Margaret Abbott
(1878 – 1955)
America’s First Female Olympic Champion
“Miss Abbott plays golf with exceptional grace and looks exceedingly well on the links,” The Inter Ocean reported on July 31, 1898. “Her drive is of considerable length, and on the green she is entirely at her ease. If she continues to advance as rapidly as she has heretofore it is predicted that Miss Abbott will ultimately take a place as one of the best women golfers in the United States.” from the Daily Drive
1900 Olympics
Margaret played in the 1900 Olympics, a side show to the Paris Exposition, now the Worlds Fair, because “she played golf and was in Paris” and won what she thought was playing in a small contained competition in Compiegne, 50 miles north of Paris.
Margaret died without knowing what she had achieved.
Meet Margaret Abbott, member of Chicago Golf Club and trailblazing athlete who became the first American woman to win an Olympic event—taking gold in golf at the 1900 Paris Olympics.
Born in Calcutta, India, Margaret was the daughter of U.S. merchant Charles Abbott and writer Mary Perkins Ives. After her father’s early death, the family moved back to the U.S., first settling in Boston, then Chicago. Her mother, an accomplished literary editor at The Chicago Herald, supported the family through writing—and passed on her passion for golf to her children.
Margaret quickly took to the sport, along with her brother Sprague, a Harvard student who often played mixed foursomes with her. By 1897, she was training with top male amateurs at the Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois—one of the country’s oldest golf clubs, founded by Charles Blair Macdonald in 1892. It’s likely her mother Mary was one of the club’s earliest female members.
Standing at 5’11”, Margaret was a natural on the course—long off the tee and fiercely competitive. With a two handicap, she dominated local tournaments and gained regional fame through glowing newspaper coverage.
Her historic Olympic win came almost by chance—yet she would go down in history as a pioneer for women in sports and a forgotten hero of early Olympic history.
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Career Timeline
Olympics 1900 – First Golf Medalist for Womens Golf, First Olympic Medalist for the USA in any sport.
Following her marriage, Margaret did not pursue a competitive career.
Recognition and Honours
Margaret was unaware she had won the Olympics, in 1900, and it took a researcher, Paula Welch, from the Univeristy of Florida to investigate and trace her family, who knew nothing of her success.
Her belated obituary was published in the New York Times in 2018.
Learn about Margaret from @Moxxy Herstory
Online Resources
– Wikipedia: “Margaret Abbot.” Last modified: Sept 2025. Link HERE
Britannica: “Margaret Abbot: A Study Break” Link HERE
– National Womens History Museum: “Margaret Ives Abbot” Author: Katie Taylor Ph.D. Link HERE
– The Daily Drive: “Untold gold: America’s first female medalist” Link HERE
– Brady Carlson: “Margaret Abbott Won Olympic Gold Even Though She Didn’t Know She Was In The Olympics” Link HERE
– France and Us: “Margaret Ives Abbott” Link HERE
Books and Biographies
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Archive Collections
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Secondary Sources
Academic Research
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Image Credits
– Headshot: France and Us : Link HERE
– At the Ball: Brady Carlson : Link HERE
– With Golf Club: The Daily Drive : Link HERE
Videos
– The Woman Who Won Olympic Gold Without Knowing It – Margaret Abbott: YouTube Channel: Moxxy Herstory Link HERE
Research Notes
Any additional notes about sources