Athletes: Madge Syers

Madge Syers (1881-1917) was the first female figure skater to compete against men and women. She often competed in pairs with her husband. She was the first woman to win two Olympic gold medals in one Olympic games. 

For Further Reading: 

• Figure Skating Has Always Blurred The Lines Of Gender Segregation 
• A Brief History of Women’s Figure Skating
• Look to the past: Madge Syers, the first woman to compete at a figure skating World Championships

This month we're celebrating the women who performed physical and mental feats in sports. They overcame societal barriers, personal struggles, and fierce competition to pursue their dreams of glory. We're talking about Athletes.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello from Wonder Media Network.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Wamanica. This month, we're
celebrating the women who performed physical and mental feats in sports.
They overcame societal barriers, personal struggles, and fierce competition to
pursue their dreams of glory.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
For talking about athletes, today's what.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Mannequin paid the way for women to compete in competitive
figure skating when she skated figure eights around her competition
men and women alike. At the peak of her career,
judges believed she was in a class of her own.
Let's talk about Madge Sires. Madge was born Florence Madeline

(00:42):
Cave in London in eighteen eighty one. Her father was
a well off Kensington property developer, and Madge was one
of fifteen children. Of all of the siblings, Madge was
the one who was always outdoors, no matter the season
or terrain.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
She loved sports.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
She swam laps or saddled up on horseback, but what
truly got her heart pumping was ice skating. At a
young age, Madge could be found at the Prince's Skating
Club in Knightsbridge, open only to members, typically other aristocrats.
It was an indoor rink, larger than many others at
the time, and it was rectangular rather than circular. It

(01:24):
also had big glass skylights, so Madge spent her days
skating around in pools of natural light. The early days
of figure skating looked quite different from the athletic and
expressive sport we know today. Figures were a big part
of it, performing intricate footwork and edgework.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
To draw images on the ice.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
British skaters also had a distinctive style, prim proper. Madge
adopted this style, her arms closed to her body, making precise,
tight edges. She had technique and talent that helped her
stand out. Plus she was a woman practicing what was
considered a gentleman's sport. Madge's natural poison grace eventually caught

(02:09):
the eye of her first coach and future husband, Edgar Syres.
Under Edgar's tutelage, Madge started to learn the new international
style skating. It was more expressive now, her moves were
more fluid and bolder. She incorporated arm movements and tried
more flashy elements like jumps. Together, Madge and Edgar began

(02:32):
competing in Paris skating competitions and events. In nineteen hundred,
they traveled to Berlin for one of the first ever
international pairs competitions. They won the silver medal. With Edgar's support,
Madge's skating career began to pick up speed, and she
set her sights on competing on her own on the
international stage. Figure skating competitions were relatively new events and

(02:59):
organized hadn't considered the prospect of women competing alone. Madge
decided to test their limits. In nineteen oh two, the
World Figure Skating Championships were held in London. This was
assumed to be an all men's event, but there were
no explicit rules disqualifying women. Madge jumped through that loophole

(03:21):
and competed against some of the best male figure skaters
in Europe.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
She donned her.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Traditional Victorian costume, a heavy, long skirt that ended just
above her ankles, a hat, and elegant gloves. Her performance
was so impressive that she took home the silver medal.
Ulrich Saucow, one of the most famous figure skaters at
the time, took home the gold sort of. As the
story goes, Ulrich was so blown away by Madge that

(03:48):
he believed she should have gotten the gold medal and
offered it to her. A judge later wrote about the event, rumor,
nay more than rumor, A good deal of expert opinion
thought she should have won. Madge's groundbreaking performance forced the
International Skating Union to consider the prospect of more women competing.

(04:08):
They raised three concerns. First, the length of the dress
didn't allow judges to properly see her feet. Second, a
judge might be biased if he's judging a girl he's
interested in. And ultimately, they believed it was difficult to
compare women athletes to men. In the end, the ISU
wrote explicit rules barring women from participating in the World

(04:29):
Figure Skating Championships for the foreseeable future.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Madge was not deterred.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
She began wearing klflink skirts so her footwork could be
seen more clearly by the judges, and she continued to
dominate every competition she could participate in. In nineteen oh three,
she won the first ever British Figure Skating Championships, which
allowed men and women to compete against each other. The
following year, she won first place again and even beat

(04:59):
out Edgar who came in second. By nineteen oh six,
the ISU lifted the ban on women participating in singles events.
To do that, they created a separate event labeled the
Ladies Championship. Winners of the Ladies event weren't considered world champions. Nevertheless,
Madge competed in nineteen oh six and nineteen.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Oh seven, and she took home the gold at both.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
There was one last metal Madge needed to complete her collection,
the Olympic gold. In nineteen oh eight, figure skating debuted
at the Summer Olympics. The first Winter Games wouldn't take
place for another sixteen years. The figure skating events took
place in the final weeks of October at the Prince's Club,
where Madge started her skating career. Now Madge would take

(05:47):
the ice alone in the ladies singles events, and she
and Edgar would compete in the pairs events. On the
first day, when Madge took the ice for the Ladies event,
an official report of Prince's Skating Club stated the rate
was filled to overflowing, with an enthusiastic crowd of onlookers
who witnessed perhaps the most strenuous, delightful, and varied display

(06:08):
of figure skating that has ever taken place. It was
soon apparent that Miss Sires is still in a class
by herself. The wonderful accuracy of her figures, combined with
perfect carriage and movement, was the chief feature of the
morning skating. The second day was a free skate. She
had four minutes to perform. The moves she chose were

(06:29):
difficult and executed at the highest level. When the time
came to announce the winner, Madge took home the gold
by a landslide. For the pairs event, Madge and Edgar
performed well yet again and took home the bronze. Madge
Sires became the first female figure skater to win two
medals at won Olympic Games. After all the fame and glory,

(06:52):
Madge's life skidded to a halt. She retired soon after
the nineteen oh eight Olympics due to health issues. Madge
and Edgar went on to publish a book together titled
The Art of Skating International Style. A few years later,
in nineteen seventeen, she died of heart failure at the
age of thirty five. In nineteen eighty one, Madge was

(07:15):
added to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. All
month we're talking about athletes. For more information, find us
on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special thanks to
Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
Talk to you tomorrow