Olympics in the mix when it comes to equality

Australian sailor Nia Jerwood is contributing to gender equality at the Paris Olympics, where 50 percent of the athletes will be women.

It is the first time that women and men have equal participation among the 10,500 athletes taking part in 329 events.

And it is fitting that this is happening in Paris, where in 1900 the first Games were held to welcome women: 22 of the 997 athletes were women.

Over the past 40 years there has been a steady increase, with 23 percent in Los Angeles 1984, 44 percent in London 2012 and 48 percent in Tokyo 2020.

The 2024 Olympics will feature a record 20 mixed-gender events, while athletics, boxing and cycling will have equal numbers of athletes for the first time, making 28 of the 32 sports completely gender-neutral.

Cycling has not made any changes to its events. It has only adjusted the athlete quotas within its disciplines.

The biggest impact will be felt in road cycling, where 90 men and 90 women will compete, compared to 130 men and 67 women in Tokyo.

This means that the only sports without gender balance are: wrestling (192 men, 96 women), football (288 men, 216 women), gymnastics (206 women, 112 men) and swimming (722 women, 648 men).

Other notable mixed events besides sailing include the 4x400m athletics relay and the recently introduced marathon race walking relay, which replaces the men’s 50km race walking in Paris.

There are also mixed team events in judo, shooting (at these Olympics, clay pigeon shooting is replacing stair athletics) and relays in swimming and triathlon.

For the first time, men can compete in the artistic swimming team, while equestrianism has remained the original sport in which men and women compete directly against each other in individual and team eventing.

Jerwood will compete in a new mixed 470 sailing event, which replaces the men’s and women’s races in the same class, while the mixed Nacra 17 class continues after making its debut in Rio.

In Tokyo, Jerwood sailed with Monique de Vries in the women’s double dinghy, but the switch to a mixed duo, where she swam with Conor Nicholas, felt natural to the 26-year-old.

“Conor and I grew up competing in sailing,” Jerwood told AAP.

“I used to race against Conor and at junior level I beat him.

“But he now jokes that he crosses the finish line before me every time,” she added, referring to the setup of their boat.

The Perth athlete doesn’t have to look far for role models in mixed sailing. Her parents Nick and Janet won gold together at the Flying Fifteen World Championships in 2005.

Australia is sending a team of 460 athletes to Paris: 255 men and 205 women.

The International Olympic Committee has also made changes to the Games’ schedule to highlight female athletes. For example, the women’s marathon will be run the day after the men’s, concluding the athletics program just hours before the closing ceremony.

“We are about to celebrate one of the most important moments in the history of women, namely at the Olympic Games and in sport in general,” IOC President Thomas Bach said of gender equality in Paris.

“We look forward to Paris 2024, where we will see the results of the enormous efforts of the Olympic Movement and female pioneers come to life. This is our contribution to a more gender-equal world.”