Over a century after women were first allowed to compete in the Summer Olympics at Paris 1900, the French capital is set to host the first gender-equal Games. The XXXIII Olympiad in 2024 will feature an equal number of male and female athletes, with 5,250 women participating out of a total of 10,500 Olympians. This marks a significant increase from Tokyo 2020, where women accounted for 47.8 percent of the athletes. Furthermore, women will represent 40 percent of technical officials in Paris, a rise from 30 percent in Tokyo.
The journey towards gender equality in the Olympics has been a long one. The 1900 Games saw a paltry 2.2 percent of women athletes, with only 22 out of 997 participants being female. Progress was slow until the London 2012 Games, dubbed ‘The Women’s Games,’ when every participating country finally fielded female athletes. “We are about to celebrate one of the most important moments in the history of women at the Olympic Games and in sport overall. This is our contribution to a more gender-equal world,” International Olympic Council president Thomas Bach said on International Women’s Day this year.
The IOC’s push for equality extends beyond athlete representation. The organization has designed a more balanced sports program for Paris, with 28 out of 32 sports achieving full gender parity. Even the medal events are reflecting this shift, with 152 for women, 157 for men, and 20 mixed-gender events.
Despite these positive developments, the road to complete gender equality in sports is far from over. According to the United Nations’ Global Gender Gap Report 2023, the gender gap across 146 countries is only 68.4 percent closed. At the current rate of progress, achieving equal representation between men and women in various sectors, including economics, politics, health, and education, will take another 131 years.
While India has made progress in closing its gender gap, achieving 64.3 percent closure, challenges remain. The country will send 46 women athletes to the Paris Games, representing 41 percent of its Olympic squad. This is slightly lower than the 53 women athletes out of 120 participants at Tokyo 2021. Although India has seen success with female athletes, winning eight out of 20 medals since the turn of the century, they still face significant obstacles, particularly online abuse.
A study commissioned by World Athletics found that 87 percent of online abuse on Twitter during the Tokyo Olympics targeted female athletes. Recognizing the need to protect athletes from such harassment, the IOC will implement an AI-powered monitoring system during the Paris Games. Developed in collaboration with the IOC’s Athletes’ Commission and the Medical and Scientific Commission, the system will track posts across major social media platforms in 35+ languages, reporting abusive content in real-time.
However, the fight for true gender parity goes beyond online abuse. Only 13 percent of coaching positions at the Tokyo Games were held by women, and the IOC’s executive board currently has only 33 percent female representation. A 2018 UNESCO study found that while women make up 40 percent of athletes, their events receive a meager four percent of global sports coverage. A 2023 study by The Collective revealed that women’s sports receive a mere 15 percent of total sports media coverage in the US. Even publications like Sportstar, despite their efforts, are not immune to this bias. Only two out of 15 covers featured female athletes this year, compared to eight out of 34 last year.
While progress towards gender equality in sports is being made, the pace is still far from satisfactory. The journey towards true parity requires a significant acceleration in efforts to ensure equal opportunities, representation, and recognition for female athletes across all aspects of the sporting world.
