Pioneer in Women's Olympic Competitions. She holds the honor of being the first American woman to place first in Olympic Competitions. Instead of an Olympic Gold Medal, she received the prize of an antique porcelain bowl embellished with gold as in 1900 there were no Gold Medals to be awarded. Competing in the 1900 games in Paris, her sports category was golf. Born in India as the daughter of a wealthy American merchant, she, along with her mother and two brothers, came to the United States at the age of 14 months, with a seriously ill father. Her father died in 1879. The family eventually relocated to Chicago in 1884 when her mother became the literary editor of the newspaper, the "Chicago Herald." In an era when sports competitions were not acceptable for ladies of the upper classes of society, she started playing amateur golf at Chicago Golf Club with her coach Charles B. Macdonald, who later became known as the "Father of American Golf." After the couple partnered in an 1897 tournament at Washington Park and placing first, she began to win other local competitions. In 1899 she and her mother traveled to Paris, France, where she studied art and languages. The second modern-day Olympics were scheduled in Paris during May to October of 1900. After reading in a newspaper about the competition, she and her mother, who was an avid golfer, entered the competition. The 1900 competitions were the first games where women were allowed to compete in 5 sports: golf, croquet, tennis, sailing, and equestrian. With her mother competing in the golf tournament, she and her mother are the only women in United States history to compete in the same game at the same Olympics. There was a total of 22 women participating in the 1900 Olympics. Held 30 miles outside of Paris, the women's golf competition, "Prix de la ville de Compiègne," was played in 9 holes, ranging in distance from 68 yards to 230 yards. Since the competition was not labeled "the Olympics," many athletes did not know that they were actually participating in the Olympics, according to Dr. William James Mallon, a leading authority on the history of the Olympic Games. The games were called "Paris World's Fair Competition." There was no opening or closing ceremonies as there are today. For this reason, she never really understood that she played in the Olympics. On the 4th of October she won the nine-hole tournament with a score of 47 strokes. Walking across the golf course, she was a stunning young lady at 5'11'' wearing a long dress and a huge hat. Her mother tied at 7th place in the competition. She remained in France for a time, placing first in the 1902 Femina Cup, a forerunner of the French Women's Championship. Returning to the United States, she had no Gold Medal around her neck nor a victory parade with headlines in national newspapers. Although not mentioned that she was America's first female Olympic champion, her Paris golf game was covered in a story in the "Chicago Tribune." On December 9, 1902 in a simple ceremony, she married author, Finley Peter Dunne. The couple had a daughter and three sons, including Hollywood screenwriter Paul Dunne. With her focusing on the duties as a wife and mother, compounded with an old knee injury from childhood, she did not participate much in the game of golf after her marriage. Later the family relocated to Greenwich, Connecticut. A.J. Spalding, who was appointed by United States President William McKinley, was the 1900 Summer Olympic Games Commissioner and had her named etched as documentation of championship on a plaque in the MacArthur Room, the previous headquarters of the United States Olympic Committee in New York City. Spalding submitted a formal report to President stating besides Abbott being first, two other American women, Miss Polly Whittier and Mrs. Hugar Pratt, placed second and third in the same event. In 1984 an article covering her Olympic victory, which was written by her son Phillip Dunne, was published in "Golf Digest". At the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta, she was listed in the program as participating and placing first in the 1900 games. Her original 1955 obituary, which appeared in the "Boston Globe," did not even mention her interest in golf. Acknowledging her as the 1900 Olympic first-place champion in golf, her corrected obituary was belatedly published in 2018 in the "New York Times." Women's golf was not included in the Olympic Games again until the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.