Ysaora Thibus On Seeing Women’s Sport Beyond Performance

The Olympic Medalist and Nineteen Hundred Magazine Founder discusses her print endevour and how she is shaping a space where women's sports are told from a cultural, artistic perspective.

As part of a new collaboration with the PhMuseum 2026 Women Photographers Grant, Olympic fencer and Nineteen Hundred Magazine founder Ysaora Thibus will select a submission connected to women’s sport for a printed feature in the magazine’s third issue, out in March 2027. We spoke with her about the magazine, her motivations, and what she looks for in an image.

Dear Ysaora, how did you start the Nineteen Hundred project? What is its mission, and what does its name communicate it?

Nineteen Hundred grew out of my experience as a female athlete and the women I have met and been inspired by throughout my life in sport. I am an Olympic fencer, and I have always been fascinated by both the aesthetics of movement and the meaning behind what I do. In recent years, I have had the opportunity to take part in creative projects in fashion and art, and I wanted to create a space where sport, photography and art could meet with depth, intention and meaning.

The name refers to 1900, the year women first competed in the modern Olympic Games. At the time, just 22 women competed out of 997 athletes, across only five sports. The idea was to acknowledge that history while celebrating women in sport and creating a space where they could be seen and tell their stories.

Why did you venture into printing, considering all its technical and financial challenges? What do you think is the role of printed matter these days?

I have advocated for greater representation of women’s sport for years and created a digital platform to highlight the stories of female athletes. To be honest, creating content for social media is not really my thing. I like to take time to give the work room to exist in a more subtle and collaborative way. Of course, social media plays an important role in increasing visibility, but I felt that a printed object could offer something more lasting.

As female athletes, we are still too rarely given covers or space in sports publications. We rarely feel like the priority. Nineteen Hundred is a print magazine dedicated to women’s sport through an artistic and cultural lens – a perspective that is still rarely given space. I think that says a lot.

Who is on the team behind the magazine, and how do you ensure the athletes themselves have a say in how they’re represented?

We started with a small group of friends who believed in the project, while I was learning how to be an editor-in-chief. Everyone wanted to stay and help it grow. Our graphic designer, Roxane Missé, is now our art director. We have grown into a wonderful team of women from different fields, including Elvira Tiaou, who oversees fashion direction, and Amandine Pinatel and Marie Vallon, who started as interns and now manage projects. Another female athlete, Shainez El Haïmour, who practises karate, has joined the team for the next issue.

We share an approach to working with athletes: we talk with them, and we speak the same language. I think that is our strength. We are not trying to create something trendy or fit their stories into a predetermined narrative. We listen to the athletes, try to understand their experiences, and value their opinions on how those stories are told.

Often, I have felt that people in sport make decisions for you and put you in a box, even though being an athlete involves so much reflection and self-awareness.

We approach our relationships with creatives and contributors in the same spirit. We want the magazine to reflect our vision while giving them the space and freedom to express their own artistic voice.

Sports photography often focuses on the peak moment. What kinds of images of women athletes do you feel are missing, and how do you work with photographers to create them?

The whole concept behind the magazine is to look beyond performance. Performance matters deeply, but when you show only the podium, you miss everything it represents. To win, you have to lose and overcome so much. Athletes are often portrayed as exceptional human beings, and in many ways, they are. But I also believe people can connect with them through the challenges we all share.

I want to talk about failure, resilience and personal battles. I want to show the moments in between: the solitude, the grief, the people around them, their scars and injuries. I want images that reveal the invisible: the hours of work, the doubt, the search for confidence. What drives them to perform.

To do that, we ask photographers to speak with the athlete and begin with the story before developing a mood board or visual approach. We ask them to take the time to understand the person and build the trust that allows intimacy and vulnerability to emerge. We try to look beyond the obvious and find details within their sport that express their experience.

Why did you partner with PhMuseum’s Women Photographers Grant, and what do you expect from our network and community?

One of the projects from our last issue, Kourtney Iman King’s series about majorettes in Atlanta, was shortlisted for the grant last year. Through that project, we discovered PhMuseum and immediately felt a connection with its vision and approach.

We are an independent magazine, and we are intentional about how we work. Giuseppe offered us the opportunity to collaborate on this year’s grant, and we are deeply honoured to be part of it. Through this collaboration, we hope to discover photographers with distinctive voices and new perspectives on women and sport.

When you look through the submissions, what will you be searching for? Do you have any advice for applicants?

I think I will seek something that moves me – something creative, but also very personal. It will be an intuitive process, guided by emotion and sensitivity. We will also review the submissions together as the Nineteen Hundred team.

I would rather not give applicants specific advice, because I want to leave room for their own vision. I am deeply excited to discover their work. As an athlete, I know what it means to put a part of your soul into what you do, and I am honoured to be able to support one of these women photographers.

Does “connected to women’s sport” have to mean athletes in action, or can it be broader?

It can absolutely be broader. When we show sport in training or competition, we tend to take a documentary approach rather than stage or pose those moments. But we also explore what happens between moments of pure performance and movement.

It is important for us to tell the stories of elite female athletes because we believe they are still significantly underrepresented. However, we also look beyond elite sport, exploring communities, culture and how sport can become a way to express resilience.

We have featured Palestinian women who practise sport in a refugee camp. We have also featured Zaha Hadid, an architect who designed a stadium and an Olympic ski jump.

What advice would you give a photographer working on a sports-related project?

I believe sport is a mirror of society. It can be strong and raw, but also fragile and poetic. I would look for authenticity and explore that duality.

Can you give us a preview of the third issue, expected in March 2027?

I am so thrilled about what is coming. The magazine has found its purpose and its community. For this third issue, we are continuing to explore the dialogue between sport, photography and fashion through personal stories and the communities around them. We are also beginning to bring a cinematic dimension to the project. Our stories are becoming more international and, at the same time, more intimate. I am deeply grateful for the enthusiasm of the athletes and contributors as we create something together that feels unique and, I believe, necessary.

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NINETEEN HUNDRED is an independent magazine that builds a creative space around female athletes and brings authentic stories through sports, fashion and culture. This physical publication establishes a vibrant, athlete-led view on the women’s sports world. One with rawness and authenticity, exploring the nuances and intricacies of being a female athlete. It aspires to break through the boxes set by society for women and athletes. This collective project also aims to connect worlds and people together through visual expression and deeper discussions, spreading the true emotions that are catalyzed by women in sports. Most importantly, it creates a space for female athletes to be represented in the way they want to be represented.

The PhMuseum 2026 Women Photographers Grant is currently open for submissions. Its aim is to empower the work and careers of female and non-binary professionals of all ages and from all countries working in diverse areas of photography. To learn more and apply, visit phmuseum.com/w26. Extended Deadline: 22 October