One Thing Is for Sure: The International Olympic Committee Knows How to Tally

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games monument. Photo credit: Dick Thomas Johnson [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

In the lead-up to the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, athletes and gender are making the news. This is the year that will bring the Summer Games closer to gender parity than ever before, both on and off the field. It was not without effort, as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made gender equality a core issue since 1994. Before diving into the numbers, and as a point of privilege, we must point out that there is a ton of work yet to be done.

Sexist comments made in February by the now-ousted president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee caused an uproar. Banning the Soul Cap swimming cap was a direct affront to Black women swimmers and should absolutely be reversed. The irony of the ban coinciding with the anniversary of The CROWN Act (“Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair”) is not lost on us. From Sha’Carri Richardson to Namibian sprinters Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi being barred from the Games, there is plenty to speak out about.

There is also some promising news, though. The first trans woman athlete, Laurel Hubbard, will compete on behalf of New Zealand. There will be 18 mixed-gender events. And importantly, women will represent almost half of all athletes competing, which is amazing considering that the first women Olympic competitors at the Paris 1900 games numbered just 22 out of almost one thousand. Even the growth in women’s participation over the past 20 years from 38.2% in 2000 to 48.8% this year is significant.

Image credit: https://olympics.com/ioc/gender-equality/gender-equality-through-time/at-the-olympic-games

Going Beyond the Screen

All efforts towards inclusion should be multifaceted. Women competing in equal numbers to men is great, but as we know, leadership and governance matter just as much. We were pleased to see that the IOC has set gender diversity targets for National Olympic Committees in participating countries and has made significant strides in increasing women’s membership and leadership within the IOC itself:

“In 2020, the number of female IOC Members rose to 37.5 per cent, 50 percent more than in 2013, also adding more diversity in terms of age and regional representation. Female representation on IOC commissions in 2020 rose to 47.8 per cent, a historic high that equates to a 100 percent increase since 2013.”

Media Matters

When 84% of sports fans are interested in women’s sport, according to Nielsen research, equal coverage is critical to building momentum, especially in an area that has proven to be an uphill battle for women for decades. The IOC has released “Portrayal Guidelines” calling for “gender-equal and fair portrayal practices in all forms of communication”. Stated in the introduction:

“Sport has the power to shift how women and minorities are seen and how they see themselves. As leaders, communicators, content creators and media outlets within the sports movement, we set the tone as to how sportspeople and athletes — globally — are pictured, presented, described, talked about and represented, i.e. portrayed, across all forms of media and communication.”

In fact, the guidelines recommend tallying in all sorts of ways so that media organizations have a clear picture of how they are performing: who is featured, who is creating content, who is quoted, how much talk time athletes receive in video content, to name a few. As creators of the GA Tally, we love to see it.

Whether or not media organizations adhere to the guidelines is another story. NBC’s coverage from the last Winter Games was a major fail in our book. You can bet we’ll be watching this year.

Setting Targets with Intention Works

The work began in 1994 with the formation of an International Working Group (IWG) on Women and Sport. Since then, targets have been set and revised, new targets added, etc. The key here is that targets were actually set and a framework developed for monitoring progress. In 2014, the IOC set a goal of 50% women athletes by 2020, and, while they are a bit shy of that number, the results are clear: intention, coupled with clearly defined goals and a holistic approach, works.

Change rarely happens on its own. Evaluating equity across multiple dimensions — from athletes to leadership to media — and developing tailored interventions to address each dimension is key to lasting change.