Paris 2024 Olympics: Gender Parity On Field, But Disparity On Bench

Paris 2024 has made history in many aspects in terms of gender parity—the first Olympic Games to achieve full gender equality on the field of play and over half of all the medal events are open to female athletes.

Gender equality was also evident at the opening ceremony, with 96% of the national Olympic committee delegations selecting two athletes—one male and one female—to carry their respective countries' flags. Twenty-eight out of the 32 sports have reached full gender equality too.

However, a real gender gap still exists in the athletes' entourage, where the number of women holding leadership roles, such as that of chef de mission, technical official and coach, remains remarkably low, according to the International Olympic Committee website.

Less than 23% of the coaches will be women in Paris in 2024. In Tokyo 2020, 48% of the athletes were female, but the number of female coaches was just 13%, according to the IOC data.

In Rio 2016, 11% of female coaches led the teams, compared to 45% of female athletes. In London 2012, 11% of the coaches were women and 44% of the athletes were female.

This is not just the case for the Summer Games. The Winter Olympic Games also witnessed a smaller number of coaches. Beijing 2022 had 10% female coaches, while PyeongChang 2018 and Sochi 2014 had 9% each.

The IOC is aiming to increase the number of female coaches through its Women in Sport High-Performance or WISH programme. Six participants of this programme are already confirmed as coaches in Paris.

As the city of love achieved the goal of gender parity in many areas and wrote history, the question remains as to how long it will take for more women coaches to lead elite games like the Olympics.

In a boost to the aim of fostering gender equality, half of the 10,500 athletes in Paris 2024 will be women. The competition schedule comprises 152 women's events, 157 men's events and 20 mixed-gender events.

"The parity amongst athletes encouraged Paris 2024 to be ambitious on gender equality, with two objectives: advancing the role of women in sport and using sport as a tool to contribute to more gender equality between men and women in society in general," Marie Barsacq, director of impact and legacy at Paris 2024, said in an IOC report.

The volunteers, the staff and the executive board of the Paris 2024 organising committee are gender-balanced, with 50/50 strength. Gender parity was achieved among the 10,000 torchbearers/relay participants.

The marathon route was designed as a tribute to the women's march from Paris to Versailles during the French Revolution. The 40,000 spots for the Marathon Pour Tous mass-participation event will also be split equally between men and women.

"In Paris, we are seeing the results of the enormous efforts made by the Olympic Movement and female trailblazers come to life," IOC President Thomas Bach said.

Even though gender parity is achieved in numbers, there remains a significant gap in attitudes towards male and female athletes. Recently, Olympics commentator Bob Ballard was removed from Eurosport, a television network, for a sexist remark during his commentary.

The Australian women’s team was celebrating their victory in the 4x100 m freestyle swimming relay. As the team got a little delayed on the way to the pool deck to collect their gold medal, Bob made this comment on air: "You know what women are like... hanging around, doing their makeup."

This remark sparked controversy and went viral on social media, leading to widespread conversations about the sexist nature of his comment. In response, Ballard issued an apology to X, saying that he is a "massive advocate of women’s sports.".

"The comments I made during the Australian freestyle relay victory ceremony on Saturday have caused some offence. It was never my intention to upset or belittle anyone and if I did, I apologise."