Margaret Abbott and the 1900 Olympics

In 1900, golf was put on the slate of sports for the Olympic games in Paris, and women competed. Margaret Abbott, a statuesque 22-year old from the U.S., whose mother had introduced her to the game at Chicago Golf Club, was in France studying art at the time. With a long sweeping swing that produced accurate shots, and a deadly putting stroke, she toured the 9-hole course in 47 to win first prize – not a gold medal, but a porcelain bowl. At the St. Louis Games in 1904, however, women would be excluded from golf. James Sullivan, the head of the American organization, was hostile to sports for women, asserting that for them they were “morally a questionable experience.” Archery, it turned out, would be the only sport for women that year. In 1903, the attractive 5’11 Abbott would be portrayed as one of Charles Dana Gibson’s “Gibson Girls,” as seen in the photo attached here.