Knowledge, care, and discipline: the Dane Ingeborg Paul-Petersen as a pioneer in women’s swimming coaching

During the Interwar period, female athletes from Denmark dominated international swimming competitions. It was the first time that the country demonstrated sporting success in a core Olympic discipline on the global sporting level. Most of the Danish swimmers had the same coach, the co-leader of the Institute of Danish Women’s Gymnastics (DKI), Ingeborg Paul-Petersen. Based on archival sources and historical newspaper reports, this paper shows that Paul-Petersen’s role as an educator in the DKI and her vast experience in swimming training provided her with the perfect skills and context to develop her athletes into elite swimmers. She profited from the unique environment at the DKI that led her to approach coaching as a combination of motherly care for her young athletes and a discipling. However, Paul-Petersen avoided publicity and therefore her extraordinary achievements remained largely unnoticed until date.