Women's participation in the history of the Summer Olympics
The road from 2.2% of female athletes to gender equity in participation in the Olympic Games
By César Heredia, data journalist
Participation of Women in the Summer Olympics has been constantly increasing since the Paris 1900 Olympic Games, given that no female athletes competed in the Athens 1896 edition.
One hundred and twenty-four years ago, 22 women pursued Olympic glory, with Swiss-American sailor Hélène de Pourtalès becoming the first woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal aboard the boat Lérina in the first race of 1–2 ton class sailing event. She and other crew members also won a silver medal in the second race of the 1–2 ton class.
British tennis player Charlotte Cooper also made history as the first female Olympic champion in an individual competition.
It was also in the French capital, where over 100 women took part in the global competition for the first time. One hundred and 36 women participated in the Paris 1924 Olympic Games. Three Americans and a British female athlete earned multiple medals:
- Tennis player Helen Wills (USA): two gold medals.
- Diver Elizabeth Becker-Pinkston (USA): a gold and a silver medal.
- Tennis player Kathleen McKane (GBR): a silver and a bronze medal.
- Swimmer Gertrude Ederle (USA): two bronze medals.
Forty-eight years elapsed to witness 1,000 women participating in the Olympics. A number of 1,059 female athletes took part in the Munich 1972 Summer Olympic Games, representing 14.8% of the competitors back then.
Other milestones occurred at these Olympic Games:
- Seoul 1988: 2194 female athletes (26.1% of the total).
- Atlanta 1996: 3512 (34%).
- Sydney 2000: 4069 (38.2%).
- Rio 2016: 5059 (45%).
Gender equity
There have been three consecutive Games with more than 5,000 women participating in the Olympics, with the highest number in Tokyo three years ago (5,409). However, the recently finished Paris 2024 Olympics were the first in history to achieve full gender equity.
The two graphics below show the number of female athletes participating, and the rate of women respect to the total of athletes in every Olympic edition.
The table below resumes the participation of female athletes in every Summer Olympics ordered by the most recent event (Paris 2024). It shows the number of women in each game, the percent change from the previous edition, the total of athletes, and the rate of women out of the number of competitors.
