In A First, Half The Athletes In The Paris Olympics Will Be Female

Connatix's Jenn Chen comments on the continued growth in popularity for women’s sports which has been one of the biggest news stories in 2024.

Ratings and attendance for women’s sports have been surging resulting in increases in media rights fees and valuations.

Advertisers are taking note of this boom, in March, WPP’s GroupM, one of the largest global media buying companies, announced a commitment to double the amount of ad spend allocated to women’s sports. GroupM's clients include Ally, Coinbase, Discover, Google, Mars, Nationwide, Unilever and NBCU’s Universal Pictures.

The continuing growth of women’s sports has impacted the Olympic Movement. For the first time, the upcoming Paris Summer Games will have gender parity, with half of the over 10,000 athletes participating are women. The growth in women participating in the Olympics has been a slow and steady build.

Moreover, in a first, the final Olympic event will be the women’s marathon instead of the traditional men’s marathon.

In a written statement, IOC member Nawal El Moutawakel noted, “The Olympic games are a rare occasion when female athletes can make the headlines as much as their male counterparts. We know that there are prime global broadcasting times at each edition of the Olympic Games. We have adjusted the schedule accordingly to ensure that a gender-balanced number of medal events and total competition hours take place during those time slots.”

As part of its 7,000 hours of coverage, NBCU plans to devote prime time coverage to such premiere events as track and field, swimming and gymnastics — as well as any other newsworthy events.

Jenn Chen, CRO & president at Connatix, adds, “It’s been exciting to watch the increased attention around women’s sports this year, and that momentum is only rising heading into the Paris Olympics. There’s a new breed of sports fans – they’re young, they’re female, and they’re more engaged and tuned in than ever, not just to the games but to the athletes themselves.”

For Team USA, women will account for 314 (53%) of the 592 athletes competing in Paris. The women’s competition will include a number of familiar names to viewers.