Baron Pierre de Coubertin – we’ve heard it too often these days – was not in favor of women taking part in public sporting events. “If there are women who want to play soccer or box, they’re free to do so, provided they do so without spectators, for the spectators who gather around such competitions do not come to watch sport.”. But that was in 1928. In 2024, two female polo players will defend their flags alongside six male players (two teams of 4) at the Paris Games Polo Challenge in Chantilly on August 7, in a match commemorating… an Olympic match 100 years ago between France and USA Teams.
Spectators at this France-USA match at the Chantilly Polo Club (Ferme d’Apremont) on Wednesday, August 7, will be watching Polo in celebration of the centenary of the 1924 Paris Olympic Games, when the sport was on the Olympic program.
This vision of women’s sport, which dates from another era – and which it is perhaps a little inappropriate to judge with our 21st century eyes – has taken some time to evolve, particularly in polo. Even in the second half of the 20th century, players such as the iconic Sunset “Sunny” Hale and Claire Tomlinson had to pass themselves off as men in the 50s and 60s in order to take part in tournaments.
That is a bygone era, and now the talented and athletic when women of polo can now take part in mixed competitions as well as tournaments reserved for them, such as the Open de France Féminin, the U.S. Open Women’s Polo or the Campeonato Argentino Abierto de Polo Femenino.
On the American side, one of the world’s best female player, Hope Arellano, will be trained by her father, Julio, one of the great US players, who took part in the Argentine Open with Indios Chapaleufu II, Hope won the women’s version of the Abierto last year and won silver in the Federation of International Polo (FIP) World Championships in 2022.
She will be up against French number one Elena Venot, who also has experience at the female Argentine Open. Elena has twice won the Women’s French Open. But it’s in mixed competitions that the player, who trained at the Chantilly Polo Club, has achieved her greatest successes, including the Polo Nations Cup 2023 and the Lahore Open… in Pakistan: proof that we’re a long way from the ideas of sport we had in 1928!
France-USA polo, Wednesday, August 7 at Ferme d’Apremont (60300) at 5:00 p.m. (doors open at 4:00 p.m.). Presented by Polo Club du Chantilly and sponsored by U.S. Polo Assn. Free admission. Village with food-trucks. Champagne for the first 1000 spectators! Commemorative hat giveaways.
You can already leaf through the official program of the PARIS GAMES POLO CHALLENGE 2024 on this link: https://rbpresse.info/M_YiED