LAnd Paris 2024 Olympics which will be held from July 26th to August 11th will be special for at least one reason. They will be the first in history in which, for the first time, they will compete as many women as men, in the same number of races and sports.
Gender equality at the Paris 2024 Olympics
Of the 10,500 athletes who will participate in the Games, 5250 will be men, 5250 will be women. It is a theme, that of gender equality, that the event also celebrates in other ways, and finally. But the road to true equity is still long.
Brief history of women’s participation in the Olympic Games
In Ancient Greece, at the first Olympic Games in history, in 776 BC, women were not allowed to participate in the races, not even as spectators. And not even in the first Olympics held in the modern era, in 1896 in Athens, was female participation allowed: Baron Pierre de Coubertin, creator of the modern Olympic Games, believed that the greatest objective in a woman’s life was to encourage her sons to stand out in sport and applaud the effort of men.
The first female marathon runner, between history and legend
The Greek marathon runner, of humble origins, desperately tried to compete at those Games in search of fame and fortune. Printed Revithi, nicknamed Melpomene, like the muse. The organizers prevented her from entering the stadium but she ran her solo feat anyway, between history and legend, covering the distance in 5 and a half hours, two more than expected (the women’s marathon would only enter the Games in 1984).
The first Games open to women, but only in “suitable” sports
The first Olympic Games open to women they were those of Paris in 1900, with twenty-two athletes out of 997, i.e. 2% of all competitors. But for the first few years their presence was limited to some specific sports, namely tennis, sailing, croquet, hesitation and golf, which were considered “suitable” for the female gender.
The 1922 Women’s Olympics organized by the International Women’s Sports Federation in response to the Olympic Committee’s refusal to admit women to the 1992 Games. Alice Milliat was among the judges. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Alice Milliat and the first women’s Olympics
The revolution began after 1922, the year in which they took place for the first time, right in Paris, the women’s Olympics. They were organized by the founded International Women’s Sports Federation by the athlete Alice Milliat, swimmer and sports manager. The success was such that the International Olympic Committee decided to allow women to participate in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.
The percentage of women until the 2024 Paris Olympics
Meanwhile, in 1924 the percentage of women rose to 4.4%: 135 out of 3089. Women, 10% of the athletes in Amsterdam, were finally allowed to take part in athletics. Before then, many thought that physical effort was dangerous for women.
The partecipation rises again in Montreal 1976 (21% of female athletes). With women’s competitions also in basketball, rowing and handball. And then in London in 2012 (44% of female athletes) when for the first time women participated in all the sports included in the Olympic programme.
True equality, at least numerically, is at the Paris 2024 Olympics: 50% female athletes. YesIn Tokyo we came close to equality: 5498 women against 5985 men: with the addition of 22 mixed races, very useful for increasing female participation. Still The 6 categories of Greco-Roman wrestling are not available for womenjust as the artistic gymnastics and boxing programs include two and one less competition for women respectively. On the other hand, men are still excluded from rhythmic gymnastics.
Equality as the objective of the Olympic Committee
Such a goal was, obviously, an objective for the International Olympic Committee, achieved in collaboration with the International Federations and the National Olympic Committees. Thus an equal number of Olympic quotas was assigned for men and women also thanks to the 22 sports with mixed event: team competitions in which men and women compete together.
Beyond the races, the symbols of gender equality at the Paris 2024 Olympics
There will then be some symbolic operations.
From the logo representing Marianne to the sports facilities dedicated to women
From Olympics logo representing “Marianne”, the female representation of the French republic. Thanks to the Paris 2024 Olympics, 70 institutions across France have committed to rename their facilities after prominent women. Considering that today only 1% of sports facilities in France are named after women, quite a change.
The logo of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games combines three symbols: the gold medal, the Olympic flame and the face of Marianne, icon of the revolution and of the French people.
Not only that, the marathon route was inspired by “Women’s March” of October 1789when approximately 7,000 Parisian women marched on Versailles, forcing King Louis XVI to return to Paris.
The guidelines for communicating with female athletes: just talk about clothing and physical appearance
Finally, the THAT IS he published some Guidelines for fair, just and inclusive gender representation, from the point of view of both language and image. In light of the evidence: when the media is interested in female athletes, they always tend to focus on characteristics that are not strictly sporting. Such as physical appearance, clothing and personal life, and tie their successes to their gender role.
Gender equality at the Paris 2024 Olympics: reality or showcase?
But, as he says at length an authoritative article The Conversationthe differences are upstream, in the way sports are (still) conceived. For example, gymnastics: women’s gymnastics emphasizes femininity and minimizes strength and power which are instead at the center of male performances. But in general, women’s sports are designed to be a smaller version of men’s sports. The races are shorter, there are fewer weight categories, the women wear skimpier uniforms.
In short, the numerical gender equality we are talking about today is above all a showcase, the result of decisions made by those who control Olympic sports: decision makers who continue to be predominantly men. But there are many internal contradictions in the Olympic program. If some events are constructed in the same way for men and women, for others this is not the case. In short, the IOC should look beyond the numbers and address the conditions of participation of athletes to the same sports in terms of opportunities and status.
Equality between managers and coaches is still far away
The world of sport reflects the same divide that affects society where employed women may increase but mostly men continue to sit at the top.
So, for example, at the last Tokyo 2020 Olympics the percentage of female coaches was 13%, in Paris 2024 it is estimated that female coaches will be 25%. And on the management front things are certainly no better.
There is growth but there is still a lot of work to do. The IOC has already activated the program WISH (Women in Sport High-performance)a 4-year journey for train around 100 women coaches and managers of the highest level.
As in companies, the focus is on women’s leadership
«Over the last 10 years, the growth in the number of female coaches attending the Games has been too slow. And instead we need female coaches in sports for the same reasons the corporate world needs female representatives at the highest levels of leadership». He explains it Nawal El Moutawakel, member of the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee and the first Arab-African woman to win an Olympic gold medal. “We need women and young girls to see coaches, who believe they can reach positions of responsibility and influence.”
The goal cannot be reached in a few moves, because a coaching career typically requires 10 to 12 years of competition at the national level before reaching the Olympic level. The challenge starts at the grassroots level and it will take time to get things right. But, at least, there is the will to do it.
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