International Women’s Day 2022: Celebrating Women at the Olympic Games

The next steps: beyond the field of play

But while great progress has been made in balancing the total number of athletes participating at the Games, the journey for gender equality is imperfect and ongoing, and many other challenges and gaps remain to be tackled.

Off the field of play, the Olympic Movement must advance pathways for more women to be trained as sports officials, to be given coaching roles, and to be elected to boardrooms. The IOC is working to address these inequalities through representation targets, leadership development courses, and advocacy and awareness campaigns, and by appointing more women to leadership roles within its own administration and key governance positions.

Outlining this approach, in 2021 the IOC published the IOC Gender Equality & Inclusion Report, which details the progress made in the last Olympiad and presents the new strategy and objectives for 2021 to 2024. These 21 objectives support the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020+5, and build on many of the recommendations of the IOC Gender Equality Review Project. They will be implemented across the IOC’s three spheres of responsibility, with five focus areas: participation, leadership, safe sport, portrayal and resource allocation.