Logo of the first Women's Olympiad in Gothenburg 1926.

Running 60m. Heat 2.

Reasons Used to Justify Men's Dominance in Sports:

Sports are physically harmful to women; competition can make them appear masculine and damage their sexuality.
Women are not skilled enough to deserve equality in the world of sports.
Women are simply not genuinely interested in sports.

Hurdles. 100 yards. Heat 2.

Created in honor of the 100th anniversary of the 1926 Women’s Olympiad, this project raises awareness of gender inequality in sports. The goal is to spark reflection about societal biases and inspire dialogue around fairness, access, and recognition in athletics, both past and present. By engaging visitors physically and emotionally, we aim to highlight the often overlooked stories of female athletes and confront the systemic barriers they have faced.

The tunnel from a bird's eye view.

The Tunnel to Success is an interactive installation that invites visitors to walk through a tunnel representing the historical obstacles women have faced in sports, particularly around the time of the 1926 Women’s Olympiad in Gothenburg. The project is both a tribute and a reminder of the ongoing journey toward equality in athletics.

Before entering, each visitor will put on an over ear headset, where a story will guide the visitor through the tunnel and its symbolic obstacles. These obstacles will involve both physical and mental challenges. The obstacles have been created to represent the struggles women have faced throughout sports history.

The first "obstacle" is to put on a skirt. This is to have the participant feel like one of the women that had to wear these knee-high skirts while doing athletic moves.

Get through and be rebirthed as a woman. Going through this wall indicates the beginning of your right to do sports as a woman.

The participant will be faced a quiz which will give the illusion of something that is simple but is tougher than thought.

What you think is a simple exercise before you, probably has layers of invisible obstacles to others.

From the perspective of men in the 1920's, they had a lot to say about women's bodies. According to men, women's bodies were not meant to being athletic. This obstacle is the embodied mental challenges a woman faced because of mens opinions about their bodies.

This obstacle represents ascending the ladder, but since these objects are very soft, walking over them is going to be very wobbly. Without a stable foundation for women to develop, it will harder to go up confident.

Women in the 1920's did it all. They overcame a lot of oppression. Although this happened then, there are still a lot of challenges women face today, compared to men. You leave your skirt behind, to be able to go through the finish line.

1000 meter race.