By MarthaFitat55
The Olympics will start Friday July 26 in Paris. Every day it seems there’s a bit of news about the Olympics, from the innocuous and exciting to the scandalous and enraging.
First the good news: for the first time since its inception, the Paris Olympics will feature gender parity. The Tokyo Games came close, but it’s Paris where equal numbers of men and women will compete. The Olympic organization has a great overview of the march to gender parity here.
According to Axios, women made up 2.2% in the 1900’s first modern Olympic Games. It’s not hard to see why it took 124 years to reach parity. Men have always gotten greater numbers of lucrative sponsorships compared to women. And let’s not forget Kara Coucher, Olympian and former Nike representative who was dropped by the company when she got pregnant.
There’s always been interest in women’s sports; we just haven’t always seen the coverage, the participation, and the money. These days women’s hockey, soccer, and basketball are dominating and with that audience, the dollars are growing.
More good news: Breastfeeding athletes will be given their own rooms so they can continue to feed their children while at the games. The scene was quite different in Tokyo. Women’s Health Magazine had a great story about the changes evident in Paris and they also shared some of the stories they heard from breastfeeding athletes:
“Paralympian Sarah Storey, 46, who has won 28 medals, said it’s definitely possible to be a breastfeeding mum and elite athlete. She said: ‘It’s absolutely possible to breastfeed and be at the highest level of sport because I’ve done it. Your baby is settled, it’s not crying, it’s not upset, and you can focus on the job that you’ve got to do as an athlete. ‘Knowing that I can provide for my child means that when I do this incredibly selfish job of being an athlete, where you have to be so self-centred and so self-absorbed with the hours that you’re training and racing, it gives me that yin and yang.’”
Now for the bad news: Despite winning a decision that said forcing Caster Semenya to take testosterone-reducing drugs was discrimination, Semenya is still fighting to run races in all the distances she wants to run. You can read past blog entries about Semenya’s battles here and here. Semenya presented her case at the European Court of Human Rights in March 2024.
Semenya’s court challenges have cost her dearly in the ten-year fight: about $1.5M in legal fees and an arbitrary shift from her favoured distances. Semenya said in the article her career is over and she is focused on advocating for younger athletes.
And now for the really bad news: The Netherlands has agreed to let a convicted child rapist participate as an Olympic contender. Dutch volleyball player Steven van de Velde will represent the Netherlands at the Games despite being convicted and serving a one-year term for the rape of a 12-year-old.
The head of the Dutch Volleyball Federation says van de Velde has served his time and has been reintegrated in the Dutch volleyball community. “He is proving to be an exemplary professional and human being and there has been no reason to doubt him since his return,” said Michel Everaert, general director at Nevobo.
Van de Velde describes his actions in 2017 as his “greatest misstep of my then young life” and expressed his gratitude for the support of his family, friends, and colleagues.
The Dutch Federation says van de Velde returned under strict conditions. The IOC says the national OCs decide who gets to be an Olympian and has referred the media back to the Dutch for comment.
Nonetheless, the head of the US Centre for SafeSport does not agree with the decision to allow van de Velde at the Olympics. CEO Ju’Riese Colon said she was “deeply concerned that anyone convicted of sexually assaulting a minor could participate in the 2024 Olympic Games. With teams from around the world about to convene in Paris, many of which include minor athletes, this sends a dangerous message that medals and money mean more than their safety. Participation in sport is a privilege not a right.”
With three weeks left to go, Olympic news will likely increase. It will be interesting to see what and who gets covered once the Games begin.
MarthaFitat55 lives and works in St. John’s. She expects she will have more to say once the Games finish.
