Milano Cortina 2026, how the Olympics can help gender equality

«Paris 2024 will be the first Olympics in history to achieve gender equality». Diana Bianchedi, Chief Strategy Planning & Legacy Officer of Milan Cortina Foundation 2026, says it all in one breath. “For the first time, as many female athletes as male athletes will compete.” Looking at that 50 percent that stands out on the slides projected on the screen inside the CONI main section, you don't immediately realize what it really means. To achieve this we need to take a leap back in time that marked the history of the Olympics and stop at the beginning of 1900 when the percentage of women competing was equal to 2.2 percent of the athletes. It took more than a hundred years to reach 50 percent. And we can say it: this objective has been achieved.

We are at the Roman event organized by the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, which has always been committed to organizing increasingly inclusive Games, «Milano Cortina 2026, an opportunity for change. Gender equality in the world of Italian sport”. Many guests were present, starting with the president of CONI and the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, Giovanni Malagò which underlined how the world of sport has always been a source of change and a precursor of transformations within society. Starting from Milano Cortina 2026 which could be an example. «Do you know how many female and male athletes there will be in Paris 2024? 5,250 men, 5,250 women. And there are sports that only women do, such as rhythmic gymnastics, for example. Or synchronized swimming, both in a duo and in a team, in which you can have one man representing the whole team. At the beginning the members of the IOC were only men, today 41% are women.” And as proof of CONI's commitment to working increasingly towards equality between women and men, even in managerial roles where the percentage of women is still very low, an Equal Opportunities Commission will be established «to understand how the female presence in our world”.

Sport, as we know, is one of the environments most closely linked to gender stereotypes and an idea of ​​male power that seems impossible for women to achieve. «You run like a girl», «You don't jump like a boy», just some of the expressions that are still used in the most common language today. But many steps forward are also being made, which are worth focusing on, to explain that change is possible. She says it in two words Federica Cappellettipresident of the FIGC Women's Professional Football Division: «Football is by far the most masculine sport there is but as a female sport we have made a huge step forward: almost 90 years later Professionalism has arrived for women who today have an employment contract, even if only for those who arrive in Serie A.” The gender gap still remains a big issue. “The salary of a footballer today is still equal to that of a colleague who plays in Serie C. We still have work to do but having achieved professionalism in Serie A is a watershed.”

A before and after that finds expression in the words that appear on the screen when a video is broadcast that traces the history of women's presence in the Olympic Games. «If she can see it, she can believe it» (If he can see it, he can believe it.) Words that first become a dream and then reality when we see women who today compete in sports such as skateboarding, football, boxing, running, long jump, skiing. «The Olympics, and especially the Paralympics, they offer an important opportunity to stimulate a cultural transformation through sport and to promote a commitment towards a more inclusive society for all people”, added Diana Bianchedi. “Is critical enhance the experiences and skills of women in a context such as sport, where female representation at management level is still limited. Highlighting the abilities of women is more essential than ever and, thanks to the Games, and their reformative force, today we are launching an important training path aimed at perfecting and increasing the number of female professionals in the sports field.”