It’s time to celebrate a milestone achievement. For the first time in the history of international sporting events, we have equal participation of women and men. Paris 2024 Olympics marks the change for achieving full gender parity with an equal number of male and female athletes participating featuring 329 medal events, with 152 for women, 157 for men, and 20 mixed-gender events.
When it comes to women empowerment, it’s important to raise certain issues, but it’s equally important to rejoice our achievements. We can’t just wail and wallow over what’s gone wrong. Let’s also take a moment to celebrate that which is going right.
As they say, Rome was not built in a day. This gender parity has not been achieved overnight. It has taken years of toil and turmoil, tears and turbulence before some light has finally appeared at the end of the tunnel.
The Olympics started in 1896 and it was not until the 1900 Paris Olympics, that women were allowed to participate. Tennis and golf were the only sports where women could compete in individual events but constituted only 2.2% of the athletes. Of the 997 athletes who competed, 22 were women. The 1936 Berlin Olympics, female numbers increased to just 8.4%. The 2012 London Olympics were the first Games where every participating country had female competitors. In 1991, a new rule was introduced that any sport applying for Olympic recognition must include women’s events. The closest the Games had ever been gender-balanced, with 18 mixed-gender events was in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where women’s participation soared to 47.8%. New games were added for women such as the women’s 15,000 m freestyle for swimming, Canoe sprint, and sports like softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding were thrown open to women. A rule was changed to allow a male and female athlete to jointly carry their flag during the Opening Ceremony for the first time, which resulted in 91% of the National Olympic Committee having a woman flag bearer.
Sex and sports scandals have been inseparable. Remember the Larry Nassar Scandal, former Olympic doctor who was convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of young female athletes over decades. He was booked for a jail sentence of 175 years in Michigan in 2018 for abusing female athletes he was supposed to be treating. This scandal led to significant reforms in athlete protection policies and changes within the organization. Reminds me of horrific accounts shared by Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, and Sakshi Malik, gathering at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in protest against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh!
Gender pay gap, unequal training equipment and facilities were the bone of contention during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Reminds me how back home, Avani Lekhara, shooting gold medallist at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics shared her ordeal. For a woman who was also a person with disabilities, she faced a double whammy of sorts. She says- “When I started, we didn’t have proper ramps, accessible washrooms but now I can see changes happening. Today the shooting range where we train has become accessible. I still wish that parasports would be considered more mainstream.”
The Paris 2024 Olympics represents a significant step toward gender equality in sports, aiming to inspire future generations and setting a precedent for other global sporting events.
Reminds me of what cricketer Sachin Tendulkar once said: Success is a process… During that journey sometimes there are stones thrown at you, and you convert them into milestones.
Let’s celebrate milestones as we achieve them for they were challenges that we turned to opportunities. Party time!