Tidye Pickett: The First African American Woman to Compete at the Olympic Games

At the beginning of the 20th century, Women had largely been excluded from participating in athletics for various unfounded reasons. Men claimed that women were unable to handle strenuous activity like sprinting or distance running. They even claimed that sports would damage a women's internal organs and cause them to be unable to bear children. Despite all these ridiculous claims, Women finally got the opportunity to compete at the Olympics in 1928. But only white women were included. It wasn’t until 8 years later in 1936 that we saw a Black women compete at the Games for the first time in history. And that women was Tidye Pickett.

 

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