by Talia Minsberg
For the first time since the inception of the modern Olympics 125 years ago, the Games have almost reached gender parity.
According to the International Olympic Committee, about 49% of the approximately 11,000 athletes that will reach Tokyo will be women, up from 45.6% at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and 44.2% at the 2012 London Olympics. (The IOC does not have data on the number of non-binary athletes in these sports.)
Many countries attribute the move to sweeping policy changes, increased funding, and the promotion of female athletes in the mainstream media. But for other countries, the equality is far from over: men enjoy far more wealth, news coverage and opportunities than their female counterparts.
Even though profits are made on the playing field, the make-up of the heavily male IOC lags behind. Women make up 33.3% of its executive board; And 37.5% of the members of the committee are women.
In recent months the organization has wrestled with a series of gender-related mistakes on the public stage. Recently, on Wednesday, IOC Vice President, John Coates had a tense exchange with Australia’s premier of Queensland, Anastasia Palaszczuk. He orders her to attend the opening ceremony, despite her saying that she will not do so.
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“You’re going to the opening ceremony,” he said sternly, crossing his arms.
While the committee has praised an initiative taken to promote gender equality, Olympic athletes who are new mothers have complained about the COVID-related restrictions in Tokyo preventing them from bringing their children to the Games. Which is a challenge for the caregivers of their young children.
The IOC reversed its decision in late June, allowing nursing mothers to bring their babies. Some athletes, including Spanish swimmer Ona Carbonell, said the restrictions in place made accommodation impractical.
The chairman of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee was replaced this year after he publicly suggested that women speak too much in meetings. In March, the creative director for the opening ceremony stepped down after it was revealed that he had made derogatory remarks about the physical appearance of Naomi Watanabe, a plus-size fashion designer.
Nevertheless, progress in gender representation of athletes has been steady, if uneven.
“When you have policies and resources dedicated to girls and women in sport, you get equal numbers and high performance,” said Nicole M., director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport. Lavoie said. Minnesota. “Obviously, many countries have found it very challenging.”
Consider the starting point.
IOC founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin barred women from competing in the inaugural Games of 1896. In 1900, 22 women were welcomed to compete in five women’s sports – among them croquet – while 975 men competed in everything from athletics to rowing.
Women made up no more than 10% of participants until 1952; Since then this ratio has collapsed. Women were not allowed to compete in every sport until 2012, and it was not until 2014 that the IOC’s planning agenda included working “to achieve 50% female participation in the Olympic Games”.
Ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday, several countries, including the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada and China, announced team lineups, with more women than men.
Numbers aside, men still hold an advantage in the competition for the most advantageous slot for their races, matches and television time. Yet the organizing committee keeps on making symbolic gestures pointing to the similarities.
For the first time, the IOC has encouraged each participating country to nominate one male and one female flag bearer at the opening ceremony. For some, such as China and Mongolia, this means a woman will be the flag bearer for the first time.
These sports would also include the introduction of new sports: baseball, softball, karate, skateboarding, sports climbing and surfing. They all feature men’s and women’s competitions, funneling new types of athletic talent to the Olympics. More mixed-gender events – 18 in total – will be held with the highest profile in the track and swimming relay. There will also be mixed doubles events in the mixed triathlon relay, table tennis and mixed events in judo, archery and shooting.
Still, some incidents continue to exclude women. The Olympic Decathlon – a series of 10 track and field events – is for men only. Jordan Gray, the American record holder in the women’s decathlon in world track, is leading a campaign to add the event to the Games for 2024. The 50-kilometer running distance is also offered as an Olympic event for men only.
Despite all this, the biggest American stars in sports may be women. Two of them are swimmer Katie Ledecky and gymnast Simone Biles, the returning medalist and fan favorite.
“The punchline here is that you see women in some countries – mostly white, in Western countries – actually outperform their male peers, despite the fact that they have fewer resources, less support, less viability, less who Get anything,” Lavoie said.
“Despite this, they are still outperforming men,” she said, pointing to the enduring star power of female athletes like Biles. “It’s kind of wonderful.”
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