the Olympics

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Speaker 1: and to acknowledge the records set at the Women's World Games,

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Speaker 1: the upcoming nineteen thirty eight Women's World Games became the

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Speaker 1: European Athletics Championship, so changed the name. Miliad died in seven,

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Speaker 1: but she did live to see women in France get

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Speaker 1: the right to vote in ninet and so yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: kind of the story of this lost event that led

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Speaker 1: the way two women being allowed to compete in more

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Speaker 1: events in the Olympics. It's so interesting because they kept

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Speaker 1: working for it. So you saw those little moments of

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Speaker 1: progress every single step of the way, when something was given,

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Speaker 1: something was taken, and that compromise and negotiation that was happy.

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Speaker 1: So you mentioned earlier you were excited to talk about

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Speaker 1: why this event was important. Yes, as promised, So in

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Speaker 1: light of Women's History Month, this whole thing was a

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Speaker 1: huge push for women's equality. These were women who did

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Speaker 1: not take no for an answer, who made their own

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Speaker 1: games where they could compete, where people weren't telling them

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Speaker 1: what they could and couldn't do, and they were successful

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Speaker 1: enough so that the IOC had to listen to them.

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Speaker 1: Think of all the amazing strong athletes that we have

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Speaker 1: seen in the records that these athletes have broken, the

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Speaker 1: feats they've accomplished, the girls that they have inspired. I'm

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Speaker 1: a runner and I'm competitive, and I missed my Olympics window.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's still time, but I think I missed

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Speaker 1: never stayed ever Annie, Yes, thank you ease Um. But

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Speaker 1: if I had grown up not seeing women compete in

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Speaker 1: track and field at the Olympics, there is no way

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Speaker 1: that that would not have impacted me and what I

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Speaker 1: thought I could have blish, that's a huge deal. I

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Speaker 1: would have imposed limits on myself, and I would say

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Speaker 1: probably a lot of young girls and women would have.

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Speaker 1: When I run, I feel powerful and strong and confident,

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Speaker 1: and I owe some of that of that freedom of

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Speaker 1: thinking that I can do this to the women before

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Speaker 1: me who fought for that chance to compete. But all

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Speaker 1: of that inspirational I hope stuff beside, I have to say,

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Speaker 1: if you're curious, the Olympics are still not fifty fifty.

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Speaker 1: For instance, the freestyle swim events wasn't available to women

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Speaker 1: at Rio Olympics. UM, even though Katie Ladecki has broken

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Speaker 1: two world records in that event, men didn't have the

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Speaker 1: eight So it doesn't make a lot of sense. Um,

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Speaker 1: So all this to say, there is still work to

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Speaker 1: be done. This really is an ongoing conversation, and we

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Speaker 1: can also talk about it in terms of non binary

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Speaker 1: and transfolks, which, yeah, this is all in the news

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Speaker 1: right now. So if you think like what we're talking

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Speaker 1: about is not important to the conversations we're having today

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Speaker 1: around the Olympics and what sports people can and cannot

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Speaker 1: compete in according to organizations, Shadowy Cab, all of people exactly, Um,

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Speaker 1: it definitely is important and I think it's it's really

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Speaker 1: valuable to remember this and to keep pushing. Well, I'm

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Speaker 1: glad we've got a chance to talk about it today.

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Speaker 1: Olympics often seem to be a hotbed of social conversations,

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Speaker 1: just as a nature of all the different types of

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Speaker 1: people who are involved in it. And this little slice

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Speaker 1: of history about the Women's Olympiad, I think is a

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Speaker 1: thing that a lot of people may not know about,

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Speaker 1: and I really appreciate you bringing this to our audiences

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Speaker 1: attention today. I had no idea there was that huge

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Speaker 1: background to the Women's Olympiad and that it really caused

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Speaker 1: that much change. So yeah, thank you for being here today.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure

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Speaker 1: as always. Come back soon. Hello. Keep up with us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at t d I h

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Speaker 1: C podcast. Thank you for joining me today. See you

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Speaker 1: same place, same time tomorrow. Hi everyone, it's Eaves again

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Speaker 1: and welcome to another episode of This Day in History class.

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Speaker 1: The day was March the excen Valdi's oil tanker spilled

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Speaker 1: eleven million gallons of oil and Prince William Sound in

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Speaker 1: the Gulf of Alaska. The oil spill caused extensive damage

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Speaker 1: to the environment and was the largest in US waters

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Speaker 1: until the Deep Water Horizon spill. Exon Valdis was one

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Speaker 1: of the newer ships in the Exon Shipping Company's fleet.

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Speaker 1: The night before the spill, EXN Valdis left Valdis Alaska

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Speaker 1: and was headed to Long Beach, California. It was carrying

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Speaker 1: more than fifty three million gallons of crude oil. Captain

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Speaker 1: Joseph Hazelwood had been drinking alcoholic beverages that day, which

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Speaker 1: would later become a point of contention. The tanker left

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Speaker 1: the dock not long after nine pm, but just after

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Speaker 1: midnight on March the crew realized that the tanker was

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Speaker 1: off course. At twelve o four a m. It hit

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Speaker 1: Bly Reef in Prince William Sound. Eight out of the

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Speaker 1: eleven cargo tanks were punctured. Soon, ten point eight million

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Speaker 1: gallons of crude oil had spilled into the surrounding waters. Eventually,

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Speaker 1: the spill polluted more than one thousand miles of shoreline

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Speaker 1: in south central Alaska. Thousands of seabirds, see ters and seals,

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Speaker 1: bald eagles, and fish died because of the spill. The

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Speaker 1: disaster had a significant effect on wildlife, environment, reliant industries,

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Speaker 1: recreational fishing, and tourism. In investigations after the disaster, it

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Speaker 1: was found that Captain hazel Wood was not at the

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Speaker 1: navigation bridge. Third mate, Gregory Cousins, was in charge of it.

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Speaker 1: Cousins had called Hazelwood just before the vessel struck bl Reef,

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Speaker 1: recognizing there was danger, but it was too late. When

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Speaker 1: investigators found out that hazel Wood had been drinking before

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Speaker 1: boarding exon Valdis, EXN fired him. He was cleared of

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Speaker 1: being intoxicated at the time of the incident, but he

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Speaker 1: was convicted of misdemeanor negligence, find fifty thousand dollars and

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Speaker 1: sentenced to one thousand hours of community service. After years

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Speaker 1: of appeals, Hazelwood began community service in Excen was deemed

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Speaker 1: responsible for the disaster, along with the company's incompetent and

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Speaker 1: overworked crew. Blame was also placed on the US Coast

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Speaker 1: Guard for a poor system of traffic regulation. In Congress

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Speaker 1: passed the Oil Pollution Act, which created measures for responding

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Speaker 1: to oil spills and increased penalties for spills. It also

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Speaker 1: called for the eventual banning of single hold tankers from

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Speaker 1: US waters. Now all tankers for oil, loquified natural gas,

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Speaker 1: and chemicals are double hold. Over the years, Exxon paid

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Speaker 1: billions of dollars on restitution, cleanup costs, and personal damages.

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Speaker 1: XN employees, federal responders, and Alaska residents helped clean up

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Speaker 1: the spill. They used chemical dispersants and booms and skimmers

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Speaker 1: for mechanical cleanup, but some methods workers used removed oil

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Speaker 1: yet killed plants and animals, and a portion of the

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Speaker 1: Alaskans Line is still polluted with subsurface oil. Excen Valdis

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Speaker 1: was repaired, renamed, and soon returned to service. It was

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Speaker 1: sold for scrap in. Though the exon Valdis oil spill

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Speaker 1: had a huge impact on the environment and industry, there

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Speaker 1: have been plenty of other incidents that resulted in much

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Speaker 1: larger oil spills in world history. I'm Eve step Code

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Speaker 1: and hopefully you know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. And you can send us a

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Speaker 1: note on social media at t d i h C

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Speaker 1: Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. You can also send

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Speaker 1: us an email at this Day at i heart media

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Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks again for tuning in and we'll see

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Speaker 1: you tomorrow. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit

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Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.