Olympics finally achieves gender parity

Alan Cai

July 26, 2024

The 2024 Paris Olympics kicked off today with the opening ceremony involving over 10,000 athletes floating down the Seine River in boats marking the first time the Parade of Nations did not occur in a stadium. The torch relay which had begun on April 16th in Olympia, Greece concluded with its final leg in Paris, which involved several notable torchbearers including Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal, former French-American basketball player Tony Parker, former American tennis player Serena Williams, former French soccer player Zinedine Zidane, and rapper Snoop Dogg. French sprinter Marie-José Pérec and French judoka Teddy Riner finally lit a giant cauldron in the Jardin des Tuileries (Tuileries Garden), which was subsequently lifted into the sky by giant hot air balloon, a nod to the first hydrogen balloon ever flown, also launched in the same location.

The opening ceremony featured many memorable moments, including a dazzling light show; a performance headlined by Celine Dion (returning to the stage after a battle with stiff-person Syndrome), Lady Gaga, and Aya Nakamura, and appearances by various visual performers including a mysterious hooded figure and a mechanical horse rider.

The 2024 iteration of the international tradition which began in 1896 and has its roots in Ancient Greece has, for the first time in its history, achieved gender parity for its athletes. Of the 32 sports represented at the Olympics, all will include men’s and women’s variations, with exactly 5250 spots allocated for each gender. The International Olympic Committee used quotas to cap the number of participants this year after previous Olympics had steadily grown to over 11,000. The quotas resulted in a very nearly equal pool of men and women athletes participating, with the former having a sliver but negligible surplus over the latter.

Women in the Olympics have come a long way since 1896 when women were barred from participating and spectating. Throughout much of the 20th century, women competitors represented only a small fraction of the total Olympians. The lack of women’s representation in the Olympics prompted the creation of the Women’s World Games to bring female athletes to the limelight between 1922 to 1934. Women were finally allowed to participate in all Olympic sports starting in 2012.

Despite the vast strides made in favor of gender parity, much progress has yet to be made in the world of Olympic sports including sponsorship packages, media attention, and audiences. In future Olympics, the IOC will continue to push for more opportunities for women.