HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF WOMEN IN SPORT

Social barriers and historical milestones

Female participation in sport has come a long way from almost total exclusion to today's normalization.

Historically, social norms limited women to activities considered "aesthetic" or low-impact, under the erroneous premise that intense exercise harmed reproductive health or masculinized. However, disruptive milestones in the 20th century challenged these notions.

A key moment was the breakthrough of women in ultra-endurance events that had been off-limits to women.

An emblematic (anonymized) example is that of a female runner in the 1960s who, in order to participate in a long-distance race reserved exclusively for men, registered using only her initials to hide her gender.

During the competition, race officials tried to physically stop her when they discovered she was a woman, but she persisted until she crossed the finish line.

This act of defiance not only demonstrated female physical ability, but forced a legislative change in international federations, opening the door to the official inclusion of women in marathons and Olympic long-distance events years later.

Current growth and media visibility

In recent decades, we have witnessed an exponential growth in the participation and visibility of women's sport.

This change has been driven by the emergence of stereotype-breaking role models and increased media coverage that validates women's sport as a high-level spectacle.

The maxim "what you can't see, you can't be" highlights the importance of representation: girls need to see professional athletes to imagine their own future in sport.

Today, contact and team sports that were traditionally male strongholds, such as rugby or boxing, have professional women's leagues and mass audiences.

For example, in modern soccer, it is common to see stadiums filled with more than 80,000 spectators for women's national team matches or league finals, something unthinkable half a century ago.

This visibility not only generates revenue, but normalizes the presence of women in all areas of physical performance, cementing a