New sports and events promote gender parity
The push for gender parity across the Olympic programme gathered momentum at and following the Olympic Games Atlanta 1996.
Three new sports made their debut at the Games, one of which, softball, was for women only. The other two, beach volleyball and mountain biking, adhered to the 1991 IOC requirement that all new sports wishing to be included on the Olympic programme must involve women.
Four new events were also added to the programme. Two evened up a gender imbalance, with women’s football and women’s triple jump included for the first time, and two featured both women’s and men’s competitions: lightweight rowing and cycling’s individual time trials.
The inclusion of women in football – the world’s most popular sport – was a major development.
When softball made its debut in 1996, it became the third sport, alongside rhythmic gymnastics and artistic swimming, to feature women only. It remained on the programme until the Olympic Games Beijing 2008. Japan chose to reinstate softball and baseball, both of which are popular in the nation, for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Another change in the programme helped continue efforts to address the gender divide. For the first time, professional cyclists were included in the Games. This not only added lustre to the road races, but it also freed up space on the Olympic programme to introduce another female event. The men’s four-man team trial, part of the Olympic programme since 1960, was replaced by an individual time trial road race for women and men.
In 1995, the IOC had established a Women and Sport Working Group to advise its Executive Board on gender-equality issues. By Atlanta 1996, 34 per cent of competitors were female. For the Olympic Games Paris 2024, the IOC has committed to a 50:50 gender split.