On September 29, 1923, the first U.S. national outdoor track-and-field championships for women were held at Weequahic Park in Newark, New Jersey. Organized under the Amateur Athletic Union, the meet marked an important step in the formal recognition and development of women’s competitive athletics in the United States.
The championship followed the growing interest generated by the 1922 Women’s World Games in Paris, where American athletes joined competitors from several countries in a pioneering international meet. The Newark program featured ten events: the 50-yard and 100-yard sprints, 60-yard hurdles, a 4×110-yard relay, high jump, long jump, shot put, discus, javelin, and the baseball throw. Athletes from clubs and organizations around the country competed for national titles.
By creating a national championship pathway for women under the AAU, the meet gave women’s track and field a more visible and structured place in American sport. It did not end the obstacles women athletes faced, but it was a consequential milestone in the movement that led to women’s athletics joining the Olympic program in 1928 and to later generations of U.S. success on the international stage.
Image credit: Female athletes training at Weequahic Park, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
