Hello Monaco #14 Spring 2022 | Page 48

FAMOUS MONEGASQUES
The women ’ s sport movement was gathering pace .
While a second women ’ s sports meeting was taking place in Monaco , an announcement was made by the French Alice Milliat that the first Women ’ s Olympic Games would be held on 20 August 1922 at Stade Pershing in Paris .
On 31 October 1921 in Paris the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale ( FSFI ) was established . Business on that trailblazing day included registration of the first women ’ s world records . Milliat herself declared “ the first Women ’ s Olympics in the world ” open . A string of those newly-registered world records was shattered . It took time for these pioneering attempts at gender equality to be blessed by the International Olympic Committee . But by the end of the Second World War the fight to take Women ’ s sports into the future had made strides .
At the London 1948 Olympics — the Games of Fanny Blankers-Koen — the women ’ s athletics programme was indeed expanded to nine events , though with no individual running race longer than 200 metres . The battles fought by Alice Milliat and her colleagues had ended up by creating the platform for the future .
Never let it be forgotten that Prince Albert I of Monaco acted as the catalyst , with Monte- Carlo the early venue that catapulted Women ’ s sport and gender equality forward .
Motor Racing and Monte-Carlo

The Scholar Prince could also merit the title The Rally Prince . Did you know that the launch of the first tourist The German Kaiser Wilhelm II ( left ) and Prince of Monaco Albert I ( right ) alamy . com rally , known as the “ Rallye Automobile ”, organised by the Sport Automobile et Vélocipédique society , chaired by M . A . Noghès was supported by Prince Albert I ? And it was the Noghès racing family , and Louis Chiron , that later were driving forces behind the Monaco Grand Prix — the first being run in 1929 with the blessing of Prince Albert I ’ s son Louis . alamy . com

A Monaco post stamp devoted to Prince Albert I of Monaco , Nobel Prize winner in physiology Charles Richet and marine biologist Paul Portier , members of the scientific expedition on the ship L ’ Hirondelle II .
Culture Thrived Under Prince Albert I

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great cultural wave flowed from the energy of Albert I ’ s wife Princess Ali ce . The partnership of Princess Alice with Prince Albert I in the cultural field led to Monaco again reasserting itself as a great cultural centre . After Albert
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