A hundred years after Paris last hosted the Games, when 135 women and 2,954 men competed, the 2024 Olympics will be the first to feature an equal distribution of quota places between female and male athletes. This historic milestone is the result of a century of relentless advocacy and struggle for gender equality in sports, a legacy that future generations must continue to uphold.
The 2024 Paris Olympics will be a landmark moment in sports history, as it will host 10,500 athletes, with just as many women as men for the first time ever. Each of the 32 Olympic disciplines will achieve gender parity, with 5,250 slots allocated to women and an equivalent number to men. This landmark achievement represents the culmination of a century-long effort to ensure equal representation for women in the Games.
Eighty-year-old Billie Jean King, who was instrumental in the formation of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 50 years ago, expressed her gratitude for witnessing the progress she and her courageous peers fought for, establishing tennis as the first truly global professional sports tour for women.
“Finally, we’re looked at as an investment, not a charity,” King said in an interview with Reuters. “It’s a…
