LIFTING THE BAR: A HISTORY OF INCLUSION, EMPOWERMENT AND THE RISE OF WOMEN’S OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING ______

A Thesis

Presented to the

Faculty of

California State University, Fullerton ______

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Science

in

Kinesiology ______

By

Paulina Rodriguez

Thesis Committee Approval:

Professor Matthew P. Llewellyn, Chair Professor Toby Rider, Department of Kinesiology Professor John Gleaves, Department of Kinesiology

Summer, 2016

ABSTRACT

On November 14, 1996, the Association of National Olympic Committees

(ANOC) and the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) met in

Cancun, Mexico to discuss an array of administrative and participatory issues regarding the upcoming Sydney Olympic Games. On the agenda in Cancun was one issue that had persistently afflicted the Olympic Movement for over a century: gender inequality. Based on prevailing pseudo-scientific theories of physical vulnerability, as well as the founder of the Olympic Movement Pierre de Coubertin’s own patriarchal attitudes towards female athleticism, women were originally excluded from Olympic competition. Despite decades of intensive lobbying and the gradual dismantling of the walls of exclusion, female athletes still fell short of full equality in the Olympic arena. Weightlifting, for instance, remained open only to men. The Cancun meeting helped change this situation. The IOC

Executive Board, boasting the full support of the ANOC, voted on the inclusion of women weightlifters into the Olympic program.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... iv

Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

2. HERE COME THE LADIES! ...... 9

Men Compete, Women Applaud ...... 10 The Struggle for Olympic Recognition ...... 12 From Vaudeville to Muscle Beach ...... 16 Women Receive a Boost from Cold War Politics ...... 24 The American Female Athlete and Social Change ...... 26 The Rise of Women Lifters ...... 30

3. AN AMERICAN DREAMS GOES GLOBAL ...... 33

The Ladies Carry the Weight ...... 34 Toward the International Platform ...... 37 Petitioning the IOC ...... 42 The Case for the Female Body ...... 44 The Fight Must Go On! ...... 47 1996: The Year of the Woman ...... 51 The Fruits of Their Labor ...... 52

4. CONCLUSION ...... 56

Why Weightlifting? ...... 61

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 63

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There are many people who deserve my gratitude for their assistance in completing this project. First, words cannot describe how grateful I am for Dr. Matthew

Llewellyn, his constant support and guidance have helped in my development both as a student and academic. I admire his passion for historical research and I hope to one-day help make a stranger’s dreams come true, as he has done for me. I would also like thank both Dr. Toby Rider and Dr. John Gleaves for serving on my committee, your wealth of knowledge and support have help give this project life. Finally, a thanks to Dr. Traci

Statler, for providing those much needed pep-talks.

I cannot continue without thanking my parents, Rodolfo and Lucy Rodriguez. It is not an exaggeration to say, I would not be here without them. Thank you for showing me that through hard work, any dream can be attained. I am grateful for all the sacrifices you have made, from leaving your home country and family to working tirelessly to provide the means for an education, los quiero con todo mi corazón, y quiero que sepan, lo que hago es para ustedes. I want to send my love and gratitude to my two beautiful sisters,

Ana and Adriana Rodriguez, you guys push me to be better every-day. Thank you for the laughs and support throughout this process. Ana, I want to thank you especially, for introducing me to this beautiful sport and inciting in me the fire to pursue this project.

Long hours of studying and writing need to be balanced with laughs, distractions and a couple of glasses of wine, in order to stay sane! I am thankful to have great friends

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and family who have provided that and more. Tanya, words cannot describe how much I appreciate your support, you have been an integral part of this journey, and for that I thank you. Samantha, you have a been a true best friend, thank you for listening and pulling me back from the edge when my fears got the best of me.

Last, but definitely not least, I want to take the time to thank my husband, Luis

Serrano. Thank for reminding me of my potential, when I fail to see it for myself. This is just as much yours as it is mine, I look forward to continuing this journey with you, I love you!

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1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

On November 14, 1996, the Association of National Olympic Committees

(ANOC) and the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) met in

Cancun, Mexico to discuss an array of administrative and participatory issues regarding the upcoming Sydney Olympic Games.1 On the agenda in Cancun was one issue that had persistently afflicted the Olympic Movement for over a century: gender inequality. Based on prevailing pseudo-scientific theories of physical vulnerability, as well as the founder of the Olympic Movement, Pierre de Coubertin’s own patriarchal attitudes towards female athleticism, women were originally excluded from Olympic competition. Despite decades of intensive lobbying and the gradual dismantling of the walls of exclusion, female athletes still fell short of full equality in the Olympic arena. Weightlifting, for instance, remained open only to men. The Cancun meeting helped change this situation.

The IOC Executive Board, boasting the full support of the ANOC, voted on the inclusion of women weightlifters into the Olympic program.2

Olympic weightlifting is not a female athlete’s first choice; it was certainly not my first. I am an immigrant, born into a traditional Mexican home; a home where strict and clearly defined gender roles were established. I did not immigrate to the United

States until I was eight years old; I did not grow up playing in youth sports leagues or enjoy the customary orange slices and juice boxes at half time or after the game. When I

2 reached junior high school, after years of incessantly begging my mother, I first took part in an organized sport: softball. Sport, from her unique cultural perspective, was not important. She dismissed sports as both being dangerous and un-lady-like. I continued to participate in sport throughout my high school career—I played softball, tennis and soccer and pursued softball at the club level. Needless to say, my passion for sport had developed and continued well into my early years at Orange Coast Community College.

After graduating junior college, I sought opportunities to continue playing sports. I craved the rush of competition, the feeling of belonging to a team, and the struggle of day-to-day practices. Fortunately, I discovered CrossFit. The CrossFit program consists of a variety of gymnastic-style exercises and it revolves around the Olympic weightlifting movements, the snatch and the clean and jerk. CrossFit created a platform where I could build friendships and fulfill my desire to belong to a team. However, an unexpected ankle injury kept me from exercising on a consistent basis. After struggling to figure out what types of exercises my body was capable of performing, my sister suggested I join the

California State University, Fullerton weightlifting club, that both she and fellow kinesiology students had recently established. Due to my lack of mobility, my routines initially consisted of minimal squatting and exercises focused strictly on upper-body resistance. However, as time progressed I learned to perfect the technique of the Olympic weightlifting movements. Through my association with this club and the persistence of my sister, I instantly fell in love with the sport of weightlifting.

The following year I became the club’s Vice President. I helped organize meets and actively competed. My training intensified and I (alongside my sister) qualified to represent the California State University, Fullerton at the Collegiate National

3

Championships in Johnson City, Tennessee. The feeling of using nothing but sheer strength to complete the lifts is something that every woman should experience. It is troubling that young male athletes are introduced to these lifts as early as high school, but their female counterparts are kept away from them entirely. I had to wait until the age of twenty-four before being introduced to Olympic movements like the snatch and the clean and jerk. Weightlifting gave me a new outlook on life and a newly found self-confidence.

It is a shame that so many women do not dare give the sport a chance out of fear and deeply rooted misconceptions. Some of the reasons I have heard as to why women choose to stay away from weightlifting are: “lifting weights will make me look huge,” or

“I will look like a man.” Yet, what women fail to realize is that weightlifting will do the opposite; lifting weights tightens and shrinks muscle. My main critic became my mother, who believed that somehow, weightlifting led to reproductive failure. Attitudes like the ones mentioned exemplify a common theme in the history women’s sport. Inspired by the reaction to my weightlifting and my newly found love for the sport, I chose the topic of this thesis

Weightlifting has appeared on the Olympic program at every Olympics since

Pierre de Coubertin’s revival of the Games in 1896. The history of Olympic weightlifting, however, is a history of male involvement in the sport. Remarkably, female

Olympic weightlifters would be forced to wait until the year 2000 before they made their debut in the Olympic Games. The road towards Olympic recognition was both long and arduous. Yet, little is known about the barriers and obstacles that a group of visionary women traversed to position their sport in the Olympic program. As a woman weightlifter and an academic historian, I felt a need to broaden the discussion of women’s

4 weightlifting and tell the story of how women pushed enough to force the hand of a male dominated IOC in the fall of 1996. The process of including women’s weightlifting in the

Olympic Games remains an under explored area of historical research. This thesis plans to investigate the process that led to the inclusion of women weightlifters into the

Olympic program prior to the 2000 Sydney Games.

While this thesis will use a variety of pertinent secondary sources on the history of women’s sport, such as: Allen Guttmann’s Women’s Sport: A History, Susan K

Cahn’s, Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twenty-First Century Women’s

Sport; Jaime Schultz’s Qualifying Times: Periods of Change in U.S. Women’s Sport, the research on women’s weightlifting remains limited. I have thus drawn upon a range of primary sources. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Archives in Colorado, and the LA84 Foundation in Los Angeles contain numerous magazines that have detailed information on the inner workings of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), as well as the participation of women in the sport of weightlifting. During the early 1980s, the United States Weightlifting Federation (USWF) began to show interest in women’s weightlifting.3 In its publication Weightlifting USA, women’s columns began to appear, advising women on how to train, affording information as to how to choose a gym, as well as providing information regarding the integration of women into the sport.4

A leading figure in this movement was Judy Glenney, who helped advocate for a women’s National championship, an international championship, and laid the foundation for inclusion into the Olympic program. The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical

Culture and Sports at the University of Texas in Austin, houses Judy Glenney’s personal papers, as well as The Iron Game History Journal which covers an array of topic

5 regarding the history of strength. These materials highlight the process of inclusion and help gain insight as to the way the sport of women’s weightlifting gained popularity.5

Within Glenney’s papers exists correspondence between the IWF and the USWF, which cover the early-1980s to mid-1990s. Contact between Glenney and the IWF became crucial to the inclusion of women’s weightlifting onto the Olympic program. Murray

Levine, the president of the USWF appointed Glenney to co-manage a women’s committee alongside Mabel Rader, another advocate for the sport.6 Through their initial exchanges it is clear that other nations supported an international championship.7 These letters demonstrate that Dr. Ajan, the General Secretary of the IWF, and the executive board of the IWF encouraged the development of women’s weightlifting at the international level.8 The only comprehensive history on the sport of weightlifting is The

Lost Past by Gottfried Schodl, published by the International Weightlifting Federation.

Schodl narrates the history of the IWF, yet, the focus on women weightlifters encompasses a solitary paragraph.

This thesis will be broken into two chapters, each working together to illustrate the specific issues that contributed to the rise of women’s Olympic weightlifting. Chapter

One outlines how women have been marginalized and excluded throughout the arc of

Olympic history. The discussion then shifts to the early days of female strength training.

The first records portray women performing in vaudeville acts, where they bent iron bars, as well as engaged in other demonstrations and feats of strength; rather than expelling admiration for these early pioneers of female strength and athleticism, the public questioned their abilities and their involvement in the profession.9 The discussion will focus on pioneers of strength, specifically Ivy Russell, who propelled the image of strong

6 women onto the stage as well as generate support for weightlifting in Europe.10 These early strongwomen paved the way for the new female strength performer who later graced the shores of the California coast at Muscle Beach in Santa Monica.11 Pioneers like Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton revolutionized the image of female strength athletes within the United States during the late 1940s.12

The lack of evidence on women’s weightlifting during the 1950s and 1960s shows the unorganized nature of the sport. Yet, the push for social change of the 1960s, created several opportunities for the female athlete. Events such as the Cold War, the Counter

Culture movement and policies like Title IX helped shape the American female athlete’s role within society. Concurrently, the mid 1970s witnessed the rise of women’s weightlifting in the United States, which gained support and acceptance with the help of strength sports such as powerlifting. In order to compete, historian Jan Todd recalls, “a few women competed at men’s meets but some men did not like that idea.”13 The success of powerlifting in the late 1970s acted as a precursor to the women’s weightlifting movement of the 1980s and 1990s.

Chapter Two investigates the process that led to the inclusion of women weightlifters onto the Olympic program, specifically between the decades of the 1980s and 1990s. As more women began to crowd men’s events, the need to create a space for women to compete in, became apparent.14 Despite public opposition, the USWF, the bureaucratic umbrella for weightlifting in the Unites States, began to include women in the sport. Women in the U.S. gained a small victory when they were given the chance to participate in the first National Championship on May 23, 1981 in Waterloo, Iowa. 15

Once women’s weightlifting became a nationally recognized sport, the USWF’s women’s

7 committee coordinated intensively with the IWF in order to gain international acceptance.16 Weightlifting within the U.S. had grown exponentially by the time the IWF organized an international championship in 1987.

Women’s weightlifting grew exponentially, thanks to the efforts of athletes like

Karyn Marshall, who broke the Guinness World Record for strongest woman in 1985 and earned the title of World Champion in 1987 (the first in the U.S. since 1969). 17 Yet despite of the continuous National Championships in the U.S., the emergence of an IWF

Championships and the growth of women’s weightlifting throughout the globe, the IOC did not change its stance on the matter. Chapter Two will attempt to uncover the reasoning behind the IOC’s lack of support toward the adoption of the women’s weightlifting program. The IOC stressed an overcrowded program, yet it accepted an immature women’s soccer program in 1996.18 Finally, the chapter will end with a discussion on the role of the ongoing pressure placed on the IOC to include women within administrative roles and on the playing fields. A women’s movement, championed by former U.S. Olympic rowing silver medalist and Executive Board Member, Anita

DeFrantz, coupled with the ongoing unrest within the USWF, proved to be the right combination to force the issue on women’s weightlifting.19 The events of 1996, simplified the decision of the NOCs to accept women’s weightlifting as an Olympic event at their meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

While this thesis covers the development of women’s weightlifting as a product of the United States, there are still different areas of the history of women’s Olympic weightlifting that need to be explored. For example, the development of women’s weightlifting in different nations and how they contributed to the inclusion of women into

8 the Olympics. Furthermore, the development of women’s programs throughout the world is an area that remains uncovered; while the USWF’s women’s committee initiated the movement, female weightlifters competed in nations like Canada, Great Britain, and

China.20 Further exploration into the key players in within this movement is also necessary. Research on different athletes and administrators could improve the quality of this work. Yet, this thesis provides a blueprint which leaves room for further exploration.

However, despite the limitations presented, the thesis chronicles an event in women’s sport history that has received limited exposure. This thesis, supported by archival primary material, shows that the women’s weightlifting movement fits into the greater socio-cultural themes that have been exposed throughout history. Moreover, by investigating the events of the development of the international women’s weightlifting program, current and future female athletes can learn to appreciate the work done by those that came before them, and hopefully provide a sense of empowerment to continue to strive for parity in sport.

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CHAPTER 2

HERE COME THE LADIES!

In 1979, Karyn Marshall, an up-and-coming female Olympic weightlifter, decided to take her weightlifting career to the next level. An article in Sports Illustrated recounts her experience:

Marshall sought her first competition, the qualifying meet was for the 1979 Empire State Games in White Plains, N.Y. When she asked for an application she was told: “Weightlifting is for men only. Why don’t you try synchronized swimming? She was allowed to enter the meet . . . She was not permitted to enter the Games.21

In the late 1970s, there remained strong opposition to female participation in elite sport, especially in a sport that represented the epitome of masculinity, Olympic weightlifting.

Despite the social changes brought forth within the United States by the passage of Title

IX, legislation that called for gender equality in federally funded institutions of higher education, women weightlifters still faced discriminatory attitudes and rules. The attitudes expressed toward Marshall and other female athletes, reflect the residual effects of a long standing history of the marginalization of women in competitive sport; a history that traces its roots to the late nineteenth century. Seventy years after women first gained the right to compete in the Olympic Games, parity across the Olympic program had not been achieved.

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Men Compete, Women Applaud

During the 1800s, Baron Pierre de Coubertin a member of one of the most prestigious families in France, looked for a way to avenge the defeat of his beloved country, at the hands of the Prussian army in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.22

Instead of attributing the French defeat as a military failure, Coubertin accredited the

German victory to their soldier’s physical prowess.23 As a member of France’s ruling aristocracy, Coubertin took it upon himself to restore France to greatness by restructuring the French educational system. Historian Allen Guttmann opines:

In his books and articles, Coubertin appealed to his countrymen to mend their ways, to become as hardy as their perennial foes, to steel themselves for the task of revenge. He concluded, however, that there were better paths to physical prowess than . . . Germanic physical education . . . Coubertin looked, therefore, across the channel to his nation’s friendly rival, England.24

The British public school served as an inspirational model for Coubertin. Within the halls of institutions of elite British education, young men developed character through a strict and rigid form of learning. 25 British society praised the public schools for their efficiency in producing well-rounded, hardy young men. Tom Hughes’ bestselling fictional novel,

Tom Brown’s Schooldays, told the story of a scrawny Tom Brown who attempts to make his mark on the football pitch and gain respect from his schoolmates through his bravery and accomplishments in sport. Tom Brown illustrated the values of fair play, hard work and perseverance.26 Hughes fictional depiction of how sport allegedly helped foster a new form of masculinity, provided Coubertin with a blue print for revitalizing the youth of

France.

After Coubertin fulfilled his work within the French school system, he decided to move on and attempt to revive the ancient Olympic Games in the modern-era.27

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Technological advances like the telegraph, railroad, and the steamship, provided greater intimacy and interaction between nations. Coubertin viewed this an opportunity to advocate for a more peaceful world. He saw international sport as the answer and thus, worked to establish the International Olympic Committee (IOC).28 In 1986, Coubertin and the formative IOC staged the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, as a platform for promoting peace and fair play. Through the revival of the Olympic Games, historian David Young notes, Coubertin believed “that if the youth of the world could be brought together on an equal footing, there would be no better way to promote mutual respect, better understanding between different classes and races, and international goodwill.”29 International goodwill lay at the root of Coubertin’s ideology of Olympism, which promoted honesty, equality, international understanding, and fair play.

The Olympism of the nineteenth century reaffirmed Victorian ideals concerning masculinity. Historian Kevin Walmsley notes, the Olympics “brought nations together in competition, sanctioned and reaffirmed that competitive sport was to be an enclave for the wealthy, an institution that provided a podium for the celebration of competitive, physical masculinities in contradiction to other masculinities and to femaleness.”30

Therefore, the ideals of Olympism belonged exclusively to men. Coubertin strongly objected to the participation of females in Olympic competition.31 The 1900 Olympics in

Paris, marked the first Games in which women competed, a feat made possible only by the lack of IOC’s influence on the Olympic program.32 Pierre de Coubertin captured his misogynistic attitudes toward female athleticism in 1912 when he wrote:

We have tried, and must continue to try to put the following expression into practice: the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism, based on the internationalism, by means of fairness, in an artistic setting, with the applause of women as a reward.33

12

Women, according to the Baron, were incapable of achieving excellence. Citus, altius, fortius, (faster, higher, stronger), the motto for the IOC, did not pertain to female athletes.34

Victorian notions of womanhood restricted women’s participation in competitive sport. For example, criticisms surrounding the dangers of cycling stretched from critiques of a woman’s physical appearance (the “bicycle face”), to claims that riding a bicycle damaged a women’s reproductive system.35 Medical doctors and educators helped define and reinforce these pseudo-scientific notions of femininity by claiming that women were physically frail and encouraging them to pursue more “appropriate” domestic and maternal activities.36 However, as physical activity became increasingly more accessible to women, their interest in competitive sport and opportunities to display physical strength inevitably grew. However, despite the growing interest of females in sport, the

Olympic Games continued to restrict their participation predominately to male competitors; thus staying true to Coubertin’s belief that the Games “must be reserved for men.”37 Consequently, women began to organize and found new venues of competition.

The Struggle for Olympic Recognition

The twentieth century in the United States witnessed several factors that changed the male and female dynamic. The First Great War created a shift of power; a change in the domestic gender roles arose from the need to fuel the workplace.38 Furthermore,

Victorian notions of femininity began to collapse, as women no longer viewed themselves as weak and frail. Instead, women embraced the new challenge of raising a household in the absence of men.39 From the school yard to the leisure clubs, more and more middle class women engaged in competitive sport. A new type of American girl

13 emerged, one who diverged physically, mentally and morally from Victorian gender constructions.40

The growth off women’s competitive sport in the United States took place within industrial cities. It was in the city that women were able to exert their independence. As historian Susan Cahn notes, “the transformation in population, consumption, leisure made the 1920s a ‘golden age’ of sport.”41 Indeed it was the 1920s that changed the idea of womanhood. The increased popularity of night clubs, cafes and dancehalls provided women with a liberty to explore their own sexuality and to participate in pleasure seeking activities, encapsulated in the 1920s Flappers.42 The newly felt liberation the 1920s woman experienced, fueled the growing interest in sport among American women, yet it did not come without opposition.

At the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris women were permitted, despite Pierre de

Coubertin’s objections, in only two sports: golf and tennis. Between the 1900 and 1924

Olympic Games, women slowly gained the right to participate in an additional four, gender-appropriate sports: archery, skating, aquatics, and fencing, all of which were deemed acceptable in the eyes of the IOC.43 By the 1920s, women began to move beyond gendered sports and started to participate in traditionally masculine sports like boxing, soccer and rugby, prompting some cultural commentators to denounce this “outrageous behaviors.”44 Female athletes in the U.S. made significant strides in the sport of track and field, according to sport historian Susan Cahn, “as women physical educators began instructing female students in mandatory health and exercise courses, they also oversaw an unprecedented growth of extracurricular athletics at the college level.”45 Track and

14 field not only grew within the colleges of the United States, it also mirrored developments in Europe.

Under the leadership of Madame Alice Milliat, the Federation Sportive Feminine

Internationale (FSFI) accomplished more for women’s international sport than any other federation of the time.46 Milliat championed the formation of a women’s only Olympics, a program that exclusively showcased the abilities of female track and field athletes.47

The first of these Women’s Olympics took place in 1922 in Paris, France. The program included eleven events, more than double the number the IOC sanctioned when they adopted track and field as an official Olympic sport in 1928.48 The IOC took the French federation’s attempt to organize a separate Olympic event as an act of defiance. Despite the miniscule nature of the Women’s Olympics in comparison to the Olympic Games, the

IOC aimed at stopping them. The IOC received support from international federations of sport, including the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), who, as Susan

Cahn claims, “feared that extreme physical exertion would break down the inner restraints necessary for maintaining female propriety.”49 To physical educators of the time, track and field put significant stress on the female body. Medically speaking, scientist claimed, the exertion jeopardized female reproductive capacities and put into question an athletes’ femininity.50 The struggle between the IOC and Milliat’s women’s

Olympics represented a fight over the control of women’s sport and women’s bodies. The

IOC wanted governance of sport, but also aspired to control the types of activities female athletes should or should not participate in.

In 1924, the IAAF voted to govern women’s track and field, a decision made to settle the debate with Milliat and the FSFI.51The FSFI fought to maintain its jurisdiction

15 over women’s international events, staking their claim over the Women’s Olympic

Games. Most importantly, the FSFI maintained their autonomy, a move the IAAF did not take lightly. The IOC offered a proposal that resulted in the inclusion of women’s track and field onto the Olympic program.52 When it came time to vote for inclusion, the all- male members of the IAAF voted against the move. After much debate, the IAAF eventually conceded some ground and agreed to an “experiment” of a five event track and field competition at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.53 The actions of the

IAAF exposed their true concern: it hoped to force Milliat and the FSFI under the umbrella of the IAAF.54

The 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam consisted of five events for women track and field athletes. Among the five events, the 800-meter race generated much scrutiny among both IAAF officials and the public. The addition of the 800-meter race in the Olympic program appeared to be a controversial decision made by the IOC. As historian Jaime Schultz states, “many critics believed that women were simply too delicate to withstand the rigorous demands of these competitions.”55 These concerns quickly unraveled during the race, as (false) accounts of female athletes collapsing at the finish line later emerged.56 Instead of celebrating the accomplishment of exceptional female athletes, crowds left the Games disgusted by the sight of women falling to the floor.57 The British Newspaper, Sporting Life, reported on the scene:

There is no pleasure in watching young women stagger along the track until they drop from sheer exhaustion, and it is closely akin to batons that losing competitors should be led weeping from the fray.58

The IOC saw the backlash as an opportunity to cut the track and field program entirely; a decision that rekindled notions of female frailty and set women’s elite back for

16 generations to come. As a result, the IOC removed the 800-meters from the program and consequently, reduce the longest distance ran by women to 200-meters—a restriction that would stand for the next 32 years.59

The events that unfolded after the 1928 Olympic Games encapsulated the state of women’s sport during the early twentieth century. Women continued to be marginalized by the over-reaching hand of bureaucratic organizations such as the IAAF and the IOC. It is not surprising that after the “collapse” of track and field athletes at the finish line of the

800-meter race, IOC and IAAF officials garnered enough support from other male run organizations to prevent female runners from exercising their right to race. In order to compete in the 1936 Olympics, women relinquished control of their athletic competitions.60 Yet despite the failure experienced at the hands of the IOC, Milliat and the FSFI proved to the world that women remained adamant about competing on the international stage. By 1936, the year Milliat gave up control of women’s track and field, the number of female track and field athletes reached a record-breaking 331, from twenty different countries.61 The FSFI served as an example of women aspiring create a space for themselves. Ultimately, their efforts to organize and control their own sporting space were squashed by male sporting officials who perceived a threat to male sporting hegemony. Nevertheless, through the efforts of Milliat and the FSFI, female participation in ‘manly’ sport became less taboo; women became enamored with strength, a development that would again redefine the notion of womanhood.

From Vaudeville to Muscle Beach

Outside of the domain of gender appropriate sports and physical activities, women have long been showcasing their strength and physical abilities. The display of strength

17 has not been absent from the female sporting record; history reveals that women have been involved in strength training since the mid-nineteenth century.62 Early female weightlifters, or strength performers, found it difficult to organize mainly because they did not have a viable and legitimate platform to compete and showcase their abilities.

Instead, women were forced to participate in venues owned by men, frequented by men, and formatted to cater to an all-male audience. As such, these pioneers of women’s strength were physically exploited, harassed, and ridiculed.63 Although the number of women that participated in these venues is uncertain, the majority of the events played off the sex-appeal of the female athletes. Female wrestlers and boxers suffered most at the hands of male sporting entrepreneurs; they were forced to fight with little to no clothing at the expense of cheap entertainment. While the vaudeville setting objectified the female performer, it also allowed performers to defy Victorian social norms.64 Early female weightlifters suffered similar experiences; they were lampooned and labeled as “museum freaks.”65 In spite of considerable backlash, female strength performers redefined and helped propel strength as an acceptable form of physical activity for women.

Ivy Russell not only helped promote a new image for female athletes through her early career as a vaudeville performer, but she helped promote the sport of weightlifting internationally. Born in Surrey, England, in 1907, Russell became involved with strength at the age of fourteen. In her youth, Russell’s parents sought treatment after she fell ill with tuberculosis—the answer they sought came from a retired British Army physical trainer, A.E. Streeter, who helped invalids recuperate through strength training.66 Russell recovered from her maladies and quickly developed into a strong weightlifter. At the age of eighteen, she successfully clean and jerked 176 lbs. at a body weight of 125 lbs.

18

Russell emerged as a key figure in establishing competitive weightlifting for women in Europe.67 She “served to convince many other women, both in Britain and the

United States,” historian Jan Todd notes, “that strength and womanhood were not incompatible and that weightlifting was compatible with athletics.”68 As an athlete during the early twentieth century, Russell represented a new type of strong woman. Early vaudeville performers were traditionally women of great physiques with names as powerful as their bodies. In contrast, Russell carried a petite frame.69 Despite her diminutive stature, Russell’s dominance in the sport quickly placed her in the eyes of the media. Her exposure and achievements helped propel women’s weightlifting towards a position of popularity and even helped further sell the sport as an acceptable activity for ladies. Through her personal lobbying efforts, Russell pressured the British Amateur

Weightlifting Association (BAWLA) in 1932 to sanction the first ever women’s competition. Predictably, Russell went on to be crowned the “Nine Stone Ladies

Champion” of Great Britain.70

The mid twentieth-century proved to be a booming period for the sport of weightlifting. American entrepreneur Bob Hoffman created a weightlifting empire with the help of his privately owned company, York Barbell. In the words of historian John D.

Fair, “Hoffman’s patronage and organizational genius were almost singly responsible for the rise of American international weightlifting fortunes.”71 Hoffman established one of the first weightlifting gyms in the United States and distinguished himself as a shrewd businessman. He provided competitive weightlifters with financial security—allowing them to both work and work-out at his York Barbell facilities. In 1925 Hoffmann hosted

(what he proclaimed to be) the first ever weightlifting competition in the United States,

19 although history books cannot corroborate his story.72 He also made it his personal goal to establish the United States as a dominant force in international weightlifting competition. The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games marked the first step towards the realization of Hoffman’s ambition, as featherweight Anthony Terlazzo became the first

American to clinch an Olympic gold medal after winning the 60-kg weightlifting event.

This result, John Fair notes, proved that “the United States had really arrived as a world lifting power.”73

The pioneering Hoffman is not only credited with introducing American weightlifters to the world, but is also heralded for changing the way in which female weightlifters were perceived. While most of Hoffman’s influence can be seen through the work of his equipment business, York Barbell, his magazine Strength and Health became a popular household item and propelled images of female lifters into the nation’s imagination. Hoffman’s Strength and Health boasted a sizable readership, selling

110,000 copies per month by its eighth year of circulation.74 Readers eagerly sought training advice, training guides, information regarding the York team, and details about the latest strength training equipment in the magazine.

Aside from being a sagacious and successful businessman, Hoffman also earned a reputation for being a lady’s man. Historian Jan Todd writes, “It is possible to follow

Hoffman’s marital and extra-marital arrangements via the pages of Strength and Health in its first two decades.”75 Hoffmann had a reputation for including his current sexual conquest on the pages of his magazine; a decision that forced the image of beautiful muscular women into the homes of his avid readers and played a role in breaking down the barriers for women lifters. 76 As Todd asserts, “In Strength & Health, Hoffman used

20 photographs of female gymnasts, acrobats and adagio dancers who did barbell training with their husbands or fathers and these images helped break down some of the old prejudices about weights making women large, mannish and inflexible.”77 Hoffman began to incorporate the voices of female weightlifters into his magazine; he even added a column, written by his wife Rosetta that touched upon topics regarding the importance of fitness and also reaffirmed the traditional and expected roles of women as wives and mothers.78 The column, although widely believed to have been penned by Hoffmann and heavily rooted in the language of domesticity and traditional femininity, actually encouraged American audiences to accept the role of the “female athlete.” While

Hoffman used women as side-pieces to enhance and celebrate his own masculinity, the images of scantily-clad female athletes helped change the public’s attitudes toward the female body. By portraying women weightlifters in the way that he did, Hoffman shifted the public opinion on the kind of activities women were allowed to participate in.

Influenced by Hoffmann’s pioneering marketing, Abbye (“Pudgy”) Stockton, born on August 11, 1914, in Santa Monica, California, also helped transform the image of the American strength athlete. Standing at 5 ft. 2 in. and weighing 115 pounds, Stockton represented a new model of femininity.79 Unlike Ivy Russell, Stockton did not encounter strength training until later in life. After high school she joined the work force as a phone operator. Stockton noticed that the sedentary occupation resulted in weight gain (thus the nickname ‘Pudgy’). Consequently, husband-to-be and UCLA student, Les Stockton gave her weights to train with. Pudgy recalls her decision:

After I’d worked for a couple years for the phone company, my weight had gotten up to about 140 pounds, and I was concerned about it. Les persuaded me to start exercising. He bought me some dumbells and a York training course. I used the

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dumbells some and also did some calisthenics, but I quickly discovered that the acrobatic work was a lot more fun to do.80

The York program helped Pudgy develop into a recognizable figure in physical culture circles. Her hard work landed her on the covers of popular health and fitness magazines such as Hoffman’s Strength and Health and even mainstream magazines like Life.81 A caption of a photo in a 1940s issue of Strength and Health of Pudgy read, “This small little lady has strength equal to a much heavier man, yet retains a small . . . attractive physique . . . Further proof that heavy exercise, weightlifting, hand balancing and acrobatics will produce the ideal development for the ladies too.”82

Pudgy Stockton and her husband Les performed aerobic and strength acts which drew extensive media coverage as they started to organize performances on the beaches of California. “Pudgy and her boys” garnered so much popularity that they were even hired to perform at the UCLA vs USC football game in the fall of 1939.83 Soon reporters flocked to the shores of southern California for glimpses of the mighty-blonde- strongwoman. Women like Stockton, media scribes noted, could defend the home front and help the United States win the war.84 Pudgy’s fame eventually led to the development of her own column in Strength & Health, titled Barbelles. According to Jan Todd, this column contributed significantly to the growth and public acceptability of women’s weightlifting:

Though Pudgy’s place in history of women’s body building is secure on the merits of her own career, her S&H columns are also extremely important. Writing in what was then the largest magazine of its kind in the country, Stockton featured strong, attractive women who were also good athletes.85

Pudgy used her column as a platform to feature her friends from California, women who in addition to exhibiting attractive qualities, also excelled in athletics. Stockton belonged

22 to the new breed of female strength athlete; she appealed to everyday women, while her beauty persuaded men to join the gyms in order to get close to other female athletes like her. Together, the Stockton’s helped elevate Santa Monica, California, to the pinnacle of physical culture in the 1940s.86

The culture of Muscle Beach emerged within the new and eclectic communities of southern California. The growing entertainment business, coupled with the calm and warm California climate, lured newly established entrepreneurs, film makers and producers to Hollywood and its surrounding areas.87 The new occupants of the southland had accumulated wealth and were ready to spend it as they pleased in what would become known as the mecca of American health, leisure, and fashion. Hordes of young

Californians flooded the beaches in search of fashionable leisure and sporting activities.

It is here, on the sidewalk of southern California’s Santa Monica Beach, that weightlifting and bodybuilding found a home. Muscle Beach became the hub of

American fitness culture. It served not only as a place to exercise, but also as a place where new fitness trends and exercises were dispersed. It could also be argued that

Muscle Beach has continued to influence fitness movements even into the present era.88

Reflecting the democratic impulse of Californian life, Muscle Beach proved decidedly inclusive; it was free of charge and open to all, regardless of age and gender. Thus, female weightlifters and powerlifters found a place to openly display their feats of athleticism, strength, and physicality.

On Muscle Beach, Pudgy and a small troupe of female performers helped create a culture of female fitness that was unrivaled. As historian Tolga Ozyurtcu observes,

“[t]here was also possibility and freedom in the bodies of the athletes, the men and

23 women challenging conventions of physical beauty and entrenched beliefs about the effects of strenuous exercise.”89 Yet while female strength physique athletes like Pudgy

Stockton infiltrated the realm of Muscle Beach through acrobatic acts, feats of strength and bodybuilding exhibitions, their contributions were not enough to fully release the female athlete from the constraints of old-fashioned gender roles. After all, the female strength athlete was being sold as a hypersexualized Barbie doll juxtaposed with a larger- stronger male counterpart, this time with a few extra sets of muscles.90

Despite these prevailing cultural restraints, Pudgy Stockton persevered in her efforts to promote weightlifting and bodybuilding opportunities for U.S. women. Along with her husband, Les, Pudgy can also be credited for organizing the first official weightlifting meet for women in America held in Los Angeles on February 28, 1947, and sanctioned under the purview of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States (AAU).

The competition was comprised of three lifts: the press, snatch and clean and jerk.91 At the event, Stockton was able to successfully complete a 100 lbs. press, 105 lbs. snatch, and a 135 lbs. clean and jerk. The AAU also hosted two additional competitions in the

Los Angeles area within the next two years. The Southern California Open

Championship was the second of the two meets and it occurred in Long Beach, California on January 18, 1948, where five women competed in the three lift format. In addition to the two events mentioned above, six women also competed at an event in 1949 held at

Macy’s Gym in Los Angeles.92

Evidently, the converging international efforts of Bob Hoffman, Ivy Russell and the Stockton’s helped pave the way for what would soon be the rise of women’s weightlifting. Hoffman gave female strength athletes a platform where they could freely

24 participate in a sport that had long been made inaccessible. Aided by Hoffman’s patronage, athletes such Russell and Stockton used their fame, athleticism, and their voice to empower a new wave of female weightlifters.

Women Receive a Boost from Cold War Politics

The Cold War pursuit of Olympic medals created myriad opportunities for females in post-World War II sporting competition. Governments and sports officials on both sides of the Iron Curtain came to the realization that female athletes could also be employed as political pawns in the ideological battle for “hearts and minds.” As such, the

Cold War aided in promoting women’s participation in events traditionally reserved for men. As the Cold War intensified, the Soviet Union increased the size of its female contingent. At the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, the U.S.S.R sent a team of 295 athletes with 255 male athletes and forty females. Similarly, the United Sates selected a total of

286 participants, with 245 males and forty-one females.93 The trend continued throughout the subsequent meetings between the Soviet Union and the United States at the Olympic

Games. At the 1956 Melbourne Games, the distribution of male to female athletes remained the same.94 The size of teams also began to increase; in 1964 at the Games in

Tokyo, the number of badges reserved for both the Soviet team (578) and the USA team

(627) serves as evidence of the push to display nationalistic prowess. The only other nation to send a team of that size was Japan, who hosted the Games.95 The increasing number of athletes during the Cold War opened the door for the addition of new events for women to the Olympic program. From 1952 to 1988, thirteen events for women were added, including volleyball (1964), basketball (1976), and hockey (1980). In conjunction

25 with this, the number of women participants between 1952 and 1988 increased exponentially from 519 to 2,194.96

The Cold War also helped initiate conversations on femininity and gender. The pursuit of excellence by female Soviet athletes placed Western ideals at odds. As gender scholar Jaime Schultz notes, “not only was promoting intense training for women anathema to convention, but there were also anxieties about what effects it might have on the athlete’s femininity.”97 The Helsinki Games reflected the differing views on gender of both the Soviet Union and the United States. In 1952, the majority of Soviet women participated in track and field events, while the majority of American women competed in swimming events.98 The muscularity and dominance of Soviet women challenged

American notions of femininity, in the same fashion as African American athletes, Cahn notes, “thus two symbols of mannishness, black women and Russian ‘amazons’—stood in the foreground.”99 The Olympic Games exemplified the success of both body types in competition; Soviet women dominated in the heftier fields in comparison to the “more graceful” performance of the United States in sports like swimming and diving.100 This notion of the “other” resulted from the success of Communist women, who did not see themselves as bound by the “Western ‘Feminine Mystique.’” Rather, as political ambassadors of Socialism, Soviet female athletes were encouraged to welcome newly developed forms of training and new techniques, including the use of banned substances like steroids.101

Although steroid use did not pertain to a single sex, it created distinct problems for both males and female athletes. As sport scholar Susan Cahn explains: “while men are accused of using drugs to gain an unfair advantage, women are attacked for becoming

26 men.”102 Female athletes appeared to be held to a different standard than men. “The IOC turned its back on male athletes such as the weight lifters who ingested steroids to enhance their training programmes,” historian Kevin Wamsley opines. “Muscle mass was appropriate, even desired for some Olympic sports, but not women.”103 This double standard created a dichotomy where male dopers were seen as cheaters, while women were accused as being “gender transgressors,” who willingly sacrificed their sex in order to achieve athletic greatness.104

In 1962, the IOC established a Medical Commission that “in order to limit participation to appropriate women and natural participants . . . implemented both sex and doping controls.”105 The IAAF began sex testing in 1966, according to an article in Life magazine, because female performances in sport proved to be too close to those of men.106 Despite the concerns behind sex verification, there has only been one known case of a man attempting to compete as a woman. During the 1936 Berlin Games, German athlete Hermann Ratjent, disguised himself as a woman, after being forced by the Nazi

Party. 107 Consequently, while the Cold War managed to create numerous opportunities for female athletes, it failed to reform preexisting gender norms. In addition, it created a new dialogue which dealt with the predisposed notion of what a female athlete should look like, as well as dictated the level of women’s athletic success.

The American Female Athlete and Social Change

The American woman of the Cold War era found herself at odds. Much like the empowered Flappers and Suffragettes, women were propelled into roles that defied traditional gender norms. During the Second World War female physical educators became more interested in promoting recreational activities for women aimed at civilian

27 preparedness and national defense.108 After the conclusion of WWII, some women went back to their roles as keepers of the household, while others, historian Allen Guttmann observes, “were reluctant to surrender their newly discovered sense of competence and autonomy.”109 Betty Friedan highlighted “the problem that had no name” in The

Feminine Mystique (1963), postulating that women were “unhappy and unfulfilled in their roles as mothers and housewives”110

The sporting landscape of the 1960s and 1970s, however, did see a growth of female participation in sport in all levels of competition. This can be attributed in-part to the changing definition of womanhood. The social revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s, inspiring the Civil Rights, Black Power, Chicano, Gay Liberation, and American Indian movements, served to highlight the plight of marginalized and underrepresented groups in American society. Issues of gender equity stemmed from these movements, while efforts to emancipate women from the patriarchal restraints of American culture emerged from the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s. Activists promoted physical liberation, personal satisfaction, and also encouraged women to engage in activities that made them feel fulfilled. Women were openly prompted to play, run, and compete. A 1964 American

Medical Association report calling for increased physical activity for women and girls outside acceptable amounts gave further credence to the growing belief that women deserved a place alongside men on the field of competition.111

The passage of Title IX legislation by the Richard Nixon administration in 1972 also increased the number of opportunities for female athletes in the United States.112

Title IX stated that:

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No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefit of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance.113

Title IX signified the long awaited call for equality that female athletes had been fighting for. It created a new generation of female athletes. Female interest in athletics peaked at the time of the passage of Title IX. At the secondary school level, young girls flooded athletic teams showing an increase in participation of about five times the previous figure; similarly, the collegiate landscape witnessed the same type of influx with an increase between three to five times previous figures.114

Prior to Title IX, athletic programs across the country were undeniably one-sided.

A typical men’s program in a prestigious conference like the Big Ten received thirteen hundred dollars for every one dollar spent on the women’s program.115 To further show the disparity between allocations of funds, the University of Notre Dame, on the heels of

Title IX, “allotted $1 million for financial aid to male athletes and not a penny for the women.”116 Title IX was designed to change that. However, as much as Title IX legislators wanted to guarantee that federal funds were allocated fairly by athletic departments nationwide, opposition to the law and apathy toward compliance emerged as prominent issues. Title IX’s notorious reputation as “the possible doom of collegiate sport,” prevented the legislation from achieving the goal of parity.117 As historian

William J. Baker observes, “Once Title IX became a law, however, athletic directors were forced to walk the thin line between compliance with the law and protection of big money-making sports such as men’s football and basketball.”118 The belief that Title IX was meant to displace men’s programs fueled the negative attitudes expressed toward the legislation. In addition, supporters of Title IX received a saddening blow with an edit to

29 the language of the law. The new interpretation of the law only applied to federal money and not private funds, which meant that while men’s programs kept the funds they raised, only those funds that came from federal grants were to be split between the men’s and women’s teams.

The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) stood at the forefront of the fight for gender equity in the United States. In fact, no other organization can be credited for promoting women’s sport more than the AIAW.119 Succeeding the

Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (CIAW) in 1971, the AIAW was charged with governing and promoting major intercollegiate tournaments for women.120

The NCAA acted quickly to counter the success of the AIAW by voting to increase the number of national championships it offered, beginning with Division III schools and eventually Division II and Division I schools. 121 Not only did the NCAA open the doors to national competition, it also provided women’s sport with opportunities for revenue and media exposure (i.e. television contracts), something the AIAW could not match. The

NCAA’s move was presumed by many observers to be “an aggressive takeover attempt.”

The NCAA defended the move as being consistent with its “obligations” under Title IX.

If it sponsored men’s championships, it must also sponsor women’s” 122 The AIAW eventually succumbed to the pressures of the NCAA and conceded its claim to women’s intercollegiate sport in 1981. The fate of the AIAW again exemplified the repercussions of threatening male dominated sporting space. Ultimately, the AIAW’s successful tenure as the governing body of women’s intercollegiate athletics helped increase the attention on elite female competition.

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The Rise of Women Lifters

Against the backdrop of Cold War nationalistic tensions, as well as the battle at home for greater access to the field of sporting competition, American female strength athletes (influenced by the success of pioneering individuals on the beaches of California) began to join organizations like the United States of America Weightlifting Federation

(USWF)—the bureaucratic umbrella for Olympic weightlifting in the Unites States—, the

National Powerlifting Association, or the International Federation of Body Builders. Prior to the 1970s, women who wanted to compete did so freely within these organizations, yet no evidence directly indicates how many females participated within each sub division of strength sport. The lack of organization during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s had kept women strength athletes hidden; the 1970s changed this situation by providing an environment that helped increase female participation in strength sports. The winds of social change undeniably expanded opportunities for women in sport. However, gaining acceptance in sports that had since their inception been exclusively for men, proved to be a challenge. The image of steroids further branded the strength sporting environment as a place not fit for women; the fear of women taking part in the lifestyle of the male weightlifter made strength training socially unacceptable for women.123 Nonetheless, evidence suggest that those strength athletes who wanted to participate in organized competition did so through the sport of Powerlifting, a sport that differed form Olympic weightlifting. Powerlifting emphasized brute strength through three movements: the press, the back squat and the bench pres. In contrast, Olympic weightlifting focused on technical skill with movements like the snatch and the clean and jerk.

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Powerlifting is unique to the female strength athlete’s experience because it provided a space that welcomed women. Emerging during the late 1960s, powerlifting began to gain popularity within the United States.124 During the 1970s, Olympic weightlifting experienced a change in culture; a revolt from weightlifters against the influence of Bob Hoffman began to cause a divide within the sport. 125 The juvenile state of powerlifting provided the perfect avenue for women to exploit. A female powerlifter described her experience in the Los Angeles Times: “Men in power lifting are less chauvinistic than a lot of men. They admire the ladies who are doing the same things they are. The first thing I heard was, “Good. Women in the sport will give it some class.”126

However, the welcoming nature of powerlifting did not erase the fact that in order to compete, women had to do so alongside the men.127 In an interview, Jan Todd shared her experience as a competitive lifter: “in 1973, there weren’t many women who lifted competitively and no women’s competitions in powerlifting. A few women competed at men’s meets, but some of the men did not like that idea”128 Despite the mixed opinions regarding women and powerlifting, the AAU sanctioned the first women’s meet in

1978.129 The acceptance of women into powerlifting grew overnight. As John Fair puts it,

“by 1979 women, like the men, were lifting in kilos and planning a women’s world championship.”130 The increase in participation of women in, Powerlifting helped open the door for women into different types of strength sports, especially Olympic

Weightlifters. By the late 1970s, women began to actively participate in Olympic weightlifting meets. Much like in Powerlifting, female competitors did so in men’s meet, female weightlifters saw the need to organize.131

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Women’s sport in the twentieth century underwent tremendous changes. Women lived in a world deeply rooted in patriarchal attitudes, often promulgated by men in positions of power. When faced with adversity, female athletes stepped forward to control their sporting experience. Nonetheless, evidence supports the recurring power struggle regarding male hegemony over women’s sport. Despite their continuous marginalization, women made significant strides in sport and they did so by redefining femininity, creating spaces exclusive for female athletes as well as by continuing to strive for parity. Furthermore, female weightlifters were aided by the series of events that took place during the decades following the Second World War. The social changes that occurred outside of sport made it possible and increasingly acceptable for females to compete in a space that had historically been reserved and occupied by men. However, there were still prejudices that prevented women from fully infiltrating the competitive platform. Ultimately, female lifters dreamt of international national competition as the end game. The events leading up to the 1980s were just the beginning for female competitors; the real dream was the Olympic platform.

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CHAPTER 3

AN AMERICAN DREAM GOES GLOBAL

“The 2000 Olympic Games was truly the crowning glory. I was so excited to see these women finally get their chance to be part of this wonderful event. Sometimes it was hard for me to focus on my job as part of the jury as I thought of all we had gone through to get here. I was awe struck to be part of this momentous occasion.”132 -Judy Glenney

In 1983 Karyn Marshall participated in the third annual Women’s National

Championship, held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.133 At the meet, Marshall competed in the

82.5 kg class and completed a 77.5 kg snatch and an American record setting clean and jerk of 95 kg.134 Other female athletes matched Marshall’s exemplary performance.

Lorna Griffin an 82.5 kg lifter, who completed an 82.5 kg snatch and a 105 kg clean and jerk, also impressed the crowds.135 Yet, despite the accomplishments of female American lifters and their staging of annual national championships, critics believed that women had not proven themselves in the sport. Speaking after the 1983 National Championship, commentator and coach Mark LeMenager noted that since Katie Sandwina had managed to clean and jerk 130 kg in a vaudeville act seventy-five years prior, the performances of

U.S. women in Wisconsin were unimpressive. “Until you beat at least that lift,”

LeMenager opined, “you have little to fuss about.”136 Karyn Marshall took what

LeMenager said to heart. On April 20, 1985, she set the Guinness World Record in the clean and jerk, with a weight of 303 lbs., surpassing that of Sandwina by 17 lbs.137 The attitude of LeMenager’s and a cadre of male commentators plagued the women

34 weightlifting movement throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Like Marshall, however, the resolve of female lifters proved stronger and carried their sport onto the Olympic

Program.

The Ladies Carry the Weight

Prior to 1980, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) controlled women’s weightlifting, along with powerlifting and bodybuilding.138 Through the efforts of Mabel

Rader and Judy Glenney the women’s Olympic weightlifting program eventually joined the ranks of the United Sates Weightlifting Federation (USWF) in 1980. Born in June 17,

1917, Mabel Rader, like previous pioneers of strength, did not take up weight training on her own initiative. Peary, Rader’s husband, first introduced her to weight lifting. “I thought it was the dumbest thing I ever saw in my life! I couldn’t get him to quit, so if you can’t change’em, join’em,” Mabel Rader recalled.139 Together, Mabel and Peary operated an equipment manufacturing company and founded Iron Man magazine (1936), which rivaled Bob Hoffman’s Strength and Health magazine. In addition, both Peary and

Mabel served as AAU referees; Mabel was the first woman weightlifting referee in the history of the AAU.140 Several decades later, Mabel Rader used her influence to lobby for the development of a women’s national championship at the USWF Weightlifting

Committee meeting.141

Rader’s commitment to women’s weightlifting inspired a new generation of female advocates like Judy Glenney. Born in 1949, in Portland, Oregon, Glenney became an avid supporter and participant of women’s weightlifting. Influenced by future- husband, Gary Glenney, she began her career in the sport of weightlifting. “I’d always been impressed by strength,” Judy confessed, “[Gary] offered me a program and I ate it

35 up!”142 While work with the USWF did not begin until the mid-1980s, Glenney helped promote and advocate for the inclusion of women in the sport.

Women in the U.S. gained a small victory when the USWF sanctioned the first

National Championship in 1981 held in Waterloo, Iowa.143 Twenty- nine women competed in Milwaukee. Judy Glenny set herself apart from the sub-par technical skill of the field, with a 75 kg snatch and a 97.5 kg clean and jerk; a performance that earned her the top lifter award as well as respect of male USWF members.144 This inaugural national championship event proved to be a success. In the words of Judy Glenney: “The whole idea was to get the sport off the ground and that was definitely accomplished.”145

The competition illustrated that women lifters possessed both the skill and the quantity to organize and be competitive. Impressed by the inaugural national championship, Murray Levine, the president of the USWF, expressed his personal commitment to the development of the women’s program:

As many of you have heard by now, it was I who broke the tie at the board meeting to approve women’s weightlifting, so I am committed to ensure that your program gets off the ground in good fashion.146

Levine later revealed the true reasoning behind his decisions: “I was worried that if we didn’t do something, we’d get sued. A lot of guys were opposed to the women lifting and so they made them weigh in while nude in front of male judges and things like that.”147

The attitudes conveyed by Levine, signified the desperate need for women lifters to organize.

As Levine acknowledged, the success of women lifters at the national championship garnered support from the male-dominated USWF.148 Rader embraced the support of the USWF, opining that the women’s program benefited from the

36 collaboration with the men’s program. “So long as we are under the men (and I feel we must be for some time yet because of Insurance, USWF card, and other things that the

Men’s organization does for us),” Rader noted, “we cannot have an election for a

Chairman.”149 The women’s weightlifting program depended on the men’s program. As a result, the new financial and organizational resources provided by the USWF helped the women’s program grow. In 1982, the USWF hosted a second Women’s National

Championship, in St. Charles, Illinois. The St. Charles championship hosted approximately double the number of lifters as the previous year. Glenney continued her success, earning a second place finish in the best-lifter category, and a first place finish in her weight class with a total of 167.5 kg.150

After the realization of their dream of organizing a national championship, Rader and Glenney continued to push for inclusion on the international stage. Weightlifting

USA, the official publication of the USWF, proved to be a prime asset in the fight for the inclusion of women lifters in both international and Olympic championships. Glenney established her voice as a regular feature within the magazine’s pages. Through a column titled “Women’s Lifting,” Glenney reached not only the female lifters, but the men as well. Her column served to inform women lifters of new training techniques, disperse information regarding the development of the women’s program, create conversation amongst female lifters, as well as suggest new possibilities for the women’s program. In the 1983 winter issue of the magazine, Glenney outlined her vision for the future development of the sport. “One issue that I had several questions and comments about,”

Glenney wrote, “was that of a training center for women. I would love to see something like this develop where women lifters could come together and exchange ideas and get

37 help with specific problems.”151 Through her writings, Glenney had emerged as the leading figure in the fight for gender equality in the sport of weightlifting. During the late months of 1983, for reasons that are unknown, Rader stepped down from her position as the Chairwoman of the USWF’s Women’s Subcommittee, passing the torch to Glenney as the leading advocate for the advance of women’s weightlifting. The early years of the

1980s proved to be a period of notable growth for women’s weightlifting. Nevertheless, the sport still had room to grow; the prospect of an international and Olympic championship remained a distant goal.

Toward the International Platform

At the time when U.S. female lifters made their revolutionary entrance into the sport, women’s weightlifting still did not fall under the governance of the International

Weightlifting Federation (IWF). Outside of the United States, the number of National

Weightlifting Federations (NWFs) that housed a woman’s weightlifting program remained uncertain. The rise of the women’s Olympic weightlifting program within the

United Sates, however, generated considerable attention; thus making it difficult for the

IWF to ignore. Prior to her retirement as Chairwomen of the USWF’s Women’s

Subcommittee, Mable Rader spent two years harassing the IWF for a response on the formal adoption of women’s weightlifting.152 The three U.S. national championships

Rader organized, helped strengthen her appeals to the IWF.

On November 23, 1983, Dr. Tamas Ajan, the General Secretary of the IWF, informed Mabel Rader to pass on the news that the IWF would sanction women’s weightlifting, but only under the following conditions: 1. The IWF recognized women’s weightlifting but only through the centralized authority of national weightlifting

38 federations; 2. The IWF needed to create special rules for the women’s category (i.e. bodyweight classes and age groups); 3. The establishment of an international women’s championship depended on the commitment of at least twelve to fifteen guaranteed participants.153 Recognition by the IWF gave the movement hope of a potential international women’s weightlifting championship. In order to comply with a request made by the IWF Judy Glenney drafted a letter addressed to all National Weightlifting

Governing Bodies (NWGB) in an effort to determine how many nations housed women’s programs. Glenney inquired:

To see what kind of response we would get on a worldwide basis, the women’s committee of the USWF will be sponsoring a postal program in 1984 . . . We are interested in knowing if you have a women’s program already established. We would like for you to delegate someone to send to us the 1984 efforts of the women in each bodyweight category. In turn, we’ll mail back to you at the end of 1984 a listing of the best women’s lifting in the world, plus awards. We hope that this effort is the forerunner of a worldwide women’s movement and the forerunner of a true world championship.154

The letter reached a total of 120 different nations, however, the results proved meagre. In total, Glenney received a combined eighteen responses and only a handful of legitimate lifting totals to quantify for the proposed program.155 Unfazed, Glenney reassured her readers on the pages of Weightlifting USA: “this may not seem too encouraging but let me put it in perspective. Most nations responding were not of the Eastern bloc countries; many barely had a men’s team. With just a few exceptions, they were giving us their total support and said they would be glad to help make women’s weightlifting an Olympic sport.”156 The letters that Glenney received at least showed that weightlifting competitions took place outside of the United States, including Australia, Great Britain and China.157 Reporter Wendy Long of the Vancouver Sun also revealed the existence of women weightlifting events in Canada.158 Despite the dismal amount of feedback

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Glenney received, it proved enough to at least maintain a line of conversation with the

IWF regarding the recognition and the creation of an international women’s weightlifting championship.

Another small victory for Judy Glenney and, by association, the USWF Women’s

Committee, came in 1984 when she completed the requirements to earn the title of Class

II International referee. A posting in Weightlifting USA commended her great achievement as, “the first and only woman in the world to hold an International Referee

Card.”159 Putting more women into administrative positions helped make the case for the inclusion of women’s weightlifting, not only as a national possibility, but an international one as well. Also in 1984, the IWF made a significant change to its constitution: “the term ‘Weightlifting . . . only for men’ was deleted.” It also added language that allowed for the potential of future female weight-classes.160 The constitutional modification to include women paved the way, at least on paper, for women’s integration into international competition.

The following year, in 1985, Dr. Ajan informed the USWF that the IWF intended to add a women’s only international tournament scheduled to be held in Budapest,

Hungary on March 23, 1986. Dr. Ajan revealed his organization’s true motives in a letter to Glenney: “by this [tournament] we wish to size up the interest of the ladies for this kind of activity and weigh the possibility and chances of a future World

Championship.”161 The tournament showed that women’s competition attracted a growing amount of international attention; twenty-three women representing a total of five countries, including China, Hungary, Great Britain, Canada and the United States, participated.162 With the financial support of both the U.S. Olympic Foundation and the

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Women’s Sport Foundation, a U.S. team coached by Judy Glenney, excelled at the international Pannonian tournament in Budapest. Colleene Colley (60.0 kg) and Arlys

Kovach (67.5 kg) earned first place in their respective class.163 In addition to her dominating performance, Kovach earned the title of best lifter out of the entire field.164

The women’s tournament received an abundance of positive reactions and praises, specifically from Aldo Bergamaschl, the inaugural president of the IWF:

I am seventy-four and have seen much, but not yet this! Life goes on and the women claim a place for themselves in many territories among these in the world of sports. Weightlifting must also acknowledge this fact . . . As women got opportunities in other sports, weightlifting can be no exception.165

The Pannonia tournament in Budapest met the expectations for IWF membership outlined by Dr. Ajan. Furthermore, the performances of the female lifters generated enough support which led to a secondary tournament held the following year in Budapest on March 8, 1987.166 The prospect of an IWF international championship moved closer to a reality.

The events of the early 1980s culminated in the approval of the first IWF

Women’s World Championship held in Daytona Beach, Florida on October 30, 1987.

Illustrating the rapid growth of women’s weightlifting, one hundred participants from twenty-two nations competed. 167 The event proved to be a success for the United States as it produced its first world champion: Karyn Marshall earned a gold medal in the 82.5 kg class.168 USWF president Murray Levine praised the competition: “The event itself was well-organized and perfectly staged thanks to the combined efforts of the USWF, the

IWF, your national office staff and the Daytona Beach Sports Organizing Committee. All the foreign guest were favorably impressed.”169 Similarly, the IWF celebrated the event, calling it “a dynamic development, a great future, and that it was the most progressive

41 feature of the sport today”170 Women weightlifters also generated attention from media outlets such as ESPN which aired coverage of the world championships twice following the event, on both December 20, 1987 and on January 1, 1988.171 The IWF and the

USWF’s positive outlook on the inaugural women’s IWF World Championship silenced rumors that this event would be a one-time thing. In Fact, the IWF soon dismissed the rumors entirely when it announced that a confirmed second international championship was scheduled to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia.172

The 1980s proved the most pivotal period in the history of women’s weightlifting.

The women’s program of the USWF went from nonexistent in the early 1980s to an estimated 150 registered women weightlifters, including a significant number of international hopefuls.173 In addition, women gained recognition by both national and international organizations and actively competed at an elite level in a sport historically reserved for men.

Once women gained international recognition, the IWF took the reins. Dr. Ajan informed Glenney of the IWF’s plans to seize complete organizational and administrative control of international women’s weightlifting:

The IWF Executive Board decided that the ladies’ activities are now so widely spread that they have to be directed from the IWF secretariat. So we are trying to take over the lot from you, but of course we continue to count on your expert help in the future and will consult you in any major items.174

The IWF embraced their job as promoters of women’s weightlifting. Dr. Ajan informed

Glenney of a proposed plan to encourage other NWF to establish women’s programs alongside the men’s by issuing a newsletter.175 Dr. Ajan’s plan bore significant fruit.

Weightlifting USA reported that in 1987 South Korea now supported a women’s program and a month after its inception held its first national women’s competition.176 Over the

42 next few years, the IWF continued to oversee the evolution and growth of women’s weightlifting.

Petitioning the IOC

The next logical step for women’s weightlifting involved the pursuit of Olympic recognition. Since Mabel Rader and Judy Glenney first launched the movement for female inclusion, their focus centered upon the Olympics Games. To realize this dream, women’s weightlifting still needed to establish itself as a legitimate, elite-level global sport. In 1987, a determined Glenney called upon the IWF to petition the International

Olympic Committee (IOC) for the recognition of a women’s Olympic program.

Perceiving that women’s weightlifting had not yet arrived as a fully-developed, international sport, the IWF preferred to adopt a more cautious approach. IWF General

Secretary Dr. Ajan wrote to Glenney, outlining why the request for inclusion needed to wait: first, the Olympic program remained closed for six years prior to the upcoming

Olympic year, meaning women’s weightlifting could not be added to the 1988 or the

1992 Olympics. Second, the sport appeared as a tough sell to the IOC, mainly because of the lack of exact information regarding the number of international participants. “One of the requirements to be present at the Games,” Dr. Ajan noted, “is that the sport in question should be practiced in min. 50 countries of the world!”177 Third, the IWF intended to measure the success of the first two to three world championships before submitting an application to the IOC. Finally, and most importantly, Dr. Ajan noted that

“at this moment the IWF Executive Board does not support the idea at all, because the

Olympic year is always full of events, too crowded!”178 In order to make progress Judy

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Glenney and the women’s weightlifting movement needed to wait and focus on national affairs.

Yet, despite the growth of women weightlifting in the U.S., frictions soon developed between the women’s and the men’s programs over the issue of coaching.

Athlete development began to change as coaches focused exclusively on men or female lifters. Common thought focused on the idea that physical differences between men and women gave each sex an advantage when it came to being coachable. As Naum

Kelmansky, a Russian immigrant and coach of Karyn Marshall, declared: “Women lifters are more sensitive than men. If you shout at them, they quit. Men have bigger upper bodies, which enable them to lift more weight. But women have better flexibility and are easier to coach.”179 Whether Kelmansky reflected the views of the larger community or not, the issue of preference existed amongst coaches, resulting in a gender divide. This division made it difficult for those who coached both males and females, forcing them to spend twice as much time traveling to the men’s and female championships.180

In order to accommodate both athletes and coaches, USWF officials believed that combining the two championships benefited the organization. “This would allow more people to take part in the national meetings, more officials would be available, and it would also serve to better acquaint both athletes and officials with the women’s program,” the USWF reasoned.181 As chair of the USWF’s Women’s Committee,

Glenney also believed that combining the two championships benefited women lifters in terms of exposure. In her February 1, 1988 newsletter, Glenney explained her reasoning.

“Another important aspect,” she opined, “is the fact that the national meetings take place at this time and we really need the women to be there to support the women’s program.

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This is a chance to get the ‘inside’ view of what happens and what kind of decisions get made.”182 The combined men’s and women’s championship took place in St. Louis Park,

Minnesota from April 30 to May 2, 1988. According to Glenney, the event turned out to be a notable success and signified the continued growth of women’s weightlifting.

The Case for the Female Body

The popularity of women’s weightlifting both nationally within the United States and internationally eventually satisfied the requirements of the IWF. In 1989, Dr. Ajan submitted a request to the IOC Programme Commission to include women in the

Olympic Games.183 As Dr. Ajan recalled, however, the IOC rejected the petition:

The IOC members do not know what female weightlifting is, or if some do have an idea, this has been based on the impression of a competition fragment of 15-20 minutes” further, “the other reason is . . . that the IOC wish to review the whole Olympic programme, inclusion the women’s events, globally for the 2000 Olympic Games.184

Undeterred, the IWF submitted a new petition the following year for the adoption of women’s Olympic weightlifting. Dr. Ajan provided detailed arguments as to why Mr.

Vitali Smirnov, Chairman of the IOC Programme Committee, needed to consider the inclusion of women’s weightlifting. Dr. Ajan’s first argument centered on the fact that women’s participation in the sport of weightlifting had increased exponentially; the number of countries that arranged women’s competitions now ranged between fifty-five and sixty counties. Second, Ajan argued, the IOC would not have to award a significant amount of new medals; only the top three of nine categories required them. Lastly, and most importantly, the IWF guaranteed the IOC that it would make any necessary cuts to the men’s program in order to accommodate the introduction of women weightlifters.185

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To further strengthen his argument, Dr. Ajan presented a report on the current status of women’s weightlifting in order to educated the IOC on women’s weightlifting and counteract IOC claims that it did “not have an idea” about what the sport entailed.

The IWF provided the IOC with a list of international tournaments that held competitions for women’s weightlifting, including the South-East Asian, the European Community

Championship E.E.C., the Mediterranean, the South-Pacific, the South-Asian Federation, and the Commonwealth Games, as justification for the sports inclusion on the Olympic program.186 Evidence of these international tournaments not only served to illustrate the growth of the women’s program but also showed the influence of the women’s program on the sport of weightlifting. As Dr. Ajan reported:

Women have erased “white spots” on the world’s map of weightlifting: several countries which had been out of the medal reach with their male weightlifters are now scoring remarkable success thanks to their female competitors, like Columbia, Cameroon, India, Indonesia, Greece, USA, Great Britain, France, Korea, Chinese Taipei, etc.187

The IWF found that the women’s program became a reviving force for the sport of weightlifting in many countries around the world. To further help the cause, the IWF drove home the fact that weightlifting for men as an Olympic sport held a rich history dating back to the creation of the modern Olympic Games in 1896.

Prevailing misconceptions over the fragility of the female body continued to plague women weightlifters. The main problem revolved around the notion that elite performance posed significant damage to the female reproductive system. The Soviet magazine Sovyetsky Sport published an article in 1987 titled, “Is it Necessary to Cross the

Rubicon?” in which it dismissed the IWF’s pursuit of earning Olympic recognition for women in the sport of weightlifting. The article echoed the same misguided and

46 patriarchal beliefs that historically kept women from riding bicycles, playing basketball, and running footraces. It expressed concern about the effects that lifting heavy weights had on the “delicate female organism” and claimed sensationally that women who lift weights “risk never becoming a mother.”188 In the backdrop of Cold War tensions, the article condemned the United States for pushing forward a sport where so little research had been undertaken. Either way, these concerns likely mirrored the attitudes of the predominately male IOC officials who would vote on the inclusion of women’s weightlifting.

The perceived capacities of the female body had long influenced the IOC’s attitudes towards the inclusion of women’s sport. Female weightlifters found themselves in an almost identical fight female marathon runners had earlier experienced.189 Prior to

1984, women remained excluded from the Olympic marathon, on reasons that emphasized the unfeminine nature of running, as well as the prolonged “myth of female frailty.”190 Since the 1500-meter race, the longest distanced allowed by the IOC, did not satisfy the needs for female runner, women began to “crash” marathon races. 191

Katherine Switzer represented the most notable marathoner crasher. At the 1967 Boston

Marathon she registered for the race under the alias “K.V Switzer,” and completed the arduous 26.2 mile course much to the disgust of the male meet officials.192 The athletic feats of Switzer, followed by an entire generation of female long-distance runners, eventually prompted the IOC to sanction a women’s marathon. The event made its official debut at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, marking a significant step forward in the history of women’s sport and the fight for gender equality.

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Despite the success of female marathoners, weightlifting entered the 1990s under continued scrutiny from the IOC as it pondered the sport’s inclusion onto the Olympic program. An article from the Star Tribune in Minnesota focused on the sport’s negative image, which came from its continuous link to performance-enhancing drugs. “After the

’88 Games, there was talk of kicking weightlifting out of the Olympics,” the article claimed.193 The blight of steroids and the perceived health risks to female athletes became a growing concern, making it difficult for the IWF to convince the IOC to back the sport.

However, the IWF stood behind women’s weightlifting and supported its female athletes with its petition:

Medical doctors have confirmed that weightlifting, is practiced properly, is not harmful for the female body or organism. Injuries among women weightlifters are very rare, in fact even less frequent than among their male counterparts. The fact that competitive weightlifting has no negative effect on women is spectacularly proven e.g. by US lifter Sibby Harris who had attended the first two world championships, then had a healthy baby born, then returned and took fourth place in this year’s championships (44kg).194

The IWF also pledged to stand behind the IOC’s doping regulations, vowing to cooperate fully and enforce the guidelines. Dr. Ajan informed the IOC that women’s weightlifting maintained the same standards as the men, who followed IWF anti-doping controls and subjected athletes to testing at IOC regulated laboratories.195 The IWF also ensured that the results of the women remained untainted at the time of the request. Despite the IWF’s promise of compliance, the IOC’s stance did not change.196

The Fight Must Go On!

The retirement of Judy Glenney as Chair of the USWF’s Women’s Committee failed to curb the fight for Olympic inclusion. Under the leadership of Stephanie

Armitage, a former weightlifter, the Women’s Committee continued to pursue avenues to

48 help grow the sport within the U.S.197 In 1989, the United States Olympic Committee

(USOC) helped organize an Olympic festival, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on July 23,

1989.198 The Olympic festivals served as a way to acclimate U.S. weightlifters with large competition settings.199 The Olympic festival also helped create more exposure for women’s weightlifting.200 The U.S women’s team certainly benefitted from the experience as seven U.S. athletes qualified for the 1989 IWF World Championships, in

Manchester, England, on November 22.201 Weightlifting USA reported that the U.S. team finished third overall, earning nine medals (one gold, three silver and five bronze).202

When Stephanie Armitage short tenure as chair of the USWF Women’s

Committee came to an end in 1991, the new leadership board again focused its attention on Olympic inclusion. Under the leadership of Karyn Marshall and Peter Marshall, the revamped Women’s Committee entered 1991 determined to increase the participation of women weightlifters by selling the sport to high school athletes as a way to increase fitness, enhance performance in athletics, and provide an additional sporting avenue to pursue.203 The position of women’s weightlifting within the U.S. consolidated further following the USWF’s decision in 1992 to appoint its first female Executive Board member, Lynne Stoessel, an avid weightlifting athlete.204 The election of a female onto the Executive Board marked a great milestone for U.S. women’s weightlifting; while

USWF had previously shown great support for women’s weightlifters, the addition of a woman’s voice within the leadership ranks meant that women held power within the organization. In true pioneering fashion, Stoessel wasted no time in doing her part to push women’s weightlifting into the Olympic program.

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In 1992, Stoessel, reached out to the weightlifting community in Georgia, a state which housed popular weightlifting training centers, to garner support for women’s weightlifting. In her letter she asked for athletes and coaches to reach out to the Atlanta

Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) to consider including the women’s program in the 1996 Atlanta Games.205 To support her plea, Stoessel cited the Olympic Charter as further ammunition:

In exceptional cases, and subject to the agreement of the IF (International Federation) concerned and the OCOG (Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games), the IOC may depart from the time limits laid down . . . in order to include a discipline or event in the programme of the Olympic Games of one specific Olympiad (Olympic Charter. 1991, p.53)206

Stoessel noted that the addition of women’s weightlifting did not require additional venues or resources, that women competed on the same platforms as men, and also used the same referees ensuring that the IOC did not have to allocate resources for those needs.

In addition, she reached out to American IOC Executive Board Member, Anita DeFrantz, making the case that “[t]he inclusion of women in the Olympic Weightlifting Program has important implications.” Stoessel noted further that “the undeniable message entwined in this event is that the barriers to women’s involvement in sport are irreparably broken.”207 Stoessel believed that the addition of women’s weightlifting to the 1996

Atlanta Olympic Games, served as the perfect platform to bring forth the issue of gender equality in sport. 208 Stoessel suggested that DeFrantz support a petition for adding the women’s weightlifting event to the program of Olympic events in Atlanta209

A rival petition by the U.S. Golf Association (USGA) for the recognition of an

Olympic golf event looked to stymie Stoessel’ efforts.210 When women’s soccer also attempted to join the 1996 Olympic program, Stoessel expressed her frustrations:

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No doubt about it, the admission of a sport (as in the case of golf), or an event within a sport (as in the case of women’s soccer/weightlifting) in the Olympic Games is a highly political affair that requires the satisfaction of numerous criteria at several administrative levels. The history of the movements to include both golf and women’s soccer in the Olympics are uncharacteristically short, especially in light of their relative “success” this far. For instance, the World Amateur Golf Council (international federation for golf) was first recognized by the IOC in 1991. Women’s soccer has yet to fulfill the criteria for admission as an event; they have had one world championship (1992) and are scheduled to have a second in 1995.211

Stossel and the USWF saw the consideration of both golf and soccer as a slap in the face.

After all women’s weightlifting had a long standing history of national and international competitions. In contrast the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of soccer, only recognized women’s soccer six months prior to filing the petition to the IOC.212 IOC President Samaranch personally supported the deal with

FIFA. “Normally, it would be too late to accept women’s soccer already for the 1996

Games,” Samaranch declared, “but we are working with FIFA (the international governing body of soccer) on an entire soccer package for Atlanta the will possibly include women’s soccer.”213 Women’s soccer went on to gain Olympic status in 1996, while the IOC thwarted the dreams of Olympic golf.214 The motivation behind the IOC’s rabid support of women’s soccer remains open to interpretation, yet, the IOC did not hesitate when called to make a deal with the world’s most popular, telegenic, and financially lucrative sport. Despite these continued setbacks, the USWF remained steadfast. USWF Executive president George Greenway outlined his support for Olympic recognition in a letter to IWF National Federations: “[The women] have proved themselves worthy of international recognition. They have established themselves as deserving athletes—deserving a chance at the most coveted prize of all athletic contests:

The Olympic Gold.”215

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1996: The Year of the Woman

In December, 1995, the IOC created a “Working Group on Women and Sport” to fulfil a recommendation that stemmed from a meeting at the IOC Centennial Congress, held in Paris.216 The IOC Centennial Congress, made several recommendations to the formative Working Group on Women’s sports regarding the status of women within the

Olympic Movement. In Paris, the Session expressed a desire for the IOC to:

Invite the National Federations, the International Federations, the National Olympic Committees and other national organizations to ensure that women serve in the various executive sports bodies in order to ensure them to make a significant contribution to the evolution of sport and the Olympic Movement, [Furthermore] It encouraged women to participate in sport and to become integrated within sport organizations.217

In Paris, the IOC articulated a new shift in priorities in order to create new opportunities for women and advance the push for gender equality.

In the spirit of the IOC Centennial Congress recommendations, the USOC hosted a two weekend conference from March 21-June 2, 1996 that centered upon facilitating an increase in the participation of women and minorities in “leadership” roles within its ranks.218 A total of twenty-five women and twenty-minorities (men and women) attended the “Project Gold” program. The USOC spent $100,000 on the project, a figure that signified its importance.219 Sandy Knapp, Chair of the USOC’s women’s task force expressed her approval: “We want them (Project Gold Graduates) to be well informed, well prepared, absolutely capable of chairing a committee or stepping into some other

USOC leadership role.”220 The program lectured participants on the inner workings of the

USOC, from dealing with sponsorships, licensing, drug control and sports medicine.221

The Project Gold program echoed the attitudes within the IOC toward the increase in integration of women in administrative roles. Judy Glenney, who attended the program

52 shared her opinions with Dr. Leroy Walker, president of the USOC: “I thank you for the opportunity to attend the first Project Gold. I felt it was quite instructive and inspirational

. . . It certainly gave me a much bigger picture of the general organization of the

USOC.”222

At the 105th IOC Session in which took place during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic

Games, gender equality remained an important agenda issue.223 IOC Executive Board member Anita DeFrantz, informed her colleagues about a planned Women in Sports

Conference to be held in Lausanne, Switzerland on October 13.224 The IOC’s decision to stage a woman in sports conference emerged following pressure from a group called

Atlanta Plus, who called for full gender equality in Olympic sport. Founded by four

French women, the activist group Atlanta Plus denounced the IOC for its lack of support for sport in Islamic countries, and also demanded that the IOC to ban those countries that did not include women participants.225 Atlanta Plus even appeared at the 1996 Olympic

Games in protest. Additionally, USWF Protester were seen at the weightlifting venue during the super-heavy weight event, holding signs that read “Where is women’s weightlifting?” demanding action.226

The Fruits of Their Labor

Following the 1996 Olympic Games, the first Women in Sports Conference took place in Lausanne, Switzerland. Championed by Anita DeFrantz, the conference raised issues regarding the invisibility of women athletes and administrators, and also called for greater awareness on how to enhance the experience of women in sport. The conference also made considerations on the expansion of the Olympic program to include an equal number of events for men and women, urging the IOC to “[Recognize] that the Olympic

53 ideal cannot be fully realized without, and until there is, equality for women within the

Olympic Movement.”227

The hosting of a Women in Sport conference inspired the November 14, 1996 decision of the IOC Executive Board during a meeting in Cancun, Mexico, to approve the participation of women weightlifters in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.228 The IWF expressed its delight with the IOC’s decision. A jubilant Dr. Ajan enthused, “The ladies have become a strong and integral part of weightlifting. We are also please to notice a responsive attitude by the media and marketing sources to our weightlifting ladies- a phenomenon we must exploit further”.229 Yet, the IOC’s ruling received vehement backlash from a section of the public still versed in exclusionary and patriarchal values.

Women were not immediately welcomed into this masculine space. Male observers took aim at the infantile state of the sport, as well as the minimal number of women participants. “The lack of depth in the emergence of the women’s weight classes is ridiculous,” one commentator derided.230 The negative attitudes toward women’s weightlifting stemmed from the conditions the IOC forced on the IWF when it approved women’s inclusion. In order to allocate space for women, the IWF needed to cut back the number of male spots.231 The changes to the program came in the form of reduced body weight classes.232 The conditions reflected the IOC’s ongoing concern over available space within the Olympic program.

American weightlifters dealt with unsurmountable pressure in the years leading up to the 2000 Sydney Games. The United States, the pioneers of female weightlifting, needed to live up to expectations. As Bob Takano, the coach of the U.S. women’s team, expressed:

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Wasn’t the U.S. the birthplace of women’s competition, the site of the first World Championship? Wasn’t it last year we dropped out of the top three for the first time? Could we regain our rightful place among the world’s best?233

Takano’s words resonated with weightlifter Meg Ritchie-Stone, who expressed her concerns regarding the difference in styles between American and European lifters.234

Richie-Stone illustrated that U.S. female lifters, trained at excessively low strength levels in comparison to lifters in European countries.235 As a result of those practices, Richie-

Stone warned, “women’s lifting will continue to have its butt kicked by countries who no to treat all women like Southern belles.”236 Once again American weightlifters needed to prove that they belonged among the world’s best.

The USWF welcomed the pressure, noting that “USA Weightlifting . . . will be working towards fielding a very strong team at the 2000 Olympic Games.”237 One athlete pivotal to the success of the U.S. team in Sydney was seventeen-year-old-medal-hopeful

Cheryl Haworth. Sports Illustrated conducted several pieces Haworth in the months leading up to the Sydney Games.238 She also appeared in pieces in both the New York

Times and Los Angeles Times. In addition, Haworth made appearances on “The Tonight

Show,” “Live with Regis and Kathee Lee,” “The Today Show,” and even earned a photo session with coveted photographer, Annie Leivobitz.239 Perhaps Haworth’s large stature had something to do with the amount of attention she received. At seventeen years old,

Haworth weighed 300 lbs.240 For those who are trained in the art that is weightlifting, a

300 lbs. athlete is not a surprise; after all, in order to lift heavy weight, athletes need to meet those demands. Yet, the public seemed obsessed with Haworth. “It’s not easy being female and trying to make it in a man’s sport. It’s not easy being a young woman of substantial girth in a society that worships pretzel models,” she remarked.241

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Despite the media attention, Cheryl Haworth helped secure one of the first female

Olympic weightlifting medals, when she earned a bronze in the super-heavyweight class.242 Not only did Haworth finish on the podium in Sydney, she also helped redefine the perception of the female athlete. The attention on Haworth received perhaps overshadowed the performance of Tara Nott, who in Sydney won a silver for Team USA in the 48 kg weight class.243 On September 22, just days after the conclusion of the

Games, the IOC awarded Nott the gold medal due to a doping violation by Bulgarian

Izabela Dragneva, tested positive for furosemide.244 Dragneva was one of three Bulgarian athletes caught doping at the Sydney Games.

The performance by Haworth and Nott proved that the United States occupied an important position within women’s weightlifting. Furthermore, as these two women cemented their claim to Olympic glory, they did so on behalf of all of the athletes that came before them. A movement that began as a grassroots effort within the United States in search of national attention, finally basked in the glory of the Olympic stage.

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CHAPTER 4

CONCLUSION

The history of women’s involvement in sport can best be described as a series of peaks and valleys rather than a straight path towards upward mobility and inclusion.

Early women's involvement in physical activity evolved out of a natural desire to purse competitive sport. The growing appearance of women in sport—what many had historically considered an exclusively male social space—led nineteenth century medical experts and educators to rush to find ways to stop this great phenomenon. Through the use of pseudo-science, they promoted fallacious claims regarding the physical capacities and inadequacies of women.245 These claims served to pacify the desire of women competitors by influencing the views of physical educators, who stressed a healthy, moderate lifestyle.246 Set against the backdrop of Victorian society, Baron Pierre de

Coubertin, revived the Olympic Games with the aim of uniting nations through the pursuit of “masculine” exertion on the field of sporting competition..247 In keeping with the traditions of the ancient Greek Olympics as well as his own perceptions about the role of women in society, Coubertin strove to exclude women from modern Olympic competition.248 Nonetheless, the dawn of the twentieth century witnessed tumultuous times around the world, resulting in new definitions of womanhood and greater opportunities for female participation.249

The aftermath of World War I shifted gender roles and most importantly liberated

57 women from outdated standards of femininity.250 Once again female athletes found themselves striving for inclusion in competitive sport. Women made their Olympic debut at the 1900 Games in Paris, albeit in the only two sports open, tennis and golf.251

Madame Alice Milliat, who against the wishes of a male dominated International

Olympic Committee (IOC), organized the first Women’s Olympics in 1922, which included track and field competitions.252 The sight of women running and jumping to sporting successes sparked heightened fear among male sporting officials. The sight of a female running collapsing in exhaustion at the finish line of the 800-meter race at the

1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games brought the issue of the issue of female physical frailty to the forefront.253 The IOC seized upon this event as an excuse to thwart the progress that Milliat and a generation of female trailblazing athletes had made by banning long distances for women at the Olympic Games for the next three decades.254 None the less, the Women’s Olympics’ proved that female athletes held a deep enthusiasm for elite competition. In addition, female’s participation in track and field displayed women’s receptiveness to different types of sport; they shed the stereotype of the leisurely ladies on the tennis lawns and the greens of golf courses and expanded their talents onto the tracks, boxing rings, and soccer fields.255

During the late 1920s, vaudeville houses became another avenue where women exhibited their physical talents and athleticism. In these settings, old Victorian norms were repeatedly disregarded, as women showcased their strength and physical abilities.256

These circus-like arenas provided the freedom of competition for early female boxers, wrestlers and weightlifters (or strength performers), because of the highly sexualized environment meant to entertain an all-male audience.257 The vaudeville strength

58 performers, while ridiculed and labeled as “museum freaks,” helped lay the groundwork for modern day weightlifters.258 From the stages of vaudeville, emerged Ivy Russell, a

British weightlifting phenomenon.259 Ivy Russell redefined the image of a strong woman.

Female strength performers were known to have great physiques; Russel on the other hand carried a petite frame weighing no more than 125 lbs., but even at the age of 18 successfully lifted 176 lbs. over her head.260 Russell moved her focus from the stage onto the weightlifting platform in 1932, when she competed and won the “Nine Stone Ladies

Championship.” Russell’s victory stamped women’s first mark on the sport of competitive weightlifting.261

In the United States, businessman and entrepreneur Bob Hoffman, helped promote the sport of weightlifting through his company, York Barbell. Hoffman used his employees as a marketing tool for both his business and the sport of weightlifting, York employees worked and trained at York Barbell.262Through his various marketing strategies, Hoffman's successfully helped change attitudes toward female weightlifters.

Through the pages of his Strength and Health magazine, Hoffman introduce his readership to a new type of female athlete: attractive sex symbols with muscular physiques.263 The ladies on Hoffman’s pages, while still highly objectified, achieved greater acceptance than strength performers on the vaudeville stages. Hoffmann’s girls, pictured in holding weights and joining their husbands or boyfriends in exercise, made their way into households across the country and helped break down the barriers of acceptance.

One individual who is easily credited for transforming the image of weightlifters is that of Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton. Stockton further helped shed the stigma of women

59 and strength training. Along with her husband, Les, Stockton gave birth to the physical culture of the world famous Muscle Beach in Santa Monica California.264 In Santa

Monica, Stockton became a key member of an acrobatic act, where she regularly displayed her feats of strength. The beaches of California provided Stockton with an eclectic environment, where onlookers did not reproach her for her muscular frame.265

Furthermore, Stockton reached a multitude of women aspiring to take up strength training or weightlifting through her column in Strength and Health, titled Barbelles.266 In her column Stockton appealed to women who, like her, participated in weight training. Her column emphasized the benefits of strength for female athletes.267 Furthermore, Stockton and her husband, Les, led a campaign to organize official weightlifting competitions for women. In 1947, they successfully petitioned the Amateur Athletic Union to host a women’s only contest.268 Stockton’s pioneering efforts paved the way for future weightlifters; her influence helped encourage women to seek empowerment through the pursuit of strength.

After World War II, women experienced greater opportunities within organized, competitive sport. Rising Cold War tensions and a broader political and cultural battle for

“hearts and minds” helped the growth of international competition for women. The Cold

War helped turn playing fields into pseudo-military arenas or symbolic battles between the US and the Soviet Union. In backdrop of this Olympic medals race, the Cold War helped propel women’s international sports to the forefront. In the decades following

World War II, the number of female athletes sent to the Olympic Games by the United

States and the Soviet Union reached unprecedented totals. The increased political importance placed on international competition also helped women participate in sports

60 that had been historically reserved exclusively for men. Although, the Cold War created greater opportunities for women, it highlighted prevailing concerns over femininity and female athleticism.269 The threat of female masculinization coupled with homophobic tensions fueled a debate over what sporting and physical activities were deemed suitable for women. These fear soon materialized into a witch-hunt, where overly muscular female athlete were labeled as lesbians or steroid users.270

The tumultuous environment of the 1960s and 1970s slowly helped foster more liberal attitudes toward the female and sport. The Civil Rights, Gay Liberation, and Back

Power movements fought for equality in various aspects of society. Gender equality emerged as a prominent topic of interest. Responding to the calls for gender equality in the field of higher education, President Richard Nixon passed Title IX legislation in

1972. Title IX, coincidently, had a positive impact on the growth of U.S. women’s sport as federally funded institutions of higher education were now bound by federal law to provide and fund competitive interscholastic and intercollegiate sporting opportunities for women.271

It’s against this backdrop of social unrest and liberation that American women began to engage in the sport of strength. The 1950s and 1960s showed little evidence of any kind of organized weightlifting competition. The proceeding decade would soon change this picture. The 1970s witnessed a booming period for women and strength.

Powerlifting emerged as the main avenue for women to compete in. Powerlifting’s loose and care-free reputation provided a hub where women felt comfortable to exhibit their strength. Powerlifting helped pave the way for future strength sports.

61

Why Weightlifting?

The history of the inclusion of women weightlifters onto the Olympic program is an unexplored topic in the history of sport. Nevertheless, exploring the history of weight lifting is important. The road to inclusion helps enrich and deepen the discourse on women’s sport. The women’s weightlifting movement highlights and helps reiterate the themes of exclusion, ridicule, castigation, determination, mobilization, and inclusion that extend across the arc of women’s sport history. Women weightlifters gained acceptance into the Olympic program in 1996 and first appeared on the Olympic podium at the 2000

Sydney Games. That alone is cause of admiration.

Despite the twenty-year wait, women weightlifters proved that perseverance transcends gender. Weightlifting had appeared in the weightlifting program since the revival of the modern Olympic Games in 1896. Yet, the sport remained only open to male competitors. It would take the tireless efforts of Mabel Rader, Judy Glenney, as well as a band of early pioneers of the women’s weight lifting movement such as Pudgy

Stockton and Ivy Russell to help overcome century’s worth of stereotypes. What began as the pursuit of a simple U.S. national championship, turned into an international competition on the grandest of stages: The Olympic Games. In 2013, the International

Weightlifting Federation celebrated thirty years of women’s weightlifting, in Wroclaw,

Poland.272 The ceremony recognized women who made significant contributions to the development of women’s weightlifting. Among those celebrate stood Judy Glenney, who almost single-handedly pushed women weightlifting onto the international stage.

Glenney’s work with women’s weightlifting, places her among other advocates of women’s sport such as Alice Milliat and Katherine Switzer, who are held in high regard

62 within the discourse of women’s sport history.

Although female Olympic weightlifters gained the opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games, the battle for gender equality still continues. A 2009 report published by the Women’s Sport Foundation provided figures on the involvement of women in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. According to the report, the IOC had not reached its targeted threshold of women inclusion in administrative positions; by 2008 women representation was at fifteen percent and not at the twenty percent mark the IOC aimed for.273 Furthermore, the report states, “actual participation opportunities for female athletes in the Olympic Games” lagged behind that of male athletes. The same pattern is seen in the United States; the number of female administrators remains far less than that of males. The movement toward gender equality has moved slower than desired. The battle for an open, fully accessible democratic sporting world wages on.

63

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Chapter 1

1 “The NOCs in Cancun,” Olympic Review 36.12 (December-January,1996): 7-9.

2 “Women Lifters Soaring Towards Olympic Heights,” World Weightlifting, 4 (1996): 9. Periodicals, LA84 Library Archive, Los Angeles, California. (hereafter referred to as LA84 Archive)

3 Murray Levin to Women Weightlifting Competitors, date unknown, 1. Judy Glenney Papers, University of Texas in Austin Archive. (hereafter referred to as UT Archive).

4 Judy Glenney, “Women’s Lifting,” Weightlifting USA 1.5 (1983): Journals Collection, United States Olympic Committee Archive Colorado Springs, Colorado. USOC Archive. (hereafter referred to as USOC Archive).

5 Craig Evans, “Glenney Becomes Referee,” Weightlifting USA 2.2 (1984): 2. Journals, USOC Archive.

6 Murray Levin to Women Weightlifting Competitors, 1. Judy Glenney PapersUT Archive.

7 Judy Glenney, to Ajan, Tamas. July 3, 1985, 1. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

8 Ajan Tamas, to Glenney, Judy. February 15, 1984; March 23, 1984, Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archives.

9 “Talking with the Strongest Woman,” Iron Game History 1.6 (1991): 3.

10 Jan Todd, “The Origins of Weight Training for Female Athletes in North America,” Iron Game History 2.2 (1992): 6.

11 Jan Todd, “The Legacy of Pudgy Stockton,” Iron Game History 2.1 (1992): 6.

12 Ibid.

67

13 Megan Pulliam, “Strongest Woman Todd Now Spreading Weightlifting Gospel,” Orlando Sentinel, November 25, 1986, C6.

14 Jan Todd, “Weightlifting,” International Encyclopedia of Women and Sport, Karen Christensen, Allen Guttmann, Gertrud Pfister, Ed. (USA: McMillan Reference), 1261.

15 Mabel Rader to Judy Glenny, February 20, 1980. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

16 “Digest Minutes: USWF National Convention- Board of Governors Meeting,” Weightlifting USA 3.4 (1985): 3. Journals, USOC Archive.

17 “Karyn Tarter On Japanese Television,” Weightlifting USA 4.6 (1986): 4; “Karyn Marshall Wins Title for U.S., China Walks Away with Team Title,” Weightlifting USA 5.5 (1987): Journals, USOC Archive.

18 Lynne Stoessel “Weightlifting Wants Women in the Olympics” Weightlifting USA 10.8 (1992/1993): 5. Journals, USOC Archive.

19 International Olympic Committee, Minutes of The 105th IOC Session. Atlanta, July 15-18, 1996, International Olympic Committee Archive, Lausanne, Switzerland (hereafter referred to as IOC Archives.).

20 Jeno Boskovics, “World Premiere in Budapest: Women’s Weightlifting Won the Battle,” World Weightlifting, Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

Chapter 2

21 Franz Lindz, “A Lift for Wall Street, Financial Analyst Karyn Marshall is a Star Weightlifter,” Sports Illustrated, March 21, 1988. 84.

22 Allen Guttmann, The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games (Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 2002), 7.

23 David C. Young, The Modern Olympics: A. Struggle for Revival (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1996), 69.

24 Allen Guttmann quoted in, Young, The Modern Olympics, 69.

25 Richard Holt, Sport and the British: A Modern History (Oxford: Claredon Press: 1990): 78.

26 Thomas, Hughes, Thomas Brown School Days (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 113.

27 Guttmann, The Olympics: 7.

68

28 Ibid.

29 Young, The Modern Olympics, 25.

30 Kevin Wamsley, “Laying Olympism to Rest,” In John Bale and Mette Krogh Christensen, Ed., Post Olympism: Questioning Sport in the Twenty First Century (Oxford: Berg Press), 235.

31 Susan J. Bandy, “Politics of Gender Through the Olympics: The Changing Nature of Women’s Involvement in the Olympics,” In Alan Barner, Ed., The Politics of the Olympic Games: A Survey (London: Routledge. 2010), 43.

32 Allen Guttmann, Women’s Sports: A History (New York: Columbia Press,1991), 163.

33 Pierre de Coubertin, “The Women at the Olympic Games,” In Pierre de Coubertin: Selected Writings, Ed., Norbert Muller, (Lausanne: International Olympic Committee, 2000), 711.

34 Ibid.

35 Susan K. Cahn, Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s Sport (New York: Free Press, 1994), 15-16.

36 Jan Todd, Physical Culture and the Body Beautiful: Purposive Exercise in the Lives of American Women, 1800-1870 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1998), 14.

37 Muller, The Women at the Olympic Games, 711.

38 Mary H Leigh., and Thérèse M. Bonin, "The Pioneering Role of Madame Alice Milliat and the FSFI in Establishing International Trade and Field Competition for Women." Journal of Sport History 4.1 (1977): 72-83.

39 Ibid., 73.

40 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 30.

41 Ibid., 34.

42 Ibid., 35.

43 “Women in the Olympic Movement” International Olympic Committee, accessed on May 19, 2016, https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/Document s/Reference-Documents-Factsheets/Women-in-Olympic-Movement.pdf, 1.

44 Leigh and Bonin., The Pioneering Role of Madame Alice Milliat, 74.

45 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 57.

69

46 Ibid., 72.

47 Ibid., 58.

48 Leigh., and Bonin, The Pioneering Role of Madame Alice Milliat, 77.

49 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 58.

50 Jaime Schultz, “Going the Distance: The Road to the 1984 Olympic Women’s Marathon,” The International Journal of the History of Sport 32.1 (2015): 72-88.

51 Leigh and Bonin, The Pioneering Role of Madame Alice Milliat, 78.

52 Bandy, Politics of Gender, 47.

53 Leigh and Bonin, The Pioneering Role of Madame Alice Milliat ,78.

54 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 60.

55 Jaime Schultz, Qualifying Times: Points of Change in Women’s Sport (Urbana: University of Illinois. 2014), 106.

56 Schultz, Going the Distance, 73.

57 Bandy, Politics of Gender, 48.

58 A Blot on the Olympiad,” Sporting life. August 6, 1928. 6.

59 Bandy, Politics of Gender, 48.

60 Ibid., 49.

61 Ibid., 48.

62 Katie Sandwina, “Talking with the Strongest Woman,” Iron Game History 1.6 (1991): 3.

63 Guttmann, Women’s Sports, 104.

64 Bieke Gils, “Flying Flirting, and Flexing: Charmion’s Trapeze Act, Sexuality, and Physical Culture at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,” Journal of Sport History 41.2 (2014): 251-268.

65 Jan Todd, “Sex! Murder! Suicide! New Revelations about the “Mystery of Minerva,” Iron Game History 1.6 (2009): 7-21.

66 Jan Todd, “The Origins of Weight Training for Female Athletes in North America,” Iron Game History 2.2 (April, 1992): 4-14.

70

67 Ibid., 7.

68 Ibid.

69 Ibid., 6.

70 Ibid., 6.

71 John D. Fair, “Bob Hoffman, the York Barbell Company and the Golden Age of American Weightlifting, 1945-1960,” The Journal of Sport History 14.2 (1987): 164-188.

72 John D. Fair, Muscletown USA: Bob Hoffman and the Manly Culture of York Barbell (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999): 31.

73 Fair, Bob Hoffman, the York Barbell Company and the Golden Age, 166.

74 Fair, Muscletown USA, 21.

75 Todd, The Origins of Weight Training, 8.

76 Fair, Muscletown USA, 66.

77 Jan Todd, “The Legacy of Pudgy Stockton,” Iron Game History 2.2 (1992): 5-9.

78 Fair, Muscletown USA, 48.

79 Eric Chaline, The Temple of Perfection: A History of the Gym (London: Reaktion Books, 2015), 183.

80 Todd, The Legacy of Pudgy Stockton, 6.

81 Chaline, The Temple of Perfection, 183.

82 Todd, The Legacy of Pudgy Stockton, 5.

83 Ibid., 6.

84 Ibid., 5

85 Ibid., 6.

86 Ibid.

87 Chaline, The Temple of Perfection, 142.

88 Tolga Ozyurtcu, Flex Marks the Spot: Histories of Muscle Beach, Ph.D., Diss (The University of Texas at Austin, 2014), 4.

71

89 Ibid., 3.

90 Chaline, The Temple of Perfection, 184.

91 Jan Todd, “Weightlifting,” In Encyclopedia of Women and Sport, Karen Christensen, Allen Guttmann, Gertrud Pfister (USA, McMillan Reference), 1261.

92 Todd, The Legacy of Pudgy Stockton, 7.

93 Silo Koekka, The Fifteenth Olympiad: Being Honored the Official Report of the Olympic Games of 1952 Celebrated in Helsinki Under the Patronage of President of the Republic J.K Paasikivi (Helsinki, International Olympic Committee 1952): 245 LA84 Foundation, Los Angeles, CA.www.LA84.org.

94 Edward A Doyle, The Sixteenth Olympiad: Being Honored the Official Report of the Olympic Games of 1956 Celebrated in Melbourne Under the Patronage of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Melbourne, International Olympic Committee 1956): 261 LA84 Foundation, Los Angeles, CA. www.LA84.org

95 Daigoro Yasukawa, The Eighteenth Olympiad: Being Honored the Official Report of the Olympic Games of 1964 Celebrated in Tokyo Under the Patronage of His Majesty The Emperor of Japan (Tokyo, International Olympic Committee 1952): 94 LA84 Foundation, Los Angeles, CA. www.LA84.org.

96 Women in the Olympic Movement, 5.

97 Schultz, Qualifying Times, 85.

98 Silo Koekka, The Fifteenth Olympiad: Being Honored the Official Report of the Olympic Games of 1952 Celebrated in Helsinki Under the Patronage of President of the Republic J.K Paasikivi (Helsinki, International Olympic Committee 1952): 245 LA84 Foundation, Los Angeles, CA.www.LA84.org.

99 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 138.

100 Lindsay Parks Piper, Policing Womanhood: The International Olympic Committee, Sex, Testing and the Maintenance of Hetero-Femininity in Sport, Ph.D., Diss (The Ohio State University, 2013), 49.

101 Schultz, Qualifying Times, 108.

102 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 263.

103 Kevin Wamsley and Gertrud Pfister, “Olympic Men and Women,” In The Global Olympic: Historical and Sociological Studies of the Modern Games, Kevin Wamsley, Ed., (University of Western Ontario, 2005), 119.

104 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 263.

72

105 Parks Piper, Policing Womanhood, 51.

106 Schultz, Qualifying Times, 108.

107 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 263.

108 Schultz, Qualifying Times,84

109 Guttmann, Women’s Sports: A History,187.

110 Schultz, Qualifying Times,86.

111 Ibid., 86.

112 Ibid., 128.

113 Guttmann, Women’s Sports, 220.

114 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 246.

115 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 250.

116 Guttmann, Women’s Sports,220.

117 Ibid., 222.

118 William J. Baker, Sport in the Western World, (New Jersey: Roman and Littlefield. 1982), 299.

119 Guttmann, Women’s Sports,213.

120 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 248.

121 Guttmann, Women’s Sports, 212.

122 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 249.

123 Megan Pulliam, “Strongest Woman Todd Now Spreading the Weightlifting Gospel,” Orlando Sentinel, November 25, 1986, C6.

124 Fair, Muscletown USA, 31.

125 Ibid., 282.

126 Elizabeth Wheeler, “Women Find an Uplifting Sport,” Los Angeles Times, January 20, 1978, D1.

127 Ibid.

73

128 Pulliam, Strongest Woman Todd, C6.

129 Carol Conn, “Weightlifting for Women: Why Not?” The Washington Post, September 8, 1978, 34.

130 Fair, Muscletown USA, 282.

131 Lindz, 84.

Chapter 3

132 Judy Glenney, “A Look Back at Women’s Weightlifting,” USA Weightlifting 1 (2007): 11. Judy Glenney Papers, University of Texas in Austin Archive. (hereafter referred to as UT Archive)

133 Doug Kortemeyer, “Training Tips for Women’s Nationals,” Weightlifting USA 1.1 (1983): 1. Journals Collection United States Olympic Committee Archive Colorado Springs, Colorado. USOC Archive. (hereafter referred to as USOC Archive).

134 Arthur Dreschler, “Karyn Marshall: The USA’s First Overall Women’s World Champion,” April 2, 2011, Accessed on June 16, 2016. http://www.teamusa.org/usa-weightlifting/features/2011/april/05/karyn-marshall- usaw-s-first-overall-women-s-world-champion.

135 Ibid.

136 Ibid.

137 “Karyn Tarter On Japanese Television,” Weightlifting USA 4.6 (1986): 4. Journals, USOC Archive.

138 Ibid.

139 Michelle James, “Pioneer of Women’s Powerlifting, Mabel Rader,” 2004, accessed on May 17, 2016, http://www.usapowerlifting.com/womens-hall-of-fame/mabelrader/

140 Dreschster, A Brief History of Women’s Weightlifting, 18.

141 Ibid.

142 “Olympic Champion Judy Glenney,” Lady Athlete.” Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

143 Mabel Rader to Judy Glenny, February 20, 1980. 1. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

74

144 Dreschster, A Brief History of Women’s Weightlifting, 18.

145 “Olympic Champion Judy Glenney,” Lady Athlete” Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

146 Murray Levine to Women’s Weightlifting Competitors, date unknown. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

147 Jan Todd, “Weightlifting,” In International Encyclopedia of Women and Sport, Eds., Karen Christensen, Allen Guttmann, Gertrud Pfister (USA: McMillan Reference),1261.

148 Murray Levine to Women’s Weightlifting Competitors, date unknown. Judy Glenney Papers, 1. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

149 Mabel Rader to Judy Glenny, August 4, 1982. Judy Glenney Papers, 1. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

150 “1982 Women’s Nationals,” last modified, March 1, 2016, http://www.lifttilyadie.com/Results/82WmnNats.htm.

151 Judy Glenney, “Women’s Lifting,” Weightlifting USA 1.5 (1983), 10. Journals, USOC Archive.

152 “Women’s World Championship,” Weightlifting USA 4.5 (1986), 8. Journals, USOC Archive.

153 Mabel Rader to Dr. Tamas Ajan, November 23, 1983, 1. Judy Glenney Paper, UT Archive.

154 Judy Glenney to All National Weightlifting Governing Bodies in the IWF, March 5, 1984, 1. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

155 Judy Glenney, “Women’s Lifting,” Weightlifting USA, 2.4 (1984), 18. Journals, USOC Archive.

156 Judy Glenney, “Women’s Lifting,” Weightlifting USA, 2.4 (1984). 18. Journals, USOC Archive.

157 “Women Lifters Soaring Toward Olympic Heights,” World Weightlifting 4 (1996): 9. Periodicals, LA84 Library Archive, Los Angeles, California. (hereafter referred to as LA84 Archive)

158 Wendy Long, “Women’s Weightlifting Has Yet to Achieve Status at Major World Games,” The Vancouver Sun, May 18, 1994, D3.

159 Craig Evans, “Glenney Becomes Referee,” Weightlifting USA 2.2 (1984): 2. Journals, USOC Archive.

75

160 “Women Lifters Soaring Toward Olympic Heights,” World Weightlifting 4. (1996): 9. Periodicals, LA84 Archive.

161 Tamas Ajan to Judy Glenney, November 22, 1985. Judy Glenney Papers, 1. UT Archive.

162 Jeno Boskovics, “World Premiere in Budapest: Women’s Weightlifting Won the Battle,” World Weightlifting Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

163 “U.S. Women Capture Medals in International Competition,” Weightlifting USA 4.2 (1986): 1. Journals, USOC Archive.

164 Ibid.

165 Jeno Boskovics, World Premier in Budapest. Judy Glenney Paper, UT Archives.

166 Judy Glenney, “Pannonia Cup 1987,” Weightlifting USA 5.2. (1987): 2. Journals, USOC Archive.

167 Tamas Ajan to Judy Glenney, June 12, 1986, 1. UT Archive; “Newsletter N’10,” International Weightlifting Federation, November, 1987, UT Archive.

168 “Karyn Marshall Wins Title for U.S., China Walks Away with Team Title,” Weightlifting USA 5.5 (1987): 1Journals Collection, USOC Archive; Franz Lindz, “A Lift for Wall Street, Financial Analyst Karyn Marshall is a Star Weightlifter,” Sports Illustrated, (1988): 84.

169 Murray Levine, “President’s Message,” Weightlifting USA 5.5 (1987): 0. Journals, USOC Archive.

170 “Newsletter N’10,” International Weightlifting Federation, November, 1987. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

171 “ESPN to Air Women’s World in December,” Weightlifting USA 5.5 (1987), 2. Journals, USOC Archive.

172 Dreschster, A Brief History of Women’s Weightlifting, 18.

173 Melissa Isaacson, “Women Olympic-Style Lifters Face Some Heavy Obstacle,” The Sentinel, November 1, 1987, C14.

174 Tamas Ajan to Judy Glenney, June 12, 1986. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

175 Ibid., 1

176 “Korean Women Getting into the Picture,” Weightlifting USA 5.3 (1987): 8. Journals, USOC Archive.

177 Tamas Ajan to Judy Glenney, August 27, 1987, 1. UT Archive.

76

178 Ibid.

179 Lindz, A Lift for Wall Street, 84.

180 Dreschster, A Brief History of Women’s Weightlifting, 19.

181 USWF Women’s Committee, “Women’s Update,” May 12, 1987, 1. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archives.

182 Judy Glenney, to All Registered Female Athletes, February 1, 1988, 1. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

183 Women Lifters Soaring Towards Olympic Heights, 9.

184 Tamas Ajan to George Greenway, April 19, 1991, 1. UT Archive.

185 Tamas Ajan to Vitali Smirnov, April 30, 1991, 2. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

186 Ibid., 3.

187 Ibid.

188 “Is it Necessary to Cross the Rubicon?” Soyvetsky Sport, March 5, 1987, 98-99. Judy Glenney papers, UT Archive.

189 Jaime Schultz, “Going the Distance: The Road to the 1984 Olympic Women’s Marathon,” International Journal of the History of Sport 32.1 (2015): 72-88

190 Ibid., 73.

191 Ibid., 74.

192 Ibid., 75.

193 Jay Weiner, “Women Try to Lift their Sport into Olympics,” Star Tribune, April 28, 1991, 05C.

194 Tamas Ajan to Vitali Smirnov, November 4, 1991, 5.

195 Ibid., 9.

196 Jim Schmitz to Judy Glenney, June 9, 1991, 1. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

197 Stephanie Armitage to The Women’s Members of the United States Weightlifting Federation, June 6, 1989, 1. Judy Glenney Paper, UT Archive.

198 Ibid.

77

199 Ron Reid, “Olympic Festival Was a Big Hit in Oklahoma,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 1, 1989, D1.

200 Stephanie Armitage to The Women’s Members of the United States Weightlifting Federation, 1. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

201 Ibid., 3.

202 Tommy Kono, “Medals in Manchester,” Weightlifting USA 7.5 (1989): 14. Journals, USOC Archive.

203 Lynne Stoessel, “Selling Weightlifting to High School Women,” Weightlifting USA 9.6 (1991): 14, Journals, USOC Archive.

204 Jim Schmitz, “Presidents Message,” Weightlifting USA, 10.2 (1992):2. Journals, USOC Archive.

205 Lynne Stoessel to Robyn Byrd, Sibby Flowers, John Coffee, Michael Cohen, November 10, 1992, 1. UT Archive

206 Ibid., 1.

207 Lynne Stoessel to Anita DeFrantz, November 12, 1992, 2. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

208 Ibid.

209 Ibid.

210 Lynne Stoessel “Weightlifting Wants Women in the Olympics” Weightlifting USA 10.8 (1992/1993): 5. UT Archive.

211 Ibid.

212 Ibid.

213 Ibid.

214 “Women in the Olympic Movement” International Olympic Committee, accessed on May 1,2016, https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/Document s/Reference-Documents-Factsheets/Women-in-Olympic-Movement.pdf, 1.

215 George Greenway to All IWF Member National Federations, January 15, 1993, 1. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

216 International Olympic Committee, Report of the Chairwoman on the Working Group on Women and Sport. Cancun, November 17, 1996, 2. Record Group 13, Series 3, Crawford Family, USOC, Archive.

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217 Ibid., 3.

218 Ibid., 5.

219 Ibid., 25.

220 Ibid.

221 Ibid., 23.

222 Judy Glenney to LeRoy Walker, April 20, 1996, 2. Judy Glenney Papers, UT Archive.

223 International Olympic Committee, Minutes of The 105th IOC Session. Atlanta, July 15-18, 1996, 30. International Olympic Committee Archive, Lausanne, Switzerland (hereafter referred to as IOC Archives.).

224 Ibid.

225 Ibid. 31.

226 Women Lifters Soaring Toward Olympic Heights, 9.

227 Katia Mascagni, “Women Conference on Women and Sport,” Olympic Review 26.12, (1996): 24.

228 “The NOCs in Cancun,” Olympic Review 36.12 (December-January,1996): 7-9.

229 Towards Olympics’ Golden Year, 9.

230 Jack McCullum, “American Beauties: In The First Olympics to Give a Squat About Women Weightlifters, Tara Nott Won a Gold Medal and Cheryl Haworth a Bronze for The US,” Sports Illustrated, October 2, 2000,

231 Dreschster, A Brief History of Women’s Weightlifting, 19.

232 Ibid.

233 Bob Takano, “Thoughts of a World Team Coach,” Weightlifting USA 9.5 (1991): 11.

234 Meg Ritchie-Stone, “Thoughts on Weightlifting,” Weightlifting USA 13.6 (1997): 20. Periodicals, USOC Archive

235 Ibid.

236 Ibid.

237 Women’s Weightlifting to Appear at 200 Olympic Games,” Weightlifting USA 15.1 (1997), 4. Journals, USOC Archive.

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238 Jack McCullum, “As Big as She Wants to Be: Cheryl Haworth Could Lift Her Sport to Prominence, if an Art Career Doesn’t Draw Her Away,” Sports Illustrated, September 11, 2000, 160-163.

239 Amy Shipley, “Medal Hopeful gives U.S. Women’s National Team a Big Lift,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 30, 2000, 95C.

240 Jere, Longman, “From Sickly Child to Pillar of Strength: Cheryl Haworth Knows Who She is, And Her Goals is to Be the World’s Best,” New York Times, July 4, 2000, D1.

241 McCullum, As Big as She Wants to Be, 160.

242 Alan Abrahamson, “Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games: Weightlifting Nott lifted to Gold by Bulgarian, Haworth Wins Super-Heavy Bronze,” Los Angeles Times, September 22, 2000, 3.

243 Ibid., 3.

244 Jere Longman, “Weightlifting: Drug Scandal Goes On: Bulgarian Team is Ousted from Games,” New York Times, Septermeber23, 2000, D8.

Chapter 4

245 Susan K. Cahn, Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s Sport (New York: Free Press, 1994), 15.

246 Jan Todd, Physical Culture and the Body Beautiful: Purposive Exercise in the Lives of American Women, 1800-1870 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1998), 14.

247 Pierre de Coubertin, “The Women at the Olympic Games,” In Pierre de Coubertin: Selected Writings, Ed., Norbert Muller (Lausanne: International Olympic Committee, 2000), 711.

248 Muller, The Women and the Olympics, 711.

249 Cahn, Coming on Strong, 35.

250 Ibid., 35.

251 Allen Guttmann, Women’s Sports: A History (New York: Columbia Press, 1991), 163.

252 Mary H Leigh., and Thérèse M. Bonin, "The Pioneering Role of Madame Alice Milliat and the FSFI in Establishing International Trade and Field Competition for Women." Journal of Sport History 4.1 (1977): 72-83.

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253 Susan J. Bandy, “Politics of Gender Through the Olympics: The Changing Nature of Women’s Involvement in the Olympics,” In Alan Barner, Ed., The Politics of the Olympic Games: A Survey (London: Routledge. 2010), 48.

254 A Blot on the Olympiad,” Sporting life. August 6, 1928. 6.

255 Leigh and Bonin., The Pioneering Role of Madame Alice Milliat, 74.

256 Katie Sandwina, “Talking with the Strongest Woman,” Iron Game History 1.6 (1991): 3.

257 Guttmann, Women’s Sport, 104; Bieke Gils, “Flying Flirting, and Flexing: Charmion’s Trapeze Act, Sexuality, and Physical Culture at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,” Journal of Sport History 41.2 (2014): 251-268.

258 Jan Todd, “Sex! Murder! Suicide! New Revelations about the “Mystery of Minerva,” Iron Game History 1.6 (2009): 7-21.

259 Jan Todd, “The Origins of Weight Training for Female Athletes in North America,” Iron Game History 2.2 (April, 1992): 4-14.

260 Ibid., 6.

261 Ibid.

262 John D. Fair, Muscletown USA: Bob Hoffman and the Manly Culture of York Barbell (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), 166.

263 Eric Chaline, The Temple of Perfection: A History of the Gym (London: Reaktion Books, 2015), 183.

264 Jan Todd, “The Legacy of Pudgy Stockton,” Iron Game History 2.2 (1992): 5-9.

265 Tolga Ozyurtcu, Flex Marks the Spot: Histories of Muscle Beach, Ph.D., Diss. (The University of Texas at Austin, 2014), 3.

266 Todd, The Legacy of Pudgy Stockton, 6.

267 Ibid.

268 Jan Todd, “Weightlifting,” In Encyclopedia of Women and Sport, Eds., Karen Christensen, Allen Guttmann, Gertrud Pfister (USA, McMillan Reference), 1261.

269 Jaime Schultz, Qualifying Times: Points of Change in Women’s Sport (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014), 85.

270 Ibid., 108.

271 Guttmann, Women’s Sports, 220.

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272 “30 Years of Women’s Weightlifting,” Accessed on June 29, 2015, http://www.iwf.net/2013/10/23/30-years-of-women’s-weightlifting/.

273 “Women in the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games: An Analysis of Participation and Leadership Opportunities,” A Women’s Sports Foundation Research Report, (2010).