Balloons and airships were all the rage these days, and now an aerostat racing meet was being held in Paris. How wonderful! Balloon racing had become the latest fashionable sport, even being included in the summer Olympics and the games of the Universal Expo. This year, the organising committee sought to give the races a higher profile by commemorating the role played by hot air balloons in the siege of Paris in 1871, and had built an immense metal hangar for this purpose. This morning the crowds were gathering in Vincennes, along Charenton Avenue near the new velodrome, to admire these vessels of the sky. Forty-six balloons were on display in the park, all of them immense and painted in bright, gay colours. The Parisians were impressed with this new addition to the Olympic Games, and the women chatted as they admired them:
“The Olympics are almost upon us, ladies.”
“These hot air balloons are the pride of French design. Proof that our women are the greatest seamstresses in the world...the whole balloon is a masterpiece of stitching.”
“It’s engineering too, my dear. Our men have worked hard on the materials needed to develop these huge flying balloons.”
“Have you heard of the woman they call the ‘fiancée of danger?’ Marie Marvingt, an athlete who competes in alpinism, cycling swimming...she’s a marvel! And now she’s decided to cross the channel in a balloon!”
“What madness! Whatever can a woman do with a balloon? Doesn’t she have a husband and children to take care of?”
“I wish I could be as brave as she is...can you imagine seeing the world from up there, looking down on it like a bird? It would more of a thrill than riding on horses, I tell you.”
“Men like to take risks for their amusement, it’s in their nature. But a woman...! I say it’s useless fancy, and nothing will convince me otherwise!”
“Four years ago, in Athens, women were kept out of the games by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. It was he who created the modern games, and he had strict ideas about how they would be held. But this year, in Paris, some women will be able to compete!”
“That should be fun! A woman competing to win a medal at the Olympic games...I never.”
“Hélène de Pourtalès, she’s an American competing in the sailing, and a British lady named Charlotte Cooper will be trying to win at tennis.”
“How outrageous to see a woman playing tennis. It’s a man’s game!”
“A young woman who wants to be strong like a man is unnatural. Women are fragile, and Baron Pierre de Coubertin is right! How can one pretend to be an athlete in a skirt?”
“We shall see! Women have the same physical qualities and the same reaction times as men...why shouldn’t they compete in the Olympics?”
Alan Alfredo Geday
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