There may not be much else that will matter for the next couple of weeks. For these ensuing two weeks, televisions and mobile devices from San Francisco to Sao Paulo, Chicago to Canberra, Los Angeles to Lagos, Atlanta to Amsterdam and New York to New Dehli will be tuned to the Olympics.
Paris, France will be the host city where all of the Olympic festivities (and likely controversies) will ensue from.
But – in the run-up to this year’s Olympics, one storyline that is already beginning to get a lot of traction has to do with gender equality.
Both Paris 2024 itself as well as a number of its media partners – including NBC – are indeed highlighting this emerging fact about this year’s Olympics. The milestone is that it will be the first Games to indeed achieve gender parity.
It is very ironic given that this becomes achieved at an Olympics in Paris. After all, it was in 1900 where women were first allowed to compete in the Olympics. Obviously, the numbers of women that did compete were much lower in a regressive 1900 than they are in a progressive 2024.
Out of the 329 medal events that will take place in France, 157 will be men’s events and 152 will be women’s events. Plus there will be 20 mixed gender events.
To say that the struggle for gender equality was a long one was an understatement – especially considering the history of the Olympics. It was those athletes of yesterday that paved the way for today’s women athletes to shine brightly under the glitz and glamour of Olympism.
And there are so many storylines involving women athletes simply going into these Olympics. These range from Sha’Carri Richardson’s redemption story after being denied a chance to sprint for gold in Tokyo three years ago. The comeback story of Simone Biles. Brittney Griner representing the country that freed her nearly two years ago from a Russian prison.
These are merely some of the stories of the American women athletes that are set to take part in this year’s Olympics. This is not even counting those that are likely emanating from other countries that will surely be highlighted as the Olympic cauldron burns for the next couple of weeks.
Even stateside, one has seen the considerable growth in popularity in women’s sports over the last few years. And it is more than simply a phenomenon that is being seen within sports such as soccer, basketball and volleyball. The popularity of women’s sports is an across-the-board phenomenon and with gender equality being achieved for this year’s Paris Olympics, it is likely that these Games will conclude in a couple of weeks as another high watermark in women’s sports history.
With the Olympics finally having reached the 21st century at least on this issue, it is time for the Olympic movement to take the next step towards becoming fully inclusive. As people in the United States know, there has been a full-fledged attack on transgender athletes – particularly within certain states and counties. For the Games to truly enter a new phase, it must display that it is on the side of transgender athletes – and the correct side of history.
We will have plenty of time to dissect, analyze and discuss the Olympics as they relate to transgender athletes in the years to come. The day when transgender athletes are fully embraced within the five rings will be a day of celebration as well.
This is one as well as it is another mark in realizing that women athletes are athletes as well.
Throughout the years, the gradual strides women have made within the Olympic movement have been met by the typical sexist backlash about not being “ladylike.” And as Andrew Maraniss pointed out in books such as “Inagural Ballers” which told the story of the 1976 USA Basketball team that competed in Montréal, Black and Brown women have been met with sexism and racism (misogynoir) within Olympic circles.
How we have evolved from the ignorance of those days to today – where we could be on the precipice of finally having a woman in the Oval Office.
Women in sports are having a moment. Women as a whole are having a moment and we are all better because of it.
