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'It's a revolution': UN Women's advisor on female Saudi athletes and gender parity at Olympics
In an interview with Khaleej Times, Jennifer Cooper hailed the revolutionary changes in Saudi Arabia where female athletes are beginning to make a mark
French fencers celebrate their team's win over Poland at the Paris Olympics. — AFP
Exactly a hundred years after Paris last hosted the Olympics, the City of Light is putting on a dazzling show to mark the return of the Games to the French capital. Some of the most iconic Parisian landmarks have been turned into splendid sporting arenas, albeit temporarily, with the gleaming Eiffel Tower in the background, for events like beach volleyball, fencing and taekwondo.
When the curtain comes down on the Games on August 11, these temporary facilities will be dismantled, but what will never vanish is the new benchmark for gender parity that Paris has set with great pride.
For the first time in the history of the modern Olympics, which started in 1896 in Athens, there is an equal number of male and female athletes that are defending the colours of their countries in Paris.
It’s a giant leap for an event that was first held to celebrate male athleticism with “the applause from females as the reward”.
Ironically, the greatest of all sporting events also had to wait until the 2012 London Games to see female athletes in the teams of all participating countries.
Austria's Lubjana Piovesana (Blue) reacts after beating South Korea's Kim Ji-su in the judo women's -63kg repechage bout. — AFP
Given that backdrop, having an equal number of male and female athletes in Paris where prime-time coverage has also been equally shared between men and women is a watershed moment for women's empowerment in sports.
Billie Jean King, the legendary American tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and millions of hearts by fighting for women’s rights in sports, doffed her hat to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for their success in finally giving female athletes a level playing field.
Her sentiments were echoed by Jennifer Cooper, UN Women’s Global Advisor on Sport.
During an interview with Khaleej Times, the New York-based Cooper hailed the efforts of the IOC to bring about a change at the Olympics and in women’s sports in general.
But Cooper, an expert on gender equality, says a lot of work still needs to be done to support female athletes who still have to deal with online abuse, harassment and an imbalance in prizemoney.
Jennifer Cooper, UN Women’s Global Advisor on Sport
Cooper, though, hailed the revolutionary changes that are taking place in Saudi Arabia where female athletes are beginning to make a mark in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), motor racing and swimming.
Q. The 2024 Olympics is also a celebration of women in sports after the IOC’s announcement that there is an equal representation of male and female athletes in Paris. As someone who has worked for the growth of women in sports, how do you look at it?
This is a historic and important milestone in the history of the Olympic Games and in the history of sports and also for gender equality. Roughly half of the world population watches the Olympic Games, and when they see men and women competing in equal numbers for the first time, this sends a message that this is the norm. This is the way of the world. And I think it shows that the progress towards gender equality is possible when important organisations and their leadership come together and they are committed to making this happen.
Q. Female athletes also face a lot of problems like online abuse, and harassment. Have the authorities taken any steps to deal with these issues?
The IOC has put in efforts to safeguard the athletes, should something happen to them at the Olympics, they know where they can report this confidentially. In addition, the problem of online harassment and abuse, you know, unfortunately when women succeed in the field of play, sometimes the reward they get is toxicity online that they have to face and you can imagine these competitors, they reach the top of their game literally, they are in the world spotlight and, unfortunately, they get sometimes wrong kind of attention. Very harsh and horrible things that are said online. The IOC have also put in for the first time a type of monitoring system, using Artificial Intelligence tools to reduce the number of toxic messages that come for the athletes on the social media. That’s a new thing as well. So, there are many, many things to celebrate here.
Q. Since the sporting world is celebrating gender parity at the Paris Olympics, it also reminds us that in a country like India, most of the medal winners in individual categories at the past two Olympics (in Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016) are women. It’s quite remarkable because, in the hinterlands of India, girls are still not encouraged to play sports…
India's weightlifter Chanu Saikhom Mirabai poses with her silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. — AFP
There are 206 countries and territories sending teams to the Olympics, I am not an expert on the breakdown of the medal counts by countries. But I know it’s really important. In a country like India which is so huge, when you have women succeeding on the world stage, I think it also sends a message back to the country that we are proud of these women, they did their country proud, and the nation is proud of them, so we should therefore create more opportunities for girls and let them play to break some of these barriers that we see not just in India, but in many other countries and places around the world where it’s just not seen as appropriate for girls to go and play. That’s something we want to change as well.
Q. It’s inspiring to see the progress made by female athletes in Saudi Arabia. Mashael Alayed became the first female swimmer to compete at the Olympics in Paris recently. The country is also producing female MMA fighters and racing drivers…
Saudi Arabia's Mashael Meshari A Alayed competes in a heat of the women's 200m freestyle swimming event at the Paris 2024 Olympics. — AFP
I think what is happening in Saudi Arabia is a revolution, looking from the outside and from what I have read. The UN Women and the IOC, we have a long relationship, and we recently renewed our agreement. When IOC president, Thomas Bach, came, he brought with him three of his powerhouse women who are IOC members, and one of them is the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Princess Reema Bandar Al Saud. And she has been a promoter of the participation of girls and women in sports for years. She has been an important voice in making changes happen. And what’s happening in school systems and communities in Saudi is that there is an investment now, you have the same number of boys and girls having access to sports for the first time. And this is a big investment.
Q. There is still an imbalance in prizemoney. Even the world’s leading female athletes don’t make a fraction of the money male superstars make. Any chance of seeing a positive change in the next five years?
I think it’s going to take longer than that. If you look at the US, the difference between the men’s National Basketball Association and the women’s NBA, the average salaries are not even comparable. In 2017, a global sports salary survey came out and it said that women professional athletes on average around the world earn a total of around one per cent of what men were earning in sports. So, it’s a ridiculous gulf. The other thing that is shocking and which happens every year is that Forbes issues a list of the 100 top highest-paid athletes in the world. In 2024, how many women were on the list? Zero. It’s huge and I don’t think it can change so fast. But some sports have done much better than others. Look at tennis, which was really the first of all sports for a long time. When it was leading no one else was following. The prize money and the pay for the majors (in tennis) have been equal for several years. But I think the commercial side of sports has woken up to realise they have been missing out on an opportunity the whole time by just their bias, just thinking sports isn’t really for women. Well, that’s changing, just based on ticket sales and audience numbers, people are going to the Games and there is a market out there.
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