Tokyo Games highlight strides in gender equality
TOKYO. — At the first modern Olympic Games, held in 1896 in Athens, there wasn’t a single female competitor. When the 2020 Games officially kicks-off in Tokyo today, nearly half of the athletes competing will be women.
Tokyo marks a “turning point” for the elite international sporting competition as the most gender-equal Olympics in the Games’ history, organisers said, with women accounting for nearly 49% of the 11 090 athletes. That’s up from 45% at the last Games in 2016 in Rio, 23% at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, 13.2% at the 1964 Games in Tokyo, and 2.2% at the 1900 Games in Paris — the first to have female athletes. When the Games return to Paris in 2024, there is anticipated to be full gender parity, with the same number of female athletes as male athletes.
The milestone comes as the 2020 Games have sparked a conversation around the needs of mothers in particular, regarding accommodations around pregnancy, breastfeeding and child care and as scandals involving the abuse and harassment of female athletes continue to plague sports globally. In the years leading up to the Tokyo Olympics — which, after being delayed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, run from today through to August 8 — the International Olympic Committee has been working toward achieving more gender equity in terms of athlete quotas and event programming.
The IOC was “very deliberate” about working with international sports federations, which are in charge of their discipline’s qualifying procedures, to increase the number of female athletes in 2020, IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell told ABC News.
“We got the overall number of athletes down from Rio to Tokyo, but even in getting the overall number down, we increased the number of women’s athletes,” he said.For the first time, each team participating will have at least one female and one male athlete, and the 2020 Games will feature new events for women and more mixed-gender teams in an attempt at greater gender equity within sports.