All The Blatant Sexism That We Saw In Rio Olympics So Far

Sunday, August 14 2016, 02:45:27

Himanshu Roy

JWB Blogger

All The Blatant Sexism That We Saw In Rio Olympics So Far

JWB Post

August 10, 2016

Why do we attribute the success of Women Olympians to men?

You might be wondering that why I am asking this question, but if you are watching the Rio games intently, then I think that you already know the answer.

When the three-time Olympian trap shooter Corey Cogdell won her second bronze medal, all that the Chicago Tribune could say was that “the wife of Chicago Bears lineman Mitch Unrein has earned a medal.”

So apparently it’s perfectly alright to ignore the rigorous training that Corey has gone through to win a medal because ultimately, she isn’t even entitled to be recognized by her name. Does that sound fair to you?

Similar examples are plenty and are scattered throughout Rio games. Be it the commentators terming world record making swimmer Katie Ledecky as a person ‘who swims like a man’ to terming gymnast Simone Biles ‘the Kobe Bryant of gymnastics’ there have been very few individuals who have recognized women for truly what they are and have given them some credit.

What more? When the US gymnastics team was talking among themselves on the sidelines of the tournament, one of the commentators said that ‘they might as well be standing around in the mall.’

Everywhere it’s the same bias against women athletes. Simone Biles was once again unfairly targeted when after one of her jaw-dropping performances a commentator said that ‘I think she might even go higher than some of the men.’

So, in every step of the games, the women are compared to men, and it is indeed disheartening to see that even in 2016, women in the Olympics are struggling hard just to carve out their own identities. This mindset has to go.