The 2024 Olympic Games has been rightly celebrated for the fantastic progress in pursuit of gender equality, with this year’s Games having a 50:50 allocation of places for both genders, with 28 out of the 32 sports being fully gender-balanced, and with the medalled events being split more equally (with 152 medal events for the women, 157 medal events for the men and 20 mixed-gender medal events). The International Paralympic Committee is also striving to achieve gender parity for the Paralympic Games, focusing on organically increasing the number of female athletes participating in Para sport. This Women’s Sports Series article considers the progress made in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2024 towards gender parity, where there is room for further development in the future and anticipates a promising future for women’s sport at the highest levels.

Summer Olympics 2024 

Following on from Tokyo 2020, which saw the best statistics for gender balance to date (with 48% of total participants in the Games being women), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was keen to further progress gender equality both on and beyond the field of play for Paris 2024.

Key initiatives to progress gender equality for Paris 2024:

1. Olympic Village Nursery 

Worldwide Olympic partner P&G’s leading brand, Pampers, supported the first-ever Olympic Village nursery during Paris 2024. For the first time in history, the Olympic Village nursery provided a comfortable and convenient environment for all athletes to spend time with their children during both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. P&G offered a range of accessible and inclusive products and services to support the many athletes balancing their sporting careers and having a family. 

For many years, pregnancy and motherhood has meant the end of sporting careers for female athletes. Former US athlete and new IOC commission member, Allyson Felix, fought hard for maternity rights for female athletes with sponsors and was crucial for the launch of the nursery. Paris 2024 crucially highlighted that motherhood was not mutually exclusive with being an athlete, with Egypt’s Nada Hafez even competing while seven months pregnant. The successful GB team also featured 9 mothers, 7 of whom won medals during the Games.

2. Increased Media Coverage & Scheduling of Events

The Paris 2024 organisers were proactive in advancing the position of women in sport when scheduling the order of events. For instance, the combat and strength sports were scheduled based on weight category, rather than gender. In previous Olympics, the women’s competition was always scheduled in the morning and men competed in the evening, but this year we saw the events alternate which was crucial for viewership figures across the globe for the women’s games. More importantly, it illustrated fairness and no longer implied that women’s sport is less important.

We similarly saw this approach taken in the scheduling of the marathon, with both the men’s and women’s marathon closing off the Olympics during the last weekend. Previously, the women’s marathon was scheduled at the same time as up to 40 other sporting events, including the athletics 100m finals. This year, we saw the podium finishers for both men and women be awarded their medals during the Closing Ceremony, once again providing great media coverage for all marathon runners regardless of their gender.

Finally, each country was encouraged to have one female and one male athlete jointly carry their flag during the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony, as well as requiring each country to have at least one male and one female athlete in their delegation. 

Paralympics 2024 

The Paralympics similarly introduced the Olympic Village Nursery during the Games this year, highlighting how both the Olympics and Paralympics can benefit from a single impactful initiative. 

The Paralympics also made considerable progress towards gender parity in the last two Games. In Paris, of the 4,461 athletes competing at the Paralympic Games, 1,983 were women; and of the 549 total medals awarded at the Paralympics, 235 were for female athletes. By way of comparison, only half the number of female Paralympians participated in the Sydney Games in 2000. 

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) are working towards total gender parity at future Paralympic Games, though the IPC’s President Sir Philip Craven has noted that it will take time. Craven notes that the “growth has to be organic and has to come from the grassroots. It is no use creating more medal events for women if there are not enough athletes to compete at the highest level.” The IPC are therefore targeting gender equality from the grassroots level all the way up to the pinnacle of Para sport, at the Paralympic Games.

Looking beyond the figures 

While the gender equality initiatives adopted by the IOC, and the improvements in gender parity figures at both the Olympics and Paralympics are being rightly celebrated, there is room for further development in some areas to truly achieve gender equal games.

1. A closer look at the 50:50 allocation of athletes 

A small gap still exists in the number of athletes participating, with male athletes outnumbering female athletes at the Olympics, 5,630 to 5,416 respectively. More men’s teams were also able to compete in football and water polo, as well as more opportunities to compete generally with 157 men’s events scheduled compared with the 152 events scheduled for women. Surprisingly, six national teams at the Olympics failed to bring any women at all. 

2. Inequality in numbers behind the scenes

The gender inequality is most clear in the non-athlete sphere, with only one in 10 coaches at the Olympic Games being women. The number of female head coaches across various team sports also fell (being football, basketball, handball, hockey, rugby, volleyball and water polo). The same issue exists at the Paralympic level, with just 24% of all key decision-making positions across the whole IPC being taken by women. 

Both the IOC and the IPC are aware of the need for more female coaches, executives and other decision-makers, with President Sir Philip Craven succinctly noting, “quite simply, sport needs more women!”.

2028 and beyond

With just 2.2% of participants at the Olympic Games held in Paris in 1900 when women competed for the first time, the achievement of almost 50:50 participation in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games is undoubtedly very significant progress. Though, while great progress has been made, there is still work to do both on and off the field of play to truly achieve gender equality for all Olympians and Paralympians. 

The IOC has pledged to continue its great efforts to advancing gender equality, with the IOC President stating: 

“Our commitment to advancing gender equality does not end in Paris… We will continue to open pathways for women and to work with our stakeholders, encouraging them to take the necessary steps to advance gender equality in their area of responsibility. The IOC will keep leading the way and using the power of sport to contribute to a more equal and inclusive society.”

There will certainly be more to come, and we are already counting down to Los Angeles 2028… watch this space!