Sexism at the Olympics?

Source: gender-inequality-olympics-2024_by Flickr

Sports is one of the biggest platforms in the world which can serve as an inspiration for gender equality in other sectors. Sports tournaments like the Olympics are historically significant and have a lot of weightages in the international community. So, it makes a very heavy impact when women make a name for themselves in the Olympics.

It has been more than a century since women started competing in the Paris 1900 Olympics. The number has been growing steadily ever since and at the Tokyo games in 2020, there were as many women participants as men competing. 34 percent of the total participants were women in the 1996 Olympics whereas in the 2020 Tokyo games, this number significantly increased to 48 percent. This is a huge accomplishment for women athletes.

The Paris 2024 Olympics were expected to be just as much liberating as its predecessors. Athletes like Simone Biles have represented the female community very well on this international stage. But recent news headlines have also highlighted some negatives. These problems force us to think if we have truly achieved gender parity or not.

Historical Examples

Women started participating in the Olympics after the year 1900 when Helene de Pourtales of Switzerland first competed in a sailing event. She was also the first female Olympic champion as her team won the event. After her, Charlotte Cooper became the first female individual champion after she won the women’s singles tennis competition.

Way later in 1928, two new events- Women’s athletics and gymnastics were introduced- quite later than their male equivalents. Just like this, women’s sports were added slowly slowly to the official list. This went on till 2012 when women’s boxing was added, ending the list of sports that didn’t include women. 2012 was also important because three Muslim countries who had previously held back from sending women athletes-Qatar, Brunei, and Saudi Arabia – also sent their women athletes this time to London.

Since then, every sport has been introduced for both men and women, and every national Olympic committee has sent their female athletes to the games. But we still haven’t seen a female president of the IOC yet and the sports administration is male-dominated.

Paris Olympics 2024

The Paris Olympics 2024 have been popularized as one of the most ‘gender-equal’ games held in history with numerous brilliant sportsmen coming this year to compete for their respective titles.

The first blow to this prestigious event came when the guidelines had to be updated by the Olympics Broadcasting Services. The Olympics camera operators have been given a strict warning against clicking and recording sportswomen in a ‘sexist’ manner; the male camera team is to avoid doing inappropriate close-ups of the female participants. They probably looked out for the women in the tourneys, preparing for a move better expected from men.

Then, there is Bob Ballard who got dropped after he was caught making pretty blatant sexist remarks about the Australian women’s swimming team. After their win, Ballard said, “Well, the women [are] just finishing off. You know what women are like… hanging around, doing their make-up.” Well, that’s pretty nice- belittling a team that was titled the best in the world right in front of him. He has apologized for comments now but the damage is done, right?

Also, did I mention how a convicted child rapist is allowed to compete in these games? That’s right! Dutch volleyball player Steven van de Velde went to prison in 2016 after he pleaded guilty to raping a 12-year-old when he was 19. He was released after serving for a year and now, is competing freely.

So, does it look liberating enough right now? I don’t think so. We still have a long way to go and the IOC needs to work harder for better opportunities for women.

Resources