The IOC has long recognised the powerful contribution it can make to advancing gender equality both in and through sport.

The IOC’s role “to encourage and support the promotion of women in sport at all levels and in all structures, with a view to implementing the principle of equality of men and women” is enshrined in Rule 2.8 of the Olympic Charter and informs all aspects of its work. Olympic Agenda reiterated this commitment with concrete actions – including the aim to achieve 50 per cent female participation at the Olympic Games, and to mainstream gender equality across the Olympic Movement.

Building on the IOC Gender Equality Review Project (2018), the IOC approved in 2021 its 21 Gender Equality and Inclusion-Objectives for 2021-2024, further strengthening the organisation’s approach across five areas:

The goal is to push gender equality globally and produce action-oriented recommendations for change on and off the field of play, while ensuring an inclusive approach accounting for diverse and intersectional identities of women and men.

The IOC set two commitments at the UN Women Generation Equality Forum in 2021 to be achieved by 2024:

• The IOC aims to consolidate the Olympic Games as one of the most effective global platforms for promoting and accelerating gender equality through concrete policies and actions.
• The IOC will continue to lead by example and support the acceleration of women’s meaningful representation in governance, leadership and decision-making bodies in the Olympic Movement.

The IOC’s commitment to these goals is reflected in its ongoing efforts to mainstream gender equality across all levels of the organisation and the broader Olympic Movement.

Owner of the The Olympic Games

The Olympic Games Paris 2024 was the first Olympic Games in history with full gender parity on the field of play, thanks to the IOC’s distribution of an equal number of quota places to female and male athletes.

The IOC, together with Olympic Movement stakeholders, took other concrete steps to promote gender equality at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, including:

• Criteria for new sports to include at least one women’s event and one men’s event.
• Fair scheduling of women’s and men’s events across the 16 days.
• A gender-balanced sports programme, with 28 of 32 sports reaching full equality.
• Gender-balanced medal events: 152 women’s events, 157 men’s events and 20 mixed-gender events.
• A joint male-female flagbearer policy since the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, with 96 per cent of delegations having a female flagbearer in Paris.
• 50 per cent female representation among volunteers and torchbearers.

INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL OFFICIALS

The IOC worked with IFs to encourage the inclusion of more women as ITOs at the Games. Four IFs achieved or surpassed 50 per cent female representation among ITOs in Paris 2024, and 12 IFs had greater than 40 per cent representation of women among their ITOs.

COACHES

Only 13 per cent of coaches at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 were women. The Women in Sport High Performance Pathway (WISH) programme, backed by USD 1 million in Olympic Solidarity funding, is a key part of the IOC’s strategy to address this disparity for future Olympic Games.

Established by the IOC, together with a number of IFs and the University of Hertfordshire, WISH is a dedicated mentorship and training programme for female coaches, providing access to leadership training, sport-specific training and mentoring. In total, the WISH programme has so far equipped a total of 120 female coaches from 22 sports and 59 countries with the tools needed to take on roles at the highest level of their sport.

SAFE SPORT

Ensuring a safe and supportive environment for all athletes remains a priority for the IOC. The IOC Safe Sport Action Plan (2021-2024) strengthened safeguarding measures, including the IOC Framework for Safeguarding Athletes and Other Participants from Harassment and Abuse in Sport (Games-Time Period), updated in 2023.

ATHLETE WELFARE AT THE GAMES

The Athlete365 Mind Zone x Powerade, a first-of-its-kind mental health and safeguarding space, provided direct support to athletes at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Additionally, 152_NOC Welfare Officers from 74 NOCs were accredited at the Games, acting as key support personnel for athlete well-being. To address online abuse, the IOC implemented an AI-driven protection system at Paris 2024, covering nearly 20,000 athlete and entourage accounts to identify and remove harmful content.

FAIR REPRESENTATION

For the Olympic Games Paris 2024, the IOC ensured genderbalanced representation across digital content on Olympics.com: 36 per cent of stories focused exclusively on women and 33 per cent on men, with 31 per cent mixed-gender. More women were recruited in key broadcasting roles at Paris 2024: 49 per cent of commentators were former Olympians or Paralympians, over half of whom were women.

PORTRAYAL

The IOC has strengthened its efforts to ensure gender-equal, fair, and inclusive representation in sports media. The IOC Portrayal Guidelines for Gender-Equal, Fair and Inclusive Representation in Sport, updated in 2024, provide practical recommendations to combat bias in sports coverage and communication and have been widely adopted by Olympic Movement stakeholders, including MRHs and broadcasters.

The IOC as an organisation

Since 2013, the IOC has been increasing the representation of women among elected IOC Members, Executive Board members, and appointed Commission chairs and positions.

As of December 2024:

• IOC Members: 43 per cent are women, up from 21 per cent in 2013.
• IOC Executive Board members: 47 per cent are women, up from 27 per cent in 2013.
• IOC commission chairs: 42 per cent are women, up from 18 per cent in 2013.
• IOC commission positions: 50 per cent are held by women, up from 20 per cent in 2013.

In parallel, the IOC has also increased female representation in its management:

• IOC directors: 33 per cent are women, an 83 per cent increase since 2017.
• IOC senior managers: 47 per cent are women, a 39 per cent increase since 2017.

Leader of The Olympic Movement

The IOC is working closely with Olympic Movement stakeholders: supporting them to be leading voices on ensuring greater female representation in other roles within sport, such as leadership positions, technical officials and coaching; and encouraging them to take the necessary steps in accelerating and mainstreaming gender equality in their area of responsibility.

BASIC UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES

The IOC strengthened the Basic Universal Principles of Good Governance Within the Olympic Movement in 2022 by adding a clause calling for “a balanced representation of genders among the members (with a minimum of 30 per cent of each gender)” on organisations’ governing bodies. By the end of 2024, 44 per cent of NOCs had more than 30 per cent female representation on their governing bodies, while 46 per cent of IFs reached the minimum threshold of 30 per cent female representation on their decision-making bodies.

OLYMPIC SOLIDARITY

To support Olympic Movement stakeholders embedding gender equality into their own policies and strategies, Olympic Solidarity more than doubled its investments in gender equality-related projects during 2021-2024 to USD 2.8 million (USD 1.15 million in 2017-2020). There was also an increase in the total number of women beneficiaries across all Olympic Solidarity’s World Programmes in 20212024 compared to 20172020. The increase was possible thanks to NOCs increasingly prioritising gender equality and the introduction of incentives to achieve gender balance in each programme.

For more information, see the Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Progress Report 2021–2024.