Women's sports
Women's sports includes amateur as well as women's professional sports, in virtually all varieties of sports. Female participation in sports rose dramatically in the twentieth century, especially in the last quarter, reflecting changes in modern societies that emphasized gender parity. Although the level of participation and performance still varies greatly by country and by sport, women's sports have broad acceptance throughout the world in the 2010s. In a few instances, such as figure skating, women athletes rival or exceed their male counterparts in popularity. An important aspect about women's sports is that women usually do compete on equal terms against men.
History
Ancient civilizations
Before each ancient Olympic Games there was a separate women's athletic event, the Heraean Games, dedicated to the goddess Hera and held at the same stadium at Olympia. Myth held that the Heraea was founded by Hippodameia the wife of the king who founded the Olympics.
Although married women were excluded from the Olympics even as spectators, Cynisca won an Olympic game as owner of a chariot (champions of chariot races were owners not riders), as did Euryleonis, Belistiche, Zeuxo, Encrateia and Hermione, Timareta, Theodota and Cassia.
NXT Women's Championship
The NXT Women's Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned and competed for exclusively in NXT, WWE's developmental territory female division. The championship is contested in professional wrestling matches, and is currently held by Bayley in her first reign.
History
The championship was first introduced on April 5, 2013 at WrestleMania Axxess. It was announced at the May 30, 2013 tapings (broadcast on the June 5 episode) of WWE NXT, by Stephanie McMahon that there would be a tournament, featuring four developmental women and four divas from the main roster competing to be crowned as the inaugural NXT Women's Champion in a knockout system format. The first NXT Women's Champion was crowned on June 20, 2013, with Paige defeating Emma in the tournament finals.
Paige successfully defended her title at NXT Arrival against Emma using her new Scorpion Cross-Lock, but John Layfield stripped Paige of the title on the April 24 edition of NXT in order to give the divas on NXT a chance, as Paige had been brought up to the main roster upon defeating AJ Lee for the WWE Divas Championship.
