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#1
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Comment: Is it true that London 2012 is the first games where every
participating country has sent both male and female competitors? I can't vouch for other media sources, but I've included some examples from one British newspaper/website: Example 1: Jane Martinson, 'London 2012 has lit a cauldron for gender equality' http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...ender-equality "First, by hook and awkward crook, women are represented in all participating national teams for the first time" Example 2: Esther Addley, 'Saudi Arabia's judoka strikes blow for women's rights at Olympics' http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/lond...women-olympics "London is the first Games in which every competing country will field at least one female athlete" Example 3: Tanya Gold, 'More young, strong women: that would be an Olympic legacy to be proud of' http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...-legacy-sexism "This is the first Olympics where every competing nation has sent women and the first where women have competed in every sport, even if the Saudi Arabian runner Sarah Attar had to run 800m in a hijab." Example 4: Owen Gibson, 'Rio Olympics should be gender equal, says Jowell' http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012...s-gender-equal "The president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, has hailed the fact that all 204 competing nations have sent male and female athletes to the Games for the first time, with Saudi Arabia the last to do so." Guardian editorial: 'London 2012: the legacy of a flag to share' (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...2012-olympic-g ames-legacy) "These were a good Olympics for sporting ethos too. London 2012's greatest milestone was the equality, and in some respects the superiority, of women's participation. No national team was male-only, for the first time." In fact, according to the data that the Guardian published online, and in the Olympics supplement on 30/07/12, two countries - Barbados and Nauru - sent no female competitors http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/data...ist-visualised Questions 1 - Where's the evidence, if any, for such a claim? 2 - Is it all Jacques Rogge's fault? Should he have checked first? Should journalists have taken him at his word? 3 - Is it possible that any or all of the journalists (and/or Jacques Rogge) - for reasons best known to themselves - overlooked the inaccuracy of their claim regarding women's participation for a bigger story about equality? (i.e. Is there an echo of the domestic violence/Superbowl story here?) PS: Curiously, Bhutan didn't send any men as part of their team. |
#2
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![]() Quote:
Quote:
I don't know if it's Jacques Rogge's fault. Quote:
The statements made by some of the articles linked about this being the first time that women have competed in "every sport" is also worth comment: there was no women's canoe slalom event (although there was a single kayak event). There are also AFAIK no men in the synchronised swimming or rhythmic gymnastics events (although I suppose these examples could be said to be disciplines within a sport). I don't know what the "domestic violence/Superbowl story" is, or how it might relate to a story about gender representation in Olympic competition. |
#3
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South Sudan had one athlete, but he didn't participate under their banner.
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#4
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The domestic violence/Superbowl story is a UL that cases of domestic violence go up during the Superbowl because so many more men are drinking and abusing their wives. The writer's theory is that the story gets repeated as a way to get more attention paid to domestic violence by linking it with an event that gets tons of media attention and the "all women" story got repeated in order to draw attention to the progress that women are making by linking it with an event that gets tons of media attention.
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#5
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I didn't check all those articles, but the slant that was given to me when I commented on countries such as Suadi Arabia sending female athletes for the first time was that they were told they HAD to have female athletes or they couldn't compete. So that's going around as well, at least locally.
I actually doubted that, since athletes take years to become skilled in a sport and one of these female athletes was the flag bearer (somewhere like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, I don't recall) |
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