Historical approach to the beginnings of women's boxing and the circumstances of the appearance of women's Olympic sport

Abstract

The beginning of feminine boxing and its first combat within the events that constituted the 1904 San Luis Games took place in spite of not having the approval of either Coubertin or other medical social sectors, who argued the health problems that excessive physical efforts could imply for women. On the other hand, certain sectors of the "fourth estate", which was already beginning to be the press, found in women's sports competitions a source of headlines that were exposed as bizarre in order to increase their readership. It was an opportunity to ridicule and make fun of the few athletes who dared to start. Those aspects, as well as the conditioning factors related to the social role of women, determined a position of the International Olympic Committee that lasted for a century, decisively influencing the late incorporation of the practice of female boxing into sports structures. The evolution of the criteria of the current Olympic Movement, with respect to women's sport, has been definitive since the work of Juan Antonio Samaranch.