31. Fight Song – Rachel Platten 2015

 

Like a small boat
On the ocean
Sending big waves
Into motion
Like how a single word
Can make a heart open
I might only have one match
But I can make an explosion

 

As a society Australia has been contemplating gender equity issues in the Olympics for some time now.

            In the lead-up to the 2012 London Olympics the comedy duo Hamish and Andy tried their hands at synchronised swimming with a Czech male non-competition team. Their take home message was that it was sexist to not have a male synchronised swimming event in the Olympics . . .

            Then, as the London 2012 opening ceremony was looming, the issue of who would be our flag bearer became a gender issue. Natalie Cook was portrayed as having a dummy spit. Maybe she was. However I think she had a fair point in saying that she had walked behind male flag bearers at four previous Olympics and it was time for a female to have the opportunity. That said, women had been given the honour before. Raelene Boyle (1976), Denise Robertson-Boyd (1980), Jenny Donnet (1992), Kirstie Marshall (1994 -Winter), Alisa Camplin (2006 - Winter), Torah Bright (2010 - Winter) and then Lauren Jackson in London 2012. Since the London 2012 Olympics we have also had Anna Meares (2016) and now Cate Campbell less than three weeks back at Tokyo 2020 (2021). Added to this, Australia has had six female flag bearers at Olympic closing ceremonies, including Dawn Frasier at Tokyo 1964 – the very first time the flags were marched into an Olympic closing ceremony.

            Compared with the thirty-one males at opening ceremonies and fourteen males at closing ceremonies, the figure of sixteen female flagbearers at both opening and closing Olympic ceremonies is not representative of females being over fifty percent of the population that Olympians represent.

            More than sixty-six years since Dawn Frasier became our first female flag bearer, the International Olympic Committee only announced in the lead-up to Tokyo 2020 that each country was to have two flag bearers, one male and one female. So, maybe Australia was ahead of its time. Additionally, Tokyo 2020 (2021) was the most gender equal Olympics ever, with women comprising a record-breaking 49% of participants.

            In an attempt to try to bring this post full circle - to Natalie Cook’s sport of beach volleyball - I am glad that I’m not the only one who has noticed distinct differences in the style of the male and female beach volleyball uniforms.

            As far as Hamish and Andy making it into the Olympics for synchronised swimming goes, I’m not sure the world is ready for that yet.

            Finally, as mentioned in Post 20, the equestrian disciplines have been competing on a gender neutral basis – for both horses and riders – since forever.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYyhbFoBNj4


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