Even the mascot La Phryge Olympique, invokes the headgear worn by women during 1789, the year of La Revolution.

The route for the Olympic marathon has also been devised to pay tribute to a famous event in that tumultuous year.

"The Women’s March was one of the first demonstrations in history, a revolutionary, popular march led by women," officials explained when revealing the course for the first time.

"Paris 2024 is paying tribute to this key moment from the history of contemporary France by including part of the route taken by these women during their march in the Olympic marathon,”

A century ago, the city of Paris was also preparing to stage the Olympics, but the welcome for sportswomen was not nearly as cordial.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Baron Pierre de Coubertin was the French nobleman who revived the Olympics for the modern era, but he was not a supporter of women’s sport.

"The role of women should be above all to crown the victors," insisted Coubertin.

Although some women had taken part since the 1900 Olympics in Paris, they remained very few in number.

In 1924, events open to women were increased to include fencing but only in the foil.

There was also tennis, swimming and diving but there was no place for women's events in athletics.

The lack of women's events on those Olympics in the French capital nearly a century ago had prompted Alice Milliat, to establish separate women’s Games.

Milliat was a rower who had joined Femina Sport, a club for women. 

Soon, an International Women's Sports Federation (FSFI) was founded as she became active in finding a place for women at the male dominated Olympics.

"They could do themselves a favour by showing some interest in women’s sport; they shut themselves away in their everlasting male egoism," Milliat wrote of the men running international sport.

An article in the French publication Cahiers de la République des Lettres des Sciences et des Sports described Milliat as "the soul of the women’s sports movement, a living example of modern woman, accustomed to all sports disciplines, highly capable of fulfilling the social role which falls to women in this vibrant 20th century,"

Milliat tried to persuade officials to include athletics on the Olympic programme and in 1926, the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) - know known as World Athletics - relented. 

Events were added to the 1928 Olympic programme in Antwerp "as a trial".

"We hope that good cooperation between the two federations will continue and we are looking forward for the time to come, when Madame Milliat and her friends will unite with us completely," IAAF President Sigfrid Edstrom said,

Five athletic events were included for women in 1928.

These were the 100 metres, 800 metres and the 4x100 metres relay on the track and the discus and high jump.

The 800m was won by Germany’s Lina Radke but officials used the distressed state of some of the competitors at the end of the race as a excuse for removing it from the programme in future Games.

For the next 32 years, the longest distance open to women was 200m.

It had been conveniently forgotten that at Paris 1924, only half the field had completed the men's cross country race because of the extreme heat.

There remained opposition to women’s participation in some quarters.

"At a meeting of the Scandinavian countries, a resolution was passed urging a complete suppression of all women’s events from the Games," Denmark’s Ivar Nyholm told the IOC Session in Lausanne in 1929.

Finnish member Ernst Krogius advised that the Finnish Olympic Committee had "voted for the exclusion of women entirely from the Games".

Renowned American sports writer and novelist Paul Gallico wrote an article for an official Olympic magazine in the late 1930s.

"Women look their ugliest when playing sport," Gallico wrote.

"It is a lady's business to look beautiful and there are hardly any sports in which she seems able to do it."

By the time his article appeared, Mildred "Babe" Didrikson had already won Olympic gold in the 80 metres hurdles and javelin at Los Angeles 1932.

She also won a silver in the high jump.

Didrikson was also a talented baseball and basketball player and later forged a career in professional golf.

Swimmer Eleanor Holm won the 100m backstroke at Los Angeles 1932 but was dropped from the United States team shortly before the Games in Berlin four years later for breaching curfew on the sea voyage.

She was reported by a team chaperone, an ever present member of any Olympic or women's sporting team at the time.

It is hard to imagine a member of the men’s team receiving a similar punishment.

Berlin 1936 were the first Olympics to see a Torch Relay.

The Flame was kindled in a Ceremony by dance teacher Koula Pratsika with a performance by young girl dancers representing the priestesses of antiquity.

It is not thought that any women were permitted to participate in the Relay itself.

This was the case for the next 20 years, though some women did take part unofficially in the Torch Relay for Helsinki 1952.

Canoeing, which had been introduced in 1936, introduced a single race for women when London held the 1948 Olympics. 

Although there had been team competitions for women in gymnastics since 1928, individual competitions were not introduced until Helsinki 1952.

Agnes Keleti, a Jewish gymnast who had hidden from Nazi persecution in Hungary during the Second World War, won a medal of each colour in Helsinki as a prelude to a magnificent four Olympic gold medals Melbourne 1956.

Such was her reputation that the Duke of Edinburgh, who had opened the Games on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II, made a point of visiting to watch performances whilst in Melbourne.

Earlier in the year, the equestrian events for the 1956 Olympics had taken place in Stockholm.

Competition had been switched there when strict quarantine regulations imposed by Australian authorities made competition impossible in Melbourne.

For the first time, women took a leading role in the passage of the Olympic Flame as it was taken through Scandinavia.

When it reached Copenhagen, Lis Hartel, dressage silver medallist at Helsinki 1952, rode through the streets carrying the Torch,

Many female riders carried the Torch in its journey across Sweden and gymnast Karin Lindberg was chosen to light a small cauldron in the stadium.

Women were allowed to take part in  jumping for the first time and were admitted to eventing in 1964.

Gradually the portfolio was expanding and at Tokyo 1964 it also included volleyball for both men and women.

Japan’s women, unflatteringly dubbed "Oriental Witches," won the gold medal. 

It later emerged that they had been subjected to a strict regime by coach Hirofumi Daimatsu which would today be considered athlete abuse.

Basketball and handball both permitted women for the first time at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, along with women’s rowing.

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) had been trying to include a women’s tournament since the pre-war years.

"This proposal did not have any support and was rejected," recorded IOC minutes in 1934.

"If it is not possible for 1948, we will have to think about it in the future," IOC vice-president Avery Brundage said in 1947 after the proposal was rejected again.

Yet, it was not until 1970 that the IOC announced a commission would investigate the idea once again.

The main obstacle was that there were separate governing bodies for men's and women's hockey but  officials insisted this would be "regularised".

It was eventually agreed that women's hockey was to be part of the programme at Moscow 1980.

"I learned with great pleasure that a competition for women’s hockey will be included," FIH President Etienne Glichitch wrote. 

"This is very good news that the hockey world was awaiting [sic] since a long time and it will certainly be most welcomed." 

The fanfare which accompanied its entry was somewhat muted, because the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan, prompting many leading nations to withdraw their teams.

The tournament eventually included many nations from the Eastern bloc and a team from newly independent Zimbabwe.

"Soviet sports fans will show great interest in the forthcoming tourney," Soviet Hockey official  and FIH Council member Albert Leiken insisted.

It played on a round-robin basis at the Young Pioneers Stadium and the minor arena at the Dynamo Stadium.

Zimbabwe eventually won gold and their performances have become part of hockey folklore.

Even so there were still significant gaps in women’s Olympic sport.

Peter Ueberroth, President of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organising Committee, recorded his frustration at the hesitancy of some members to include a women's marathon.

In fact the following year, the IOC Executive Board "accepted that the women’s marathon be included on the programme in 1984, provided it did not take place at the same time as the men."

Joan Benoit, wearing a special uniform to combat the intense heat in a race mainly run along Los Angeles' freeways, duly became the first women's Olympic champion in 1984.

A women’s cycling road race was also organised for the first time and was won by American Connie Carpenter-Phinney, who competed in speed skating at the 1972 Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo, finishing seventh in the 1500m. 

In 1996, women’s football made its debut at the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta when the US beat China 2-1 in the final at Sanford Stadium in front of 76,489 fans.

Then at Sydney 2000, women were included in competition in taekwondo and triathlon as they made their debuts on the Olympic programme and the modern pentathlon also added women.

The Olympic Flame had played an important role in exciting interest in these Games in Australia. 

The domestic Relay had begun at Uluru, when the Flame was carried by 199 Olympic hockey gold medallist Nova Peris, who had also won Commonwealth Games gold medals in athletics.

Many other notable women also took part as it continued its journey across Australia.

On the final day, swimmer Samantha Riley, a three-time Olympic medallist, appeared with the Torch high above the Sydney Opera House.

At the Stadium, Australian rganisers paid tribute to a century of women’s participation at the Games by choosing the country's most revered female champions to participate in the final stages of the Torch Relay before Cathy Freeman ignited the Cauldron.

Watching alongside the IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, was Dawn Fraser, quadruple Olympic swimming gold medallist and a hugely popular figure, who had blazed a trail for women’s sporting achievement at three successive Games at Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964.

Her career had been ended after the Games in the Japanese capital when she received a 10-year ban from the Australian Amateur Swimming Association after she accused of stealing an Olympic flag from a flagpole outside Emperor Hirohito's Palace, the Kōkyo.

Weightlifting, an original sport from Athens 1896, but hitherto open only to men, also opened the way for women at Sydney 2000.

Athens 2004 remains the only Olympics so far where an Organising Committee has been led by a woman.

Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki had also spearheaded the successful Athens bid.

In 2004, there was also a highly symbolic moment when women competed in the shot put in the historic stadium in Ancient Olympia.

It was claimed that women were banned from competing at the Olympics of antiquity.

TheOlympic circle was completed at London 2012 when women’s boxing was also added with memorable victories for Ireland's Katie Taylor and Britain's Nicola Adams.

Women have also taken an increasingly prominent role in Ceremonial aspect of the Olympics.

In 1956 at Cortina d'Ampezzo, skiier Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo was the first woman to take the Athletes' Oath during the Opening Ceremony. 

Then, in 1968, 400m runner Enriqueta Basilio lit the cauldron at the Mexico Games.

Many other women have done so since.

At Tokyo 2020 2020, shooting gold medallist Anna Korakaki became the first woman to carry the Flame within the precincts of the Ancient Stadium.

"I believe that Anna Korakaki has honoured the Greek flag and our country and she deserves it, not only for the two medals at the Rio Olympics but also for her successes after 2016," Hellenic Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos said.

In Tokyo, the final Cauldron was lit by tennis player Naomi Osaka.

Yet Dinigeer Yilamujiang was selected as one of the final bearers to light the Flame in a suspended receptacle at the Birdsnest, she attracted comment, not about her gender but because she was Uyghur. 

Many in the Uyghur community are alleged to have been persecuted by the Chinese Government.  

The IOC itself was an all male institution for the first 87 years of its existence, though there had been women at IOC headquarters since the late 1920s when Lydia Zanchi was drafted in to help with secretarial work.

Later Myriam Meuwly also joined the staff as a bilingual secretary. She also assembled the Olympic Review but important decisions were all made by men.

Then, in the late 1960s Monique Berlioux, an Olympic swimmer and journalist, joined the IOC as a press attache and public relations director.

At this time the IOC President did not live in Lausanne and the Olympic influence of Berlioux grew as a result.

Otherwise, there were few women in influential positions with International Federations.

The first female IOC members were finally proposed by newly elected IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch senior, at the 1981 Session in Baden-Baden.

Finnish runner Pirjo Häggman, a 400 metres finalist at Montreal 1976, and Flor Isava Fonseca, an equestrian official, from Venezuela were chosen.

Paavo Honkajuuri, the IOC member in Finland, "wished to state his pleasure at having two women members of the IOC."

Fonseca later became the first woman elected to the IOC Executive Board Committee, though Häggman later resigned in connection with the Salt Lake City 2002 corruption scandal after ex-husband had been working as a paid consultant for the Americans during the bidding process.

Anita de Frantz, rowing bronze medallist at Montreal 1976, was elected the IOC in 1986 and later became its first female vice-president.

The IOC Executive Board in 2023 looks very different to the way it did in 1923. 

Nicole Hoevertsz of Aruba is currently an IOC vice-president, a role previously held by Morocco’s 1984 400m hurdles gold medallist Nawal El Moutawakel.

The Board also includes Mikaela Conjuango Jaworski of the Philippines and Norwegian Kristin Kloster.

The next IOC President is set to be chosen in 2025. 

Might it be that a century after Coubertin stood down, a woman is finally chosen to lead the Olympic Movement?