Olympic Coverage

Media Coverage of 2012 Olympics

The 2012 Olympic Media coverage was said by many to be sexist for a couple of reasons. Although it is a step forward for women participation wise (having more women than men for the first time ever) it is the coverage of women that is still lacking progress. A study of NBC's coverage shows that there is more likely to be coverage of women in sports like volleyball, gymnastics (essentially "feminine" sports) as apposed to the more "masculine" sports like weightlifting, boxing, or track and field. In the winter Olympics men receive about 23 hours of coverage compared to about 13 for women. While the coverage in Summer Olympics is about even it shows that the women's coverage leaned heavily toward sports "appropriate for women". This seems to be an attempt to gain male viewership rather than depicting women in a healthy way for young girls around the country. People are more focused on showing women in events where they look attractive or have to wear bikinis rather than any sport where the women and men dress the same. 

"[N]early three-quarters of the women’s coverage was devoted to gymnastics, swimming, diving and beach volleyball.

[…]

Track and field, where the clothing is almost as minimal, made up another 13 percent of the women’s prime-time coverage. “The remaining sports represented—rowing, cycling, and fencing—are not, by traditional standards, ‘socially acceptable’ sports for women, and make up approximately 2 percent of coverage,” the researchers write."

“Women who take part in sports that involve either power or hard-body contact are particularly unlikely to receive media coverage. When women engage in stereotypical feminine events, or look pretty or graceful, they will receive coverage, but they risk being shunned if they venture from that space.”

Success = Popularity?

The United States men's national soccer team has competed in many more Olympics than the women's has and yet have no where near the same amount of success. Below is a list of the men's Olympic medals compared to the women's Olympic medals in a much shorter span of time.

Men's medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Hungary (HUN)	3	1	1	5
2	Great Britain (GBR)	3	0	0	3
3	Argentina (ARG)	2	2	0	4
4	Soviet Union (URS)	2	0	3	5
5	Uruguay (URU)	2	0	0	2
21	United States (USA)	0	1	1	2

[edit]Women's medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	4	1	0	5
2	Norway (NOR)	1	0	1	2
3	Brazil (BRA)	0	2	0	2
4	China (CHN)	0	1	0	1
4	Japan (JPN)	0	1	0	1
6	Germany (GER)	0	0	3	3
7	Canada (CAN)	0	0	1	1

Yet despite all the success by the Women's National Soccer team the US Soccer website still predominantly shows coverage of the Men's team. This graph shows us that even though the women's national soccer team has had much more success than the men's team it has not translated into more coverage.
US Soccer Website

Sexism Even From Commentators

Sara J. Jackson, in an article "What's Wrong with Media Coverage of Women Olympians", writes about how the commentators were often the cause of sexism in the Olympics.

"Have you seen any diva moments yet?" one Olympic commentator asked of the Russian women's gymnastics team as they competed against the United States for gold on Tuesday night. It wasn't intended as a compliment"

"During the women's road race on Sunday, commentators continually referred to the competitors as "girls," despite the fact that the top finishers for the U.S. were Shelley Olds, 32, Evelyn Stevens, 28 (a former Lehaman Brothers associate) and Kristin Armstrong, 39 -- competing in her third Olympics. That adult women, at the top of their craft, with full lives and countless accomplishments continue to be referred to as "girls" in sports coverage is minimizing, to say the least." - Sara J. Jackson

'Diva moments' and grown women being referred to as girls are just two of the many issues Sara J. Jackson had with the Olympic commentators. She also talks about the fact that a main issue leading into the 2012 Olympics was whether or not the women's beach volleyball Olympians would be able to wear bikinis or not.

Future of Transgender People in the Olympics

Donna Rose (above) becomes the first transgender woman to compete in the ASICS U.S. Open Wrestling Championship. This is a step in the right direction for transgender athletes.

http://www.transgenderlaw.org/resources/MSNBCChuck.pdf

Despite the problems transgender people in the Olympics have faced they have reason to be optimistic. People like danish golfer Mianne Bagger and Kristen Worley have made strides for anyone who is transgender by fighting for the right to compete in the Olympics. Also helping their cause is the fact that many studies are coming out that show that people who are transgender have no unfair advantage in competition at all which is the fear and common argument of many regarding this subject. People like Bagger and Worley are still facing issues such as often being interviewed about the fact that they are transgender rather than their performance and there are still steps that need to be taken to have true equal participation but it certainly seems as though we are headed in the right direction. Many have compared this situation to the fight to that of gay and lesbian athletes.

Gendered Sports 

Olympics Still Not Gender Equal

                           

The London Games are a celebration of equality. For the first time, women will compete in all 26 sports, including boxing. It's not total equality — women still compete in 30 fewer events than men — but it's part of a larger trend towards gender equity on sports' global stage. 

So what happens if you're a male athlete that feels discriminated against, based on gender?

According to Belinda Goldsmith of Reuters, there are two sports in which men are shut out of competition in which women compete for medals:

"Men have called for action after being ruled out from competing at two events at the Summer Olympics, synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics, even though there are growing numbers of men participating in both sports.

A lobby group of male synchronized swimmers wrote to the IOC and swimming's governing body FINA in June to argue that men should no longer be excluded from this event at the Olympics." - Belinda Goldsmith

The idea that sports are gendered is perpetuated in many of the IOC's decisions. Many sports are still considered to be either "guy's" sports or "women's" sports. This needs to change to truly move forward. Men and women should be allowed to compete in all the same events.