Participation of women in the Olympics 20% minimum presence of women on their committee. The first Olympic Games to feature female athletes was the 1900 Games in Paris. Hélène de Pourtalès of Switzerland became the first woman to compete at the Olympic Games and became the first female Olympic champion by being a part of the winning team in the first 1 to 2 ton sailing event on May 22, 1900. Briton Charlotte Cooper became the first female individual champion by winning the women's singles tennis competition on July 11, 1900. Tennis and golf were the only sports where women could compete in individual disciplines. 22
Olympic weightlifting it was not until the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia that an official Olympic competition for women was introduced. In 2011 the International Weightlifting Federation ruled that athletes could wear a full-body "unitard" under the customary weightlifting uniform. Kulsoom Abdullah became the first woman to do so at the U.S. National Championships that year, and athletes are allowed to do so at the Olympics. IWF rules previously stated that an athlete's knees and elbows must be visible so officials can determine if a lift is correctly executed. Olympic weightlifting uses a steel bar (also known as a barbell) with