Trailblazing Americans: Mother-Daughter Duo Competed in the 1900 Olympics

Margaret Abbott

Only once have a mother and daughter competed in the same Olympic event at the same Olympics, and it happened 124 years ago.

Like this year’s Olympic festival, the second modern Olympics competition was held in Paris, France. For the first time, women athletes were allowed to compete in an Olympiad. Tennis, archery, sailing, equestrianism, rowing, croquet, and golf were open to them, perhaps because women could participate in these activities while still dressing modestly.

Even before she unknowingly became
an Olympian, Margaret Abbott gained
recognition as an outstanding athlete
-Boston Globe, 1898

Mary Abbott, a novelist and literary reviewer, and her daughter Margaret travelled to France in 1899. Mary wanted Margaret to study art and culture in Paris, like many socialite women of the time. Both were accomplished golfers back home in Chicago, where Margaret had won several amateur tournaments. When they learned an international women’s golf tournament would be held, both mother and daughter decided to enter.

The event took place in October 1900 at Compiegne, a nine-hole golf course 80 kilometers from Paris. Of the 10 entrants, Mary tied for seventh place, but Margaret won with a score of 47. The Olympics committee eliminated golf after that, so Margaret was the sole Olympic women’s golf champion until 2016, when the sport returned to the line-up. She was also the first-ever female Olympic champion from the United States.

Ironically, Margaret died in 1955 without even knowing she had been in the Olympics. Because the games were overshadowed by the World’s Fair, many athletes were unaware they were participating in Olympic events. When raising her four children with her husband, American writer Finley Peter Dunne, Margaret referred to her victory in a French golf tournament. It wasn’t until some years after her death that a university professor, while researching Abbott’s life, informed her family their mother had been an Olympic trailblazer.

Margaret Abbott at the golf tournament
in Compiegne, France, in 1900

Part of the confusion arose because the Olympics were held in conjunction with the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. The Paris committee did not make clear which events were considered part of the Olympics. Some events were designated as World’s Fair exhibitions and were added to the official Olympic roster after the fact. In addition, the games took place from May to October in numerous locations. Instead of gold, silver, and bronze medals, the awards included various types of prizes such as, according to one report, an umbrella. Margaret received an old, gilded porcelain bowl as her prize.

Despite being unaware she was an Olympian, Margaret Abbott’s name is inscribed on a plaque listing all American Olympics medal winners at the United States Olympic Committee’s headquarters in Colorado.

Though not described as part of the Olympics,
Abbott's win was reported in the Chicago Tribune

Sources:

The First American Woman to Win an Olympic Championship Didn't Even Know It - Atlas Obscura
Margaret Abbott, the Olympic golf champion who died without knowing it (olympics.com)
Margaret Abbott, an Unwitting Olympic Trailblazer - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Margaret Ives ABBOTT (olympics.com)
Women Golfers' Museum (womengolfersmuseum.com)
Margaret Abbott: The First Female Olympic Champion - WednesdaysWomen
Margaret Ives Abbott | National Women's History Museum (womenshistory.org)

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. An unpublished novel, Shifting Currents, is a finalist in the nationally recognized Maggie Awards. Learn more at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.

Her historical short story, “All That Glitters,” was included in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction collection and is now available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares about her writing, historical tidbits, recommended books, and sometimes recipes.