THE EXPLOITS OF FEMALE ATHLETES IN RIO 2016
The participation of women in Olympic sporting activities has been marked by spasmodic changes at best. After the first all male Olympics in 1896, the second Olympics in 1900 featured only eleven women. An improvement which becomes insignificant when compared to the number of men participating at the same game – 1319. It took roughly a century to increase the level of participation so that by 2004, over 40{54d2fcdcd494adb6982253be6fe8d5492e5f586157f419110131714f9092ec60} of participants were female. Fast forward to 2012 at the London Olympics, all sporting activities had both male and female participants. In other words, from 2012, all sporting activities which qualified to be part of the Olympics schedule had to provide equal access to participation to both male and females alike.
This, ordinarily, is a great achievement. However, it does leave a sour taste in the mouth. Why? Take a look at this list – Tennis, Gymnastics, Swimming, Cycling and Athletics. In each of these sports, different rules apply to the various sexes. In Tennis, women compete in three sets matches as opposed to five sets for men. In Gymnastics, women have four apparatus and women have six events, but the two sexes share only two common events. In Swimming, the women have the 800km freestyle as opposed to the 1500km for men. In Cycling, while from 2012 men and women cycled together in the same events, in some women had shorter distances. In Athletics, the women hurdle is 100m, and the men hurdle is 110m.
Interestingly, the record of world records at the Olympics show that women still set records that are yet to be broken by men in spite of the larger number of activities the latter have the opportunity to perform in. The highest ranked female, although second to Michael Phelps, is a gymnast who holds 18 medals in all. The highest ranked male in Gymnastics holds 15 medals. In swimming, apart from Micheal Phelps, more women are ranked higher than men with 12 medals. In Tennis, Venus and Serena Williams hold the most gold medals – four. Venus is the highest ranked female tennis player at the Olympics with five medals – four Gold and one Silver.
For Nigeria at the Rio 2016, the female paralympians have been the silver lining in the cloud – Josephine Orji, Flora Ugwunwa and Onye Lauritta. They have given Nigerians something to smile about and believe in.
There are gender-based discrepancies in the rules of sporting activities at the Olympics – no doubt. Does this make the records and victories of courageous women second to that of men? We think the answer is in the negative.