The Olympics are the world’s largest sporting event, an international affair with one of the goals to help develop“Sport for All” . Yet sexism is still real and evident in Rio 2016.
Katinka Hosszu from Hungary crushed the world record for the 400-meter IM, and the moment after her win the NBC commentator Dan Hicks gives all the credit to her husband/coach, “the guy responsible”.
When describing fellow swimmer and now four time gold medalist Katie Ledecky, Connor Jaeger claims “her stroke islike a man’s stroke”. He meant this as a compliment, a positive comment to this phenomenal female athlete, but to a woman, that's not how it came across.
After Simone Biles conquered the gymnastic all-arounds, making Olympic history, she told everyone “I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps. I’m the first Simone Biles.” Simone Biles doesn’t want to be compared to the dominant, well featured male athletes. She wants to be known for her hard-work, dedication, and outstanding achievement.
Corey Cogdell-Unrein won a bronze medal for trap shooting, and the way the Chicago Tribune decided to announce the news was by posting onTwitter “Wife of Bears’ lineman wins a bronze medal today in Rio Olympics”. The newspaper thought it necessary to deliver the news of her big win by announcing she was the wife of a man, when really her husband had nothing to do with her skill or talent to win that medal.
John Miller, chief marketing officer for NBC, also concluded “The people who watch the Olympics are not particularly sports fans. More women watch the Games than the men, and for women, they’re less interested in the result and more interested in the journey. It’s sort of like the ultimate reality show and miniseries wrapped into one.” According to Miller, women aren’t actually sports fans. Women don’t particularly care about the race, who wins or loses. Women watch the Olympics because it is ‘the ultimate reality show’.
These are comments and announcements made casually throughout the Games without too much apology. Dan Hicks didn’t reclaim his statement. Instead he felt Katinka’s story was not complete without mentioning her husband/coach. He was “giving appropriate credit to Shane” by directing her winnings all on him.
Might I just ask, does anyone know who Ryan Lochte’s coach is?
Until recently, women weren't even well represented in the Olympics. Back in the 1992 Barcelona Games, only 86 out of the total 257 events were women’s events (that’s about 34%), and only about 29% of all the athletes represented were women.
Google, ‘famous Olympians’, and there will be a long list displayed of male athletes, with easy access to click on anyone of their names to get their latest status and record numbers. The firstlink is to an official listings on the Olympic site. Search ’famous female olympic athletes’ and the first link Google will lead to isshape.com’s article entitled ‘The 15 Fittest and Greatest Female Olympic Athletes’. It’s not enough that they’re amazing Olympic athletes, but according to Shape, they’re also the ‘fittest’ and that is reason enough why others should aspire to be like them.
These women continuously prove themselves and their abilities of being not just worthy but exceptional athletes in these Games. Sexism is real and evident in our everyday world. These athletes, and all women, deserve the credit for continuing to be powerful, ever-capable people.
