Here's When Women Were First Allowed To Compete In 32 Olympic Sports, And It’s Honestly Mind-Boggling

For the first time in history women make up almost half of all Olympic athletes.

Women first participated in the Olympics in 1900, but, even then, they had only three options: tennis, golf, and sailing. It wasn't until this year's games that women made up almost half of the athletes competing.

UN Women / The International Olympic Committee

Here are all of the Olympic sports that women weren't always allowed to compete in — and when it was finally allowed:

1. 1900: Golf, tennis, and sailing

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This is Charlotte Cooper who won two gold medals and was the first woman ever to win an individual competition at the Olympic Games.

2. 1904: Archery

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Charlotte 'Lottie' Dod is known as being the youngest person ever to win the Wimbledon's Ladies Singles Championship (at 15 years old) and she won the silver medal for archery in the 1908 Olympics.

3. 1912: Swimming and diving

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Fanny Durack was the first woman ever to win a gold medal in an Olympic swimming event. She was also Australia's first female gold medalist.

4. 1924: Fencing

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Ellen Osiier was the first female champion of Olympic fencing, competing for Denmark. She later went undefeated in the rest of her Olympic matches and remains the only person in Danish history to win a gold medal in this sport.

5. 1928: Athletics and gymnastics

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Halina Konopacka (pictured left) represented Poland and won a gold medal in the discus throw event, making her the first woman ever to win in an athletics event, all while breaking the world record. The Dutch women's gymnastics team was the first ever to win gold medals for the women's event.

6. 1948: Canoeing and all alpine skiing disciplines

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Gretchen Fraser won the gold medal in the women's slalom, making her America's first gold-medalist for skiing at the Olympics. She also won a silver medal in the alpine combined.

7. 1952: Cross-country skiing and equestrian

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Lydia Wideman (pictured left) was the first female Olympic medalist in cross-country skiing and at the time of her death in 2019, she was the oldest living Olympian. Lis Hartel (pictured right) won the silver medal for the newly co-ed equestrian dressage competition, despite being paralyzed from the knees down after contracting polio.

8. 1960: Speed skating

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Helga Hasse was the first gold medal winner for women's speed skating and was the first German ever to win in this event.

9. 1968: Shooting

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Only three women (not pictured here) competed in the inaugural mixed shooting event, featuring both male and female athletes: Gladys Baldwin from Peru, Nuria Ortíz from Mexico, and Eulalia Rolińska from Poland.

10. 1976: Basketball, handball, and rowing

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The USSR women's teams for both basketball (pictured left) and handball took home the gold. Out of the six rowing events, East Germany's women's rowing team won gold medals in four of them and silver in the other two.

11. 1980: Field hockey

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The Zimbabwean women's field hockey team (in blue) won the gold medal after being pulled together last minute due to the US-led boycott on the games held in Moscow, Russia. This was also the first time Zimbabwe had ever won any medal.

12. 1984: Cycling, synchronized swimming

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Connie Carpenter-Phinney is a former American racing cyclist and speed skater who won the gold medal for the inaugural women's individual road race. Candy Costie and Tracie Ruiz also won gold medals for the US in synchronized swimming, competing together for a total of 10 years.

13. 1992: Judo

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Zhuang Xiaoyan, now a judo coach, won the gold medal in the women's +72 kg judo competition, making her China's first female medalist in the sport.

14. 1996: Soccer and softball

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The US women's team for both soccer and softball took home gold medals. Other nations that participated include China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Puerto Rico. 

15. 1998: Curling and ice hockey

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The Canadian women's curling team won the gold medal, beating out Denmark and Sweden. Team USA for women's hockey won the gold medal with Canada and Finland placing second and third. 

16. 2004: Wrestling

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Saori Yoshida (pictured on the left) won the gold medal for Japan in the lightweight freestyle competition. Not only was she the first female wrestler to be named Japan's Athlete of the Year, but she's the most decorated freestyle wrestler ever.

2004 was also the first time that Afghan women could compete in the games after being banned by the IOC due to the Taliban's ban on women competing in sports. Robina Muqimyar raced for Afghanistan twice, competing in her first race at just 17 years old. 

17. 2012: Boxing

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Claressa Shields first competed in the 2012 Olympics at just 17 years old and won America's first gold medal for women's boxing. Since then, she's been known as the best female boxer "pound-for-pound" and is the only boxer in history to hold all four world boxing titles at the same time.

18. 2014: Ski jumping

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Carina Vogt, won the first-ever gold medal for women's ski jumping followed by Daniela Iraschko-Stolz from Austria with silver, and Coline Mattel from France with bronze.

19. 2016: Rugby

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The women's team from Australia won the gold medal match against New Zealand, making them the first-ever winners of women's rugby. Other teams that competed included Canada, Great Britain, France, Spain, Fiji, Brazil, Japan, Kenya, and Colombia.

20. 2020: Karate, skateboarding, surfing, and sport climbing

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All four of these sports have their debut at this year's Olympic games, featuring both men's and women's events since it's mandatory for all new sports looking for Olympic recognition must be open to all athletes, regardless of gender. And we've already seen some wins!

Which of these sports surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments!