Reading Baron Pierre de Coubertin - Routledge Online Studies

Can the young women I have mentioned before, with justified
cruelty, acquire a moral sense through sports, too? I do not
believe so. Physical education, athletic physical culture, yes. That
is excellent for young girls, for women. But the ruggedness of
male exertion, the basis of athletic education when prudently
but resolutely applied, is much to be dreaded when it comes
to the female. That ruggedness is achieved physically only when
nerves are stretched beyond their normal capacity, and morally
only when the most precious feminine characteristics are nullified.
Female heroism is no phantom. I would even say, more directly,
that it is just as common and perhaps even more admirable than
male heroism.
(Coubertin 1928b: lines 158 – 168, emphasis added)