Women athletes are titans
Stop undermining them with sexist comments
It’s been one week of the 2024 Paris Olympics and my jaw is on the floor and tears are in my eyes as I watch women absolutely annihilate records, races and matches with their athletic performances.
I–along with the rest of the country–have been in complete awe of young swimming sensation, Summer McIntosh, who, at 17, has already won two gold medals and broken long-standing national records at her second Olympic games. I watched wide-eyed as Simone Biles performed her gold-medal winning floor routine–most of which she spent floating through the air–tearing up when she knew she had done it.
The list of women who have outdone themselves on this stage could go on forever… As I write this, Canada has 11 medals total, nine of which were won by female competitors (this includes mixed doubles tennis).
And while we expect a certain level of badassery and excellence from Olympic athletes, something feels different. The women’s performances this year feel more profound, as if they’re all shouting at the top of their lungs, demanding the world to watch what they can do, with grace and extreme effort and pride in the fact that yes they are women and yes they are strong and capable.
It feels like a statement.
It feels like a direct message to every other woman out there to stand her ground, fight for what she wants and believes in and loves.
It feels like a declaration to not give up and not back down. Because why would we? Why should we? The time for that passivity not just in the sporting world, but in workplaces, schools, homes, the streets, is long passed.
All of this makes it even more frustrating when comments are made about female athletes that diminish them as athletes. And as women.
Only a few days into the games did Eurosport broadcaster, Bob Ballard, get released from his post on the mic after making sexist comments about the Australian women’s 4x100 swim relay team as they celebrated their win.
While waiting for the women to come out for the medal ceremony, Ballard commented ‘Well, the women just finishing off. You know what women are like … hanging around, you know – doing their make-up.”
The women in question were celebrating their gold medal and the new Olympic record.
When the news of Ballard being taken off his post broke, comments started pouring in about cancel culture, how he wasn’t wrong–women do be like that. People commented that someone shouldn’t be canceled (was he canceled?) for one comment–and one that wasn’t allegedly that bad, they said.
But it’s beyond that at this point. It’s not just about someone making a comment and the repercussions they face in the outset. It’s about holding people to a higher standard.
This is the world Olympics, where the best athletes from across the world come to compete. It brings out the best referees, the most seasoned broadcasters–should we not hold these people to the same high standards to which the athletes are competing?
I wouldn’t say that Ballard was ‘canceled’, as I’m sure he will continue on with his broadcasting career. But when you’re performing at this level, every step matters. And if you take your eyes off the prize for one second, you risk losing it all. When it happens to athletes in sports, we shrug it off and say it wasn’t their time. Someone out-performed them. There’s always next time.
When it comes to making sexist comments, we don’t have four years to improve, to take our time and get better. We also have the opportunity to make an immediate difference. To change. To learn. To adapt.
The Olympic standard is set in place so that only a select handful of competitors can make the cut. And we’ve seen already who is rising well above it, and who has dropped below.