Everything but a coincidence: on the third day of the Paris 2024 Games, the IOC chose to talk about gender equality during its press conference, held daily at the end of the morning with the organizing committee. Gender parity, achieved for the first time this year in the French capital. Proof of the importance given by Lausanne to this objective, elevated to the rank of priority under the presidency of Thomas Bach.
Equality, then. In terms of events, medals distributed, athletes and sessions. On the competition field, it is almost complete, but not quite yet. Marie Sallois, the corporate and sustainable development director at the IOC, posted her figures: 28 of the 32 sports on the Paris 2024 Games program show perfect parity. Football is not one of them: the men's tournament has 16 teams, compared to only 12 for the women's competition. Embarrassing. “ But the decision is up to FIFA”, the IOC hastens to clarify.
At the 2024 Paris Games, the IOC and the international federations pushed their zeal to the point of reversing tradition by placing several women's finals, in basketball and volleyball in particular, after those of the men. The women will therefore close the program. The trend was started at the Tokyo 2020 Games. It is reinforced this year. Yannis Exarchos, the general director of OBS, recalled this without masking his pride: “ The last athletics event, the marathon, is for women, Sunday August 11. The men will have run the day before."
Elsewhere, there is still a long way to go. At the edge of the field, especially. Marie Sallois agrees: “ The proportion of female coaches in delegations remains low, even if it has increased. » Since the start of the Olympiad, the IOC has insisted at length on the national Olympic committees that they include more women in their technical management. Some made the effort. But the gap remains colossal.
A great success, announced on Sunday July 28 by the IOC: 96% of the delegations at the opening ceremony, the day before on the Seine, were led by two flag bearers, male and female. Another success in the fight for equality: five international federations achieved parity, at the Paris 2024 Games, among their technical officials. On the roll of honor, the authorities of tennis, triathlon, canoeing, sailing and field hockey.
The media? They dragged on for a long time on the way. Yannis Exarchos brought out from his archives a survey dating from 2018, according to which the place of women's sport on television, globally, represented less than 10% of airtime. Three times nothing.
But, here too, the gap is narrowing. For the Paris 2024 Games, OBS wants to be exemplary. The audiovisual branch of the IOC organized a training session last November to better increase the number of women in its battalion of camera operators. Twenty-five women who have completed the course are working on the Games. Better: two thirds of the managers of the sites chosen by OBS for its operations are women. In Madrid, the company's staff – 161 full-time people – are approaching parity, with 53% men and 47% women.
To its broadcasters, OBS reminded the importance of treating the women's Olympic events with the same approach as those of the men. “ We have drafted a set of recommendations for them, explains Yannis Exarchos. We ask them, for example, not to highlight the attractiveness or aesthetics of female athletes, but only their performances. »
Listening to the Greek leader, NBC would have understood the message. “ During the Games, they will give the women's events the same coverage as the men's competitions. » The same airtime, the same editorial approach. Parity on screens. Certainly not the least important.
