When the first modern Olympic Games were staged in Athens, Greece, in 1896, they set in motion traditions that endure to this day. Yet women remained on the sidelines until the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France, in 1900, when female athletes were finally permitted to take part in competition — a truly groundbreaking moment in sporting history. Across events including tennis, croquet, sailing, and golf, 22 women in total competed at the Paris Games. It was here that the world witnessed its very first female Olympic champion. On July 11, 1900, Charlotte Cooper etched her name into the record books, becoming both the first woman to claim an Olympic gold medal and the inaugural female champion in Olympic tennis.
Born on September 22, 1870, in Middlesex, England, Charlotte Cooper gravitated toward athletics from an early age. Her parents nurtured her love of tennis at the Ealing Lawn Tennis Club, enlisting several private tutors to help develop her skills. By the age of 25, she had claimed her first Wimbledon title — a stunning accomplishment she would go on to replicate multiple times over the course of her career. Remarkably, losing her hearing at the age of 26 did nothing to diminish her abilities on the court. In a sport where the capacity to hear plays a vital role in gauging ball speed and reading an opponent's positioning, Cooper pressed forward, capturing several more Wimbledon titles and ultimately securing her place as the first female Olympian.
Fun Facts about Charlotte Cooper:
- Cooper won the Wimbledon singles title five times, first in 1896 and last in 1908.
- She held the record for attending Wimbledon singles matches until 1994, having attended 11 times.
- Cooper held the record for many years as the oldest winner of a Wimbledon singles match. In 1908, she won at the age of 37, becoming the first mother to win a Wimbledon match.
- She was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2013.
- Charlotte Cooper lived a long and active life, passing away in 1966 at the age of 96.