Women Changed The Game And The Narrative At This Year's Olympics

By Jen Maravegias | Think Pieces | August 13, 2024 |

By Jen Maravegias | Think Pieces | August 13, 2024 |

The 2024 Olympic Games were the first to achieve gender parity, meaning the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allocated 50 percent of the quota places to female athletes and 50 percent to male athletes. According to Olympics.com 28 out of 32 sports reached full gender equality. The competition schedule comprised 152 women’s events, 157 men’s events, and 20 mixed-gender events. And, per NBC LA Team USA Athletes competing in women’s events clinched nearly twice as many gold medals as those competing in men’s events. It was a good year to be a woman at the Olympics, unless you were an Australian B-Girl Breaker.

Women, specifically Black women and women of color, showed up and showed the world how it’s done when it came to winning and losing with grace.

Refugee boxer Cindy Ngamba earned a bronze medal in the women’s boxing -75kg category, the first medal ever for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team (EOR), which has been around since the 2016 games in Rio.

Simone Biles led the US Women’s Gymnastics Team in their “redemption” games and “The Golden Girls” brought home a record 10 medals (yes, I’m still counting Jordan’s Bronze.)

Even when they weren’t at the top of the podium, the women of Team USA showed the world that competition doesn’t have to be toxic when the gymnasts praised Brazil’s gold medalist Rebeca Andrade at the medal ceremony. They created this viral image that offers proof of how far women’s gymnastics has come since the days of Béla and Marta Károlyi’s coaching. All of these women worked hard, trained hard, and overcame obstacles to get where they are. They should celebrate each other. It doesn’t diminish anyone’s accomplishments to recognize each other’s greatness.

Women boxers from Algeria and Taiwan both overcame false accusations of being trans —stirred up by the worst transphobes and misogynists across the globe and furthered by media outlets who failed to do basic fact-checking— to win medals.

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A post shared by Imane Khelif | إيمان خليف 🇩🇿 (@imane_khelif_10)

The criticism and hateful rhetoric that Imane Khelif and Lin YuTing faced proved, again, that a lot of transphobia is rooted in the misogynistic expectations of women’s beauty standards that are more often hurled at women of color than anyone else. But Imane and Lin are shining examples of how strong women can be physically and emotionally, in the ring and in the face of a coordinated hate campaign.

Now they are using the visibility of their Olympic wins to call out the bullying and hate they faced.
Lin YuTing said “I’d like to make my influence on helping people who have to deal with the same situation as I did. I want to make the world better, lending hands to people who are in the dark, to see the light again.”

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Algeria’s Imane Khelif has filed an online harassment complaint over the “gender controversy” that was smeared all over social media. If it goes to trial, maybe she will be responsible for finally shutting down the online campaign of hate She Who Will Not Be Named has been waging against Trans folks for so long.

Sha’Carri Richardson, who was disqualified from competing in the last Olympics and has faced doubters since then, brought home gold from her first Games. She is astoundingly fast, but not as fast as Gabby Thomas, who also took gold.

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A post shared by Gabby Thomas (@gabbythomas)

In the middle of a WNBA season that has been breaking attendance records and launched the unofficial slogan “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports,” the US Women’s Basketball Team eeked out its 8th straight gold medal against France. Brittney Griner celebrated her third gold medal, one she did not think she’d ever have the chance to win while being held in a Russian prison, by saying, “I mean, just having a chance to play for gold, represent my country, what my country did for me? Yeah, this is the highest on the pinnacle right here.”

This year’s Olympics went further than they ever have before in proving that women’s sports are as exhilarating as men’s sports. But it also proved we’re still judging women by Eurocentric, hetero-normative beauty standards above all else. Despite all of the medals and displays of fair play, healthy competition, and mental wellness support, women still found themselves facing a barrage of negative messages about their hair, their nails, their beauty, and their bodies.

But women aren’t having it anymore. Ilona Maher, certified badass and bronze medal winner in Rugby has been outspoken about this for years. And she had a message of support and love for every girl and woman who was tuning in to the games this year.

@ilonamaher Seen yourself in these athletes @paris2024 @Team USA @Olympics #olympics ♬ original sound - Ilona Maher

During the closing ceremony, when Los Angeles introduced itself as the host of the 2028 Summer Games, the Mayor of Los Angeles had a similar message she shared from the stage where she stood with Olympic Flag Bearer Simone Biles.

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We might not all qualify for the Olympics, but we all qualify as women, regardless of shape, size, what our faces look like, or how we do our hair. And women can do anything. Be strong. Be kind. Be yourself. Be unbothered by the haters and do Your Thing with joy.