Equality at last: Number of female athletes to match male athletes at Paris Olympics

By James Gray, ITV News Producer

For the first time in Olympic history there will be an equal number of male and female athletes at Paris 2024.

Little more than a century ago, female athletes were barred from competing at the Games altogether, but now they will be level in number with their male counterparts.

Team GB, for the second Games running, will also be sending a team comprised of more women than men.

Here, ITV News looks back at the key moments that have impacted women and their participation in the Olympic Games.

Olympic debut - 1900

The 1900 Summer Olympics, which were also held in Paris, marked the first where women officially competed.

Two individual events for female athletes - tennis and golf - and three mixed sports - sailing, croquet and equestrian - were organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

It was during these Games that Briton and former five-time Wimbledon champion Charlotte Cooper made history as the first ever woman to win an Olympic medal in an individual event.

In total, only 22 women competed at the Games compared with 975 men.

Entry to athletics and gymnastics - 1928

For the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, the IOC authorised women to take part in athletics and gymnastics events - a decision that drew strong opposition from Pierre de Coubertin, the man who helped revive the modern Olympiad.

Women were allowed to compete in five events: 100m, 4x100m relay, high jump, discus and 800m.

Team USA's Betty Robinson became the first female 100m champion, with Canada triumphing in the 4x100m relay.

Another Canadian, Ethel Catherwood, won the first high jump competition, while Poland's Halina Konopacka won the discus.

Germany's Lina Radke won the 800m final with a world record time, although the event would be remembered for widespread media coverage, which focused on how fatigued some of Radke's competitors were at the end of the race.

That combined with then-societal attitudes towards women competing in sport led to a ban on female athletes racing in all events over 200m - a ruling that would remain in place until 1960.

Steady progress - 1960

In 1960, for the first time the number of female participants exceeded 20%, with 144 out of a total of 655 athletes.

Women competed in 27 events, with Olympic Gold being claimed by the likes of Team USA's Wilma Rudolph in three separate athletics events (100m, 200m and 4x100m relay).

Pedal to victory - 1984

Women had to wait nearly a century since cycling was first introduced to the Olympics before they were permitted to compete in such events.

That moment arrived during the 1984 Los Angeles Games, when road cycling events were organised for women. Track events followed four years later.

American Connie Carpenter-Phinney walked away from the women's road race with Olympic Gold, while second and third place went to fellow Team USA member Rebecca Lynne Twigg and Germany's Sandra Schumacher respectively.

Enshrining equality - 1991 & 1994

In 1991, the IOC made a key change to how sports were added to the Olympic programme, deciding that any sport included at the Olympic Games must involve women's events.

The move was considered significant in helping to improve equal representation and allowing more women to compete.

Three years later, the governing body enshrined in its charter the principle of gender equality, with all organising committees since urged to do all they can to ensure an equal number of male and female athletes at the Olympics.

Knockout blows landed to further barriers - 2012 & 2014

Many may not realise that it was only since London 2012 that women have been allowed to compete in boxing at the Olympics.

For 108 years the sport was male-only, but all that changed just over a decade ago, with Team GB's Nicola Adams and the Republic of Ireland's Katie Taylor both securing Olympic Gold.

Two years later, at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, women were also allowed to compete for the first time in ski jumping events.

For 90 years previously, the sport had been deemed too dangerous for women to participate in.

Germany's Carina Vogt became the Olympics' first female champion in the ski jump normal hill category, beating silver medalist Daniela Iraschko-Stolz with a score of 247.4 to 246.2.

Equal parity at last - 2024

Marking a significant moment for gender equality at the Olympics, the Paris Games will be the first to see equal representation of competing male and female athletes.

The IOC confirmed ahead of Paris 2024 there would be a 50:50 split of the 10,500 athletes taking part.

Team GB's Keely Hodgkinson as well as Simone Biles and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Team USA and Jamaica respectively will be among the star names on show.

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