when were women allowed to go to the olympics?
The complete book of the Winter Olympics
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 There has been a football tournament at every Summer Olympic Games since 1900 , except at the 1932 games in Los Angeles . Before the inception of the World Cup , the Olympics ( especially during the 1920s ) had the same status as the World Cup . Originally , the event was for amateurs only ; however , since the 1984 Summer Olympics , professional players have been permitted , albeit with certain restrictions which prevent countries from fielding their strongest sides . The Olympic men 's tournament is played at Under @-@ 23 level . In the past the Olympics have allowed a restricted number of over @-@ age players per team . A women 's tournament was added in 1996 ; in contrast to the men 's event , full international sides without age restrictions play the women 's Olympic tournament . 

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 Football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games except 1896 and 1932 . Unlike many other sports , the men 's football tournament at the Olympics is not a top @-@ level tournament , and since 1992 , an under @-@ 23 tournament with each team allowed three over @-@ age players . Women 's football made its Olympic debut in 1996 , and is contested between full national sides with no age restrictions . 

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 According to Dyer in 1982 , exclusion of netball from the Summer Olympics is part of the historical pattern of the slow growth and gradual acceptance of women 's sports . Women first competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics in only three sports : tennis , croquet and golf . Women 's cycling was excluded for many years despite having world championships organised by 1958 . Field hockey , a sport included for men as early as 1908 , was not open to competition by women until 1980 . By the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , there were 159 medal events for men , but only 86 for women , and 12 for both men and women , and as late as 1996 , 26 countries sent no women to the Olympics . There were still sports that excluded women at the 2000 Summer Olympics , such as boxing , wrestling and baseball . At the 2012 Summer Olympics , every country but Nauru did , and both men and women competed in 34 sports . 

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 In 1986 , the International Olympic Committee ( IOC ) voted to allow all athletes to compete in Olympic Games starting in 1988 . The NHL was initially reluctant to allow its players to compete because the Olympics are held in the middle of the NHL season , and the league would have to halt play if many of its players participated . However , NHL players were allowed to compete starting in 1998 . The format of the tournament was adjusted to accommodate the NHL schedule ; a preliminary round was played without NHL players or the top six teams — Canada , the Czech Republic , Finland , Russia , Sweden and the United States — followed by a final round which included them . The tournament format was changed again in 2006 ; every team played five preliminary games with the full use of NHL players . 

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 The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in several changes to the Olympic Games . Some of these adjustments include the creation of the Winter Olympic Games for ice and winter sports , the Paralympic Games for athletes with a disability , and the Youth Olympic Games for teenage athletes . The IOC has had to adapt to a variety of economic , political , and technological advancements . As a result , the Olympics has shifted away from pure amateurism , as envisioned by Coubertin , to allowing participation of professional athletes . The growing importance of mass media created the issue of corporate sponsorship and commercialization of the Games . World wars led to the cancellation of the 1916 , 1940 , and 1944 Games . Large boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Games . 
