Photo

Twenty-five years ago, the city’s Human Rights Commission accused the New York Athletic Club, a genteel and exclusive institution, of illegal discrimination for refusing to allow women to become members. It took two years, but the club, realizing it was waging a losing battle, relented and grudgingly opened its doors to women.

Ray Glynn, 62, a lawyer who has been a member since 1979, remembers that the decision was met with consternation by some members.

“The feeling when women were first admitted was, What’s going to happen?’’ Mr. Glynn said. “Is the boxing room going to be turned into an aerobics studio?’’ (Actually, it became a women’s locker room when the number of women at the club grew.)

And, he noted the club’s swimming pool policy. “They used to forbid the use of swimsuits. That tradition obviously had to change.’’

Today, the club, which was founded by business leaders in 1868 and which occupies a building on Central Park South, is still an enclave for deep-pocketed men who outnumber women by more than eight to one.

But when the Olympic Games open on Friday in London, a club that had to be legally pummeled to end its male-only history will mark a significant milestone: for the first time, female club members will outnumber their male counterparts on the United States team.

“It was evolution,” James O’Brien, the club’s director of communications, said. “Opportunities for women, not just at the club, but in athletics in general, became more prevalent. So what happened here just reflected that.”

Photo

The last time an all-male group from the club competed in the Olympics was at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. Since then, the number of women has been steadily rising: Eight qualified for Sydney in 2000, 10 went to Athens in 2004, and 15 made it to Beijing in 2008. This year, 28 women and 27 men will try to add to the tally of 231 Olympic medals club members have brought home since 1896.

One of club’s most promising competitors is Kayla Harrison, 22, who stands a chance of becoming the first American to win a gold medal in judo. She said the club’s support was a major turning point in her career. Six years ago, her coach, Jimmy Pedro, a longtime member, saw promise in Ms. Harrison but realized she did not have very much money to finance her athletic aspirations.

So he appealed to the club’s leaders.

“I said, ‘Listen, this girl is a hard-luck story,’” Mr. Pedro said. “‘I need you to help me and believe in me and believe in her that she’s going to be great someday.’ She has certainly lived up to those expectation.” In 2010, Ms. Harrison won the World Judo Championships and was named the club’s athlete of the year.

“I was a nobody,” she said, adding that if not for all the training and the travel that the club had paid for, “I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

The club provides generous financial backing to other Olympic athletes, both men and women, depending on their needs, but in keeping with an organization that zealously guards its privacy, club officials would not be more specific.

Club officials and veteran members were also reticent to revisit the club’s no-women-allowed past, eager instead to focus on the progress its female athletes have made in recent years.

“We offer equal opportunities for women to participate here at the club,” said Cedric Jones, who has been the club’s athletic director for five years. He said female members qualified for 8 of the 10 Olympic sports that club members will compete in at this year’s Games.

“We promote athletics,” Mr. Jones said. “If we have more male or female athletes, so be it. Our goal is to help them reach their goals.”

Mr. Glynn, the longtime member, said the fears of many men about being forced to allow women into their club were quickly put to rest. “It did not spoil or diminish what was really a good thing to begin with,’’ he said.

Caryn Davies, a star rower on the United States women’s eight rowing team, which won a gold medal in Beijing, became a club member three years ago when she moved to New York to attend Columbia Law School. The instant sense of community made her feel at home, she said, and it was there that she met her boyfriend, made new friends and worked out. The club also helped her financially during the 14 months she spent at Princeton preparing for the Olympics.

“The New York Athletic Club is the source of all things good in my life,” Ms. Davies, 30, said.

Sitting in the club’s Hall of Fame near a wall of photos of members going to London, Missy Keene, director of market strategy at KPMG and a cabaret vocalist who has been a club member since 1996, said that when she first joined, there were few women. But, she said, “The club welcomed me with open arms.”

As for what the inclusion of women has brought to the club, Ms. Keene said: “We have 28 female Olympians on our wall. That’s what it did.”