WOMEN IN THE OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES: An Analysis of Participation, Leadership, and Media Coverage June 2017 A Women’s Sports Foundation Report www.WomensSportsFoundation.org • 800.227.3988 Foreword and Acknowledgments This study is the fifth report in the series that follows the progress of women in the Olympic and Paralympic movement. The first three reports were published by the Women’s Sports Foundation. The fourth report was published by SHARP, the Sport, Health and Activity Research and Policy Center for Women and Girls. SHARP is a research center at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender co-founded by the Women’s Sports Foundation. The fifth report, published by the Women’s Sports Foundation, provides the most accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date examination of the participation trends among female Olympic and Paralympic athletes and the hiring trends of Olympic and Paralympic governing bodies with respect to the number of women who hold, leadership positions in these organizations. It is intended to provide governing bodies, athletes, and policymakers at the national and international level with new and accurate information with an eye toward making the Olympic and Paralympic movement equitable for all. The Women’s Sports Foundation provided relevant evidence-based policy recommendations for future planning and action. We gratefully acknowledge the leadership and expertise of Nancy Hogshead-Makar, who as Senior Director of Advocacy originally authored the recommendations for the report on the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Donna Lopiano, Ph.D., President of Sports Management Resources, who updated the recommendations for this edition. Specials thanks to ESPN and ESPN Corporate Citizenship for their generous support in the development and dissemination of this report. The authors are grateful for the consultative energy and scholarly insights of Dunja Antunovic, Ph.D.; Jo Buysse, Ph.D.; Jamie Hoffman, Ed.D.; Donna Lopiano, Ph.D.; Fred Mason, Ph.D.; Toby Rider, Ph.D.; Marj Snyder, Ph.D.; Claire Williams, Ph.D.; Erica Wheeler; Alison Wrynn, Ph.D..; and, Erica Zonder, Ph.D. Special thanks to Marj Snyder, Ph.D., for the skill with which she directed the project and to Deana Monahan for her editorial and graphic design expertise. The Women’s Sports Foundation — the leading authority on the participation of women and girls in sports — is dedicated to creating leaders by ensuring girls access to sports. Founded by Billie Jean King in 1974, our work shapes public attitude about women’s sports and athletes, builds capacities for organizations that get girls active, ensures equal opportunities for girls and women, and supports physically and emotionally healthy lifestyles. The Women’s Sports Foundation has relationships with more than 1,000 of the world’s elite female athletes and is recognized globally for its leadership, vision, expertise and influence. For more information, visit www.WomensSportsFoundation. org. Follow us: www.Facebook.com/WomensSportsFoundation, on Twitter @WomensSportsFdn, or on Instagram @WomensSportsFoundation. Published June 2017, by the Women’s Sports Foundation®, Eisenhower Park, East Meadow, NY 11554; Info@ WomensSportsFoundation.org; www.WomensSportsFoundation.org. © 2017, Women’s Sports Foundation, All Rights Reserved. This report may be downloaded from www.WomensSportsFoundation.org. This report may be reproduced and distributed only in its entirety. Any material taken from this report and published or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, must be properly attributed to Women in the Olympic and Paralympic Games: An Analysis of Participation, Leadership, and Media Coverage, published by the Women’s Sports Foundation. Preferred citation: Houghton, E.J., Pieper, L.P., & Smith, M.M. (2017). Women in the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games: An Analysis of Participation, Leadership, and Media Coverage. East Meadow, NY: Women’s Sports Foundation. Women in the Olympic and Paralympic Games: An Analysis of Participation, Leadership, and Media Coverage I www.WomensSportsFoundation.org • 800.227.3988 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 9 INTRODUCTION 10 Historical Background of Women’s Participation in the Olympic Games 11 IOC World Conferences on Women and Sport 14 INTERNATIONAL FINDINGS 14 Comparison of Olympic and Paralympic Games Women’s and Men’s Sports and Medal Events 18 Comparison of 2012 and 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games Female and Male Athlete Participation 18 The Olympic Games in the 21st Century 29 The Paralympic Games, 2000-2016 36 Influence of Title IX and NCAA Sport Opportunities on Participation of Women in Sport Around the World 38 Women in International Sport Governance Structure Leadership Positions 46 UNITED STATES FINDINGS 46 United States Olympic Committee and U.S. National Sport Governing Body Obligations 47 Comparison of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Female and Male Athlete Participation, 2000-2016 52 Women in U.S. Sport Governance Structure Leadership Positions 54 USOC Financials 56 National Governing Body Financials 59 MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE 2016 OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES 64 CONCLUSIONS 66 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 70 APPENDIX A: 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES PROGRAM 77 APPENDIX B. 2016 PARALYMPIC GAMES PROGRAM 92 REFERENCES Women in the Olympic and Paralympic Games: An Analysis of Participation, Leadership, and Media Coverage 1 www.WomensSportsFoundation.org • 800.227.3988 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The summer Olympic and Paralympic Games appear to be first four reports covered the 2006 and 2010 Olympic and settings where female athletes have reached near parity Paralympic Winter Games and the 2008 and 2012 Olympic with men. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, female and Paralympic Games (Smith & Wrynn, 2009; Smith & athletes accounted for 45% of the participants, an all- Wrynn, 2010; Smith & Wrynn, 2013; Zurn, Lopiano, & time high, achieving the goal set by former International Snyder, 2006).1 Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge, which The IOC has, over the past decade, made noteworthy he predicted would occur by 2008. For Americans, the attempts to support the inclusion of greater numbers of representation of female athletes at the 2016 Games was women in leadership positions in the international sporting unprecedented, with 292 American women constituting the scene. The percentage of women members of the IOC has largest delegation of women at any Olympic Games. Their grown from 15% in 2008 to 25% in 2016. The number of strength in numbers was matched by their notable sport women on the 10-member IOC Executive Board has grown performances, accounting for more than half of the nation’s from one in 2008 to three in 2016. In February 2012, the total medals (61 of 121) and 27 of the 46 gold medals IOC Women and Sport Commission hosted the 5th IOC (Myre, 2016). Similarly, for the first time, women competed World Conference on Women and Sport. However, the in the same number of Paralympic sports as men and IOC action and rhetoric of gender equality has gained only constituted a large percentage of International Paralympic minimal response from the National Olympic Committees Committee (IPC) leadership roles. However, as one looks (NOCs), the International Federations (IFs), and the deeper into the number of participants, events, leadership International Paralympic Committee (IPC)—most of which opportunities, and media coverage provided to women, it is still struggle to meet the IOC’s request that women hold evident that women have only recently received increased at least 20% of leadership positions. With so few women opportunities. There is much work still to be done on the serving in leadership positions, it is difficult to maintain participation, leadership, and media fronts. organizational focus on the need to support women both This is the fifth in a series of reports sponsored by the as athletes and leaders. Moreover, despite hosting a World Women’s Sports Foundation on gender equity, participation Conference on Women and Sport every four years since and leadership opportunities, and media coverage in the 1 These reports can be found at: http://www. summer and winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. The womenssportsfoundation.org/home/research/articles-and- reports/all-research-reports Women in the Olympic and Paralympic Games: An Analysis of Participation, Leadership, and Media Coverage 2 www.WomensSportsFoundation.org • 800.227.3988 1996, 2016 marked the first year the IOC did not host the Thus this report will examine the recent past and current event, leading many to question its commitment to the status of women in the Olympic and Paralympic Games issues facing women in sport and leadership. as both participants and leaders. More specifically, it will examine athletic and leadership opportunities, sport The opportunity to be an Olympian or Paralympian brings governance salaries, and the media coverage afforded with it numerous rewards. It gives the athlete the chance to female athletes to illuminate the place of women in to earn prize money, secure endorsement deals, and the international and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic sport challenge herself against the greatest competitors in hierarchy. This report also assesses the extent to which the the world. More importantly, perhaps, is the fact that it IOC, IPC, and United States Olympic Committee (USOC) are gives unprecedented visibility to outstanding, elite female fulfilling their stated missions with respect to fairness and athletes. As international mega-events, the Olympic and gender equity and whether or not legal statutes are being Paralympic Games are widely covered by sport media. upheld. Despite great changes over the histories of the These media outlets are often responsible for reproducing Olympic and Paralympic Games, the data suggests much and/or challenging gendered norms within sport and work remains, and this report is one means of tracking society. Media coverage of the Olympic and Paralympic progress toward such change.2 Games, if done without gendered bias, has the capability to allow millions of young girls to watch role models who Some of the major findings documented by this study are inspire sport participation.