Will the Olympics Finally Reach Gender Equality?

Olympics organizers hope that gender equality will be reached for the first time at the 2024 Paris Olympics, with an equal share of women participating in the Games to men. They say, however, that the final count of female participants could hit just shy of the goal at 49 percent and that the final figure will only be known at the end of the competition.

The following chart, based on data from the International Olympic Committee, shows how the number of female athletes has risen from 0 in the Athens 1896 Olympics to 5,457 in the Tokyo 2020 edition, or 47.8 percent of female participation and the most gender equal Games to date.

The Paris 1900 Games were the first year that women took part, with just 22 female athletes out of a total of 997 participants. These women competed in five sports - tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrian and golf - although only golf and tennis had women-only events. This year, 5,250 female athletes planned to compete across 32 women-only sports and 22 mixed events.

According to the IOC, the 2012 Olympic Games in London were the first of the Summer Games in which women competed in every sport on the programme, following the addition of women’s boxing.

The Winter Olympics are also now nearing the 50 percent threshold, with the 2022 Beijing Olympics having reached 44.7 percent, with a total of 1,267 female participants.