Gender equality through time
Gender equality at the Olympic Games
The Olympic Games have grown to be the largest gender-equal sporting event in the world. This historic evolution reached a major milestone at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which were the first in history with full gender parity on the field of play.
This achievement is the result of the IOC’s longstanding commitment to gender equality, supported by deliberate actions taken by the IOC and Olympic Movement stakeholders. When women first competed at the Olympic Games, in Paris in 1900, they made up just 2.2 per cent of the participants. Since then, the number of female athletes has steadily increased – 23 per cent at Los Angeles 1984, 44 per cent at London 2012, and 49 per cent at Paris 2024.
Progress has been driven by targeted efforts to create equal opportunities for female athletes, particularly through the evolution of the Olympic programme:
- Atlanta 1996 saw the introduction of women’s football.
- At Sydney 2000, the addition of women’s taekwondo, triathlon, weightlifting and modern pentathlon significantly boosted female participation.
- A major milestone came at London 2012, when women’s boxing was added to the programme. For the first time in history, women were able to compete in every sport on the Olympic programme.
History made at Paris 2024
For the first time in Olympic Games history, the IOC distributed quota places equally between female and male athletes at Paris 2024. This milestone formed part of wider efforts by the IOC to embed gender equality across all aspects of the Games.
During the Opening Ceremony on the River Seine, 96 per cent of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) selected one male and one female athlete to jointly carry their flag, following a rule change introduced ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Games.
The sports schedule was also designed to ensure balanced visibility for male and female athletes, with 28 out of 32 sports fully gender equal, and a programme comprising 152 women’s events, 157 men’s events and 20 mixed-gender events - meaning that more than half of all medal events were open to female athletes.
A standout moment for women’s sport came with the women's marathon, which – for the first time since its inclusion in 1984 – concluded the athletics programme a day after the men’s event, showcasing the performances of female athletes during the Closing Ceremony. The route itself paid tribute to the historic Women’s March of 1789.
Beyond the competitions, gender balance was reflected throughout the Games experience: women made up 50 per cent of both volunteers and torchbearers, and for the first time, a family zone was introduced in the Olympic Village to support athletes with caregiving responsibilities.
LA28: a powerful platform for female athletes
For the LA28 Olympic Games, gender equality has been a key consideration in shaping both the athlete quota and the event programme. As in Paris 2024, quota places have been allocated equally to female and male athletes, and for the first time in Olympic history, all team sports will have at least the same number of women’s teams as men’s teams.
LA28 programme highlights:
- Quota places: With the inclusion of the additional sports at LA28, 5,635 quota places have been allocated to female athletes and 5,563 to male athletes.
- Events: Out of 353 events on the programme, there are 161 women’s events, 166 men’s events and 26 mixed/open events.
- Football: For the first time, more women’s teams (16) than men’s (12) will compete.
- Boxing: An additional women’s weight category ensures full gender parity across events, while maintaining equal numbers of athlete quotas for men and women, as was the case at Paris 2024.
- Water polo: Two additional women’s teams will ensure full gender parity in the athlete quota and number of teams.
- Expanded mixed events: Archery, athletics (4x100m mixed relay), golf, gymnastics, rowing coastal beach sprint and table tennis will all see the inclusion of a new mixed team event.
Alpes 2030 to reach Olympic Winter Games milestone
The Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games saw women accounting for 46.7 per cent of the athletes, the most gender-balanced edition to date.
Looking ahead, Alpes 2030 is set to achieve gender parity by quota allocation for the first time in Olympic Winter Games history as a result of the changes introduced to the programme. Female athlete quota places will account for 50 per cent of the total quota of 3,046 athletes. The programme will also achieve parity in the number of events staged, with 56 women’s and 55 men’s events, in addition to 15 mixed events.
Additionally, four sports will increase women’s participation, with two reaching full parity:
- Luge: from 44.3% to 50%
- Skiing: from 48.6% to 50%
- Bobsleigh: from 32.9% to 39.5%
- Ice hockey: from 43.4% to 45.6%
More information and statistics can be found in the “Women in the Olympic Movement” Factsheet
Gender equality within the Olympic Movement
Leading by example
Advancing gender equality is a commitment that goes far beyond the field of play for the IOC. Alongside the momentous efforts made to achieve gender parity at the Olympic Games, the IOC has taken increasing action to ensure that women have equal opportunities off the field of play as well.
Promoting gender equality in and through sport has been an important objective for the organisation since the creation of the Women and Sport Working Group in 1995, and a year later, when the IOC took the historic step of amending the Olympic Charter to include an explicit reference to the organisation’s role in advancing women in sport.
More recently, the Olympic Movement’s commitment to gender equality was reiterated in the IOC’s strategic roadmap, Olympic Agenda 2020, and subsequently Olympic Agenda 2020+5. Both included concrete actions to foster gender equality, including the aim to achieve 50 per cent female participation at the Olympic Games, but also to mainstream gender equality across the Olympic Movement. To support the implementation, the IOC adopted 21 Gender Equality and Inclusion Objectives for 2021-2024. The progress made with these objectives can be found here.
The IOC is setting an example for other sports bodies by increasing the number of women in its own decision-making positions and closing the gender gap in the IOC membership, its Executive Board and across all its commissions.
In 2025, the number of female IOC Members rose to reach 43 per cent of the total membership, 100 per cent more than in 2013, also adding more diversity in terms of age and regional representation. Female representation on IOC commissions in 2025 was also 50 per cent, a historic high that equates to a 150 per cent increase since 2013. These milestones reflect the IOC’s ongoing efforts to set a standard for gender-balanced leadership in sport.
Driving change across the Olympic Movement
The IOC has long encouraged NOCs and International Sports Federations (IFs) to promote gender equality in their own leadership structures. In 1996, the IOC Session recommended minimum targets for women in decision-making roles – 10 per cent by 2000 and 20 per cent by 2005. These targets were later raised to 30 per cent, and are now embedded in the IOC Basic Universal Principles of Good Governance.
As of December 2024, 46 per cent of IFs and 44 per cent of NOCs had reached at least 30 per cent female representation on their executive committees, reflecting steady progress toward leadership parity.
The IOC also works closely with NOCs and IFs to support their gender equality efforts through Olympic Solidarity, which provides targeted funding and programmes. Between 2021 and 2024, USD 2.8 million was invested in gender equality-related projects – more than double the amount from the previous period (USD 1.15 million in the 2017-2020 period).
SPORT, EQUALITY AND INCLUSIVE COMMUNITIES
Sport was recognised as a tool for gender empowerment in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, and this was reaffirmed in the 2025 UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) conclusions.
To further this mission, the IOC launched Olympism365 – a dedicated strategy to build a better world through sport by bringing together social impact initiatives and diverse organisations under one shared vision. Gender equality, diversity and inclusion are integrated across all Olympism365 projects, with a number of initiatives focused specifically on building equal and inclusive communities through sport.