The Olympic Games - a data Story
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A visual story on the gender distribution in olympics
Olympics of Men?
The Olympic Games are widely regarded as the world's greatest athletic tournament. This event, which occurs every four years, attracts almost 200 nations. And they alternate with the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during these four years. With the medals and ceremonies in the Olympics, there is a sense of pride and a knowledge of cultural history. The Olympics have always been dominated by men since its inception. The first Olympics were held in 1896, with zero women participation. There has always been a lot of disparity between men and women in the Olympics participation. In the year 1900, just 33 women competed in the Olympics.
Do you see the spikes after 1994?
It is because Winter and Summer olympics started alternating in every two years.
Women Participation not even half of men !
With ZERO women participating in the 1st olympics to more than 6000 women participating in the 2016 olympics, participation of men has always been twice than that of women.
And as we can see there are 3 dips in the line chart, it is on the year of 1932, 1956, and 1980.
As we saw above, women's participation is constantly growing up until early 1980. There is a spike in 1980 and increased rapidly up until now. USA has the most women delegates in Olympic Games followed by Germany, Russia, UK and France.
Medal Distribution for top ten countries based on gender
- Clicking on the country shows the medal distribution for it based on gender.
- Click the centre circle to revert to the original visualization.
Hover your mouse over the pie chart to see the total number of medals and more information.
Our Thoughts
Historically, female athletes have been treated, portrayed and looked upon differently from their male counterparts. In the early days of the Olympic Games, many NOCs sent fewer female competitors because they would incur the cost of a chaperone, which was not necessary for the male athletes. While inequality in participation has declined throughout history, women are still sometimes treated differently at the Games themselves.
The 2012 Olympics was the first in which almost every country sent at least one woman.
We need to understand that promoting girl's sports participation is not just a trendy ideal. It’s a smart, powerful action we can take as individuals and as a community to improve girls’ physical, mental, and emotional health.
Help girls recognize that athleticism and femininity are not mutually exclusive and that sweat, hard work, and strength are not solely masculine realms. Support women’s sports by attending female sporting events or signing up to coach a girl’s youth team.
