By Arabella Balderama

The Paris 2024 olympics boasts a number of 10,500 athletes—composed of 5,250 men and 5,250 women athletes, which happened for the very first time in the history of the games.

Tracing its roots from the 1900s, the olympic movement has been working towards opening more opportunities for women to participate in the largest sporting event in the world. 

Paris’ gender parity in athletes broke the record of the last Olympic Winter Games held in Beijing which had the most balanced roster in 2022, reporting a 45-percent female participation. 

Let us delve into some of the athletes who fueled up their fires to make this worldwide sports tournament remarkable, especially for women.

Simone Biles

Simone Biles is a gymnast who currently holds four olympic titles, as well as 23 world championships and a total of 30 medals.

She suffered from a case of ‘twisties’, a condition where Biles’ body and mind were out of sync, halting her from playing her sport for around two years.

This year’s Olympics marks her second year after returning from recovery.

Janja Garnbret was the first woman to earn a championship title in the combined sports climbing event in Tokyo Olympics 2020.

Janja Garnbret

With 18 titles from the World Cup and World Championships, Garnbret eyes high expectations in bagging more awards in this year’s Paris Olympics.

Rayssa Leal

At the age 13, Rayssa Leal had gained a silver medal from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, competing against other teenagers in skateboarding.

This achievement made Leal the youngest Olympic medalist in Brazil, highlighting her career that began from a viral clip of her doing a heelflip down the stairs while wearing a blue tutu skirt at seven years old.

She also won gold at the World Skate Street Skateboarding Championships in Sharjah and X Games in Chiba, Japan, and was declared champion in the Pan American Games.

Sha’Carri Richardson

Sha’Carri Richardson is just about to debut in the Olympics after re-writing the World Athletics Championships record books with her 10.65-second win in the women’s 100m final.

This championship title marks Richardson’s return to the Olympics after losing her spot in Tokyo 2020 due to testing positive for cannabis, a substance banned under World Anti-Doping Agency rules.

After her remarkable bounce back, Richardson is now the United States of America’s (USA) first women’s 100m world champion since the late Torie Bowie in 2017 and only the second non-Jamaican since Carmelita Jeter in 2011.

Sun Yingsha

Sun Yingsha is a table tennis player with seven championships, consistently ranking in the worldwide top three since 2019. 

Her aim for this year’s games is to become the first table tennis athlete to gain a gold in singles, team, and mixed doubles events at a single Olympic tournament.

Other team sports

The Olympic women’s basketball tournament is currently ongoing, with its draw announced last Tuesday, March 19. 

Group A consists of Serbia, Spain, China, and Puerto Rico; Group B of Canada, Nigeria, Australia, and France; and lastly, Group C of the United States, Germany, Belgium, and Japan.

On the other hand, football would see dazzling match-ups between France, USA, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, New Zealand, Spain, Japan, Australia, Germany, and two other countries whose spots would be decided after the 2024 CAF Women’s Olympic qualifying tournament in April 2024.

Meanwhile, Dominican Republic, Serbia, Türkiye, Brazil, United States, and Poland would battle for the volleyball championship title from July until August 2024.

To a progressive sports future

Aside from attaining gender parity in the number of players, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) had been working on addressing equal leadership roles in the Olympics.

Some of the IOC’s initiatives include the Women in Sport High Performance Pathway Program, which seeks to train 100 female coaches in the lead-up to Paris.

These efforts done by large-scale organizations to embrace gender equality shed light on the societal development gained in terms of inclusivity in sports. As its progressive prowess continues, may traditional challenges and stereotypes be fully eradicated to pave the way for a more balanced and diverse sports landscape.

Thumbnail from International Olympic Committee