Through observations, winks and anecdotes, the Carnets de Paris immerse you in the heart of the Olympic Games.
We know the French craze for cycling, especially with the Tour de France which annually welcomes the greatest male cyclists. The images of the thousands of spectators present at the roadsides during the 21 days of competition go around the world. But in the streets of Paris on Sunday, this frenzy was felt just as much for the women as the day before for the men’s event. Hundreds of spectators were gathered on the Butte Montmartre on Sunday afternoon to watch the 78 participants in the road cycling event pass by.
“I am really surprised and happy that there are so many people for women’s sport, because for the other events it was not necessarily the case. For the triathlon, there were fewer people for the women, while a French woman won gold,” said a spectator met at the end of the event.
This year is the first time that the Olympic Games have been gender-balanced, meaning that there are as many women as men competing: 50% of the 10,500 athletes present are women. They were only 2.2% when they were given the green light to participate in 1900. But this parity does not necessarily equal equity.
A little later on Sunday evening, the men’s 100-meter final, the main event of the Games, took place. In a packed Stade de France, the lights went out and the eight runners competing for the title of “the fastest man in the world” took to the track. It was a spectacular spectacle with lights in the colors of the different countries coming on as the presentations progressed. The crowd was intoxicated. And the race itself dazzled many, with all the runners running under the 10-second mark.
The day before, at the same women’s event: a starting block, an athletics track and exceptional athletes. But none of the “fla-fla” that was reserved for the men the next day. “The resources we’re going to put in are super important. The cameramen, the people who are going to commentate. […] There is the whole system of media coverage which is not at all mixed and not at all equal. [dans le sport féminin] “, expressed the web editor-in-chief of the media SportingClaire Smagghe, on the airwaves of TV5 Monde.
She also notes some comments that are made about female athletes during their events, particularly regarding their outfit. “They are champions, they train all year round as much as the men, I think the main thing should be performance,” adds Claire Smagghe.
French beach volleyball player Lézana Placette, who chose to wear shorts instead of swimsuit bottoms during her Olympic games, also believes there is still work to be done. “Sometimes you want to play in a bikini, sometimes in shorts, sometimes in leggings, sometimes in different clothes. We want to ‘educate’ the public, so they don’t think: ‘Oh, they’re two girls in bikinis, we’re going to come and watch them play to see their butts.’ No, they’re two girls who can wear shorts and who do great things in terms of sport, and that’s what we need to focus on,” she told the French sports media. The Team.
While the Olympic Games are making progress, there is still much to be done to ensure that sport as a whole is gender-balanced and equal. The University of Strasbourg reported that only two women were presidents of an Olympic federation out of the 35 countries that have one. “There is perfect parity among the 10,500 athletes in the delegations. But there is still inequality in access to competitive sports in general and to sporting responsibilities,” explained William Gasparini, a researcher at the University of Strasbourg’s Sport and Social Sciences laboratory, in a conference. “The history of women’s place in the Olympic Games is a complex history made up of feminist movements to participate in competition against gender stereotypes.”
This report was funded with support from the Transat International Journalism Fund-The duty.