Trinity College, Dublin.
Scott Med J. 2010 May;55(2):25-8. doi: 10.1258/rsmsmj.55.2.25.
Women have historically taken part in sports for many centuries. The first recorded female game competitions were the Herean Games in approximately 1,000 BC, named after the Goddess Hera. Held at Olympia in Greece, these games were for women alone and were thought to have originated as part of ancient fertility rights. Historically there is evidence of sporting activities involving women, but nothing of significance until after the 1948 summer Olympic Games, when 385 female athletes participated. Over the last six decades there has been a noted rise in the number of female athletes, reaching its maximum with the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where over 42% of the 11,028 athletes were women. Similarly in 2006, at the Turin Winter Olympics in Italy, 40% of the 2,500 athletes were females. In the 2012 Olympics, the Olympic Committee anticipates that approximately 44% of all athletes participating will be female. Despite there being a significant rise in the number of elite athletes in the UK, there appears to be an overall decrease in the amount and intensity of physical exercise undertaken by teenage girls. This is considered to be due to the fact that physical education is no longer an integral part of the school curriculum in the UK. There is, however, a small but significant group of elite athletes who start to train at a very early age (9-10 years old) especially in gymnastics, skating, swimming and athletics.
女性参与体育运动已有数百年的历史。有记录的最早的女性比赛是公元前约 1000 年的赫拉运动会，以赫拉女神命名。这些比赛在希腊的奥林匹亚举行，仅限女性参加，据认为它们起源于古代生育权的一部分。历史上有女性参与体育活动的证据，但直到 1948 年夏季奥运会之后，才有了一些重要的证据，当时有 385 名女性运动员参加了比赛。在过去的六十年里，女性运动员的数量显著增加，在 2008 年北京奥运会上达到了最大值，当时 11028 名运动员中有超过 42%是女性。同样，在 2006 年意大利都灵冬奥会上，2500 名运动员中有 40%是女性。在 2012 年奥运会上，奥林匹克委员会预计将有大约 44%的参赛运动员是女性。尽管英国的精英运动员人数显著增加，但少女参加的体育锻炼的数量和强度似乎总体上有所下降。这被认为是由于在英国，体育教育不再是学校课程的一个组成部分。然而，有一小部分但非常重要的精英运动员在很小的时候（9-10 岁）就开始接受训练，特别是在体操、滑冰、游泳和田径运动中。
