Charlotte Cooper won the first women’s gold medal at the Paris Olympics in 1900. Confirming her extensive dominance of Wimbledon tennis, she won not only the singles but also the mixed doubles, representing Great Britain.
Born in England in 1870, Charlotte won the traditional English tournament five times from 1985 onwards, making her the clear favourite for the Paris Games. She was only one of twenty-two women competing in the Games, as in 1896, in Athens, the tradition of ancient Greece was repeated, which prohibited women from participating in the sporting event.
Four years later, and through several disputes, women were allowed to take to the courts in competitions such as croquet, horse riding, tennis and sailing. It was not until Amsterdam 1928 that participation reached ten percent, and in Los Angeles 1984 women were finally allowed to run the marathon. Helene de Pourtalés, a Swiss-American athlete, was the first to compete in the Olympic event in sailing, albeit alongside her husband.
But it was Charlotte who took the first gold medal after beating Frenchwoman Helene Prevost 6-1, 6-4 in the final. Her victory was a fluke, however. She entered the competition because she was on holiday in Paris with her husband, and without even knowing that the competition existed. The medal claim is not true either. In the second modern games, the winners were given a laurel wreath and combs or pipes as gifts.
Charlotte became an instant icon, and pushed for significant changes to the Games. And it took a lot of fighting. Baron Pierre de Coubertin opened the door for women in Paris, even though he had previously considered “his” games to be an exaltation of the “male body and spirit.” He once said that “women have only one job in sport: to crown champions. Women’s sport is neither practical, nor interesting, nor aesthetic, and it is wrong.”
Charlotte’s story has Chilean roots. Her mother, Teresa Georgina Miller, was born in Valparaiso in 1840. She married an English merchant seaman, Henry Cooper. They had five children, three of whom were born in the port. They moved to London in 1868, where Charlotte was born. Her sporting heritage in the country is eloquent: Leslie Cooper and Fernanda Mackenna, two outstanding national sprinters, belong to the family branch. Known as “Chattie”, she kept in touch until her death in 1966 in Scotland.
Today, the English athlete’s legacy is reflected in the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will feature equal numbers between men and women for the first time.
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