It was at Paris 1900 that women first competed at the Olympics. There were 22 women among the 997 athletes, a share of 2.2%.
By Los Angeles 1984, 23% of the athletes were women. At the 2012 London Games, countries that did not traditionally include women were encouraged to do so, and so Saudi Arabia and Brunei, among others, had female athletes turn up to compete. At the Tokyo Games, countries were encouraged to select a man and a woman each to be flag bearers.
Paris 2024 marks another step forward. There is near-total gender parity at these Games. Quota slots were divided equally, for the first time ever. The line-up is distributed near-equally too: 157 men’s events, 152 women’s events and 20 mixed-gender ones, packed into 19 days.
Which means viewers must once again play that Olympics game of their own: which events to watch and which to eschew. Here’s what I’ll be glued to.
* All of the Indian medal hopefuls, and any Indian that makes it to the finals, of course. This is, happily, a long list.
Defending Olympic champion (and world and Asian champion) Neeraj Chopra has made the javelin throw the most anticipated event for India.
Two-time boxing world champion Nikhat Zareen will make her Olympic debut. Tokyo bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain, who has only got better in the ring, will be looking to improve on that win.
Antim Panghal has established herself as India’s finest young wrestling talent in just her debut year at the senior level. Can the explosive 19-year-old hold her nerve and keep going? Also on the mat, Vinesh Phogat, India’s most decorated wrestler, making one last attempt at the medal that has eluded her, after making an improbable comeback from knee surgery, all while leading a movement to hold a powerful politician and alleged sexual predator accountable.
There’s PV Sindhu, always a giant in singles badminton. The dynamic duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in men’s doubles badminton. Debutant shooter Sift Kaur Samra, hiding nerves of steel behind a mild-mannered smile. And Tokyo silver medallist Mirabai Chanu, who has been plagued by injury but whose personal best lift has only been eclipsed by one other lifter in the world, in the lead-up to the Games.
Not to mention steeplechase runner Avinash Sable, and the Indian men’s hockey team.
* What else? Well, Sweden’s Armand Duplantis only knows how to pole-vault one way: the record-breaking way. He has shattered his own world record eight times in recent years. I’m keen to see what heights will he reach at Paris.
* One of the longest-standing track records, Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 200m sprint mark set in 1988, may finally fall. It’s an incendiary field: the Jamaican Shericka Jackson’s time is only 0.07 seconds behind the record, and she will be pushed to the brink by new American sensation, Sha’Carri Richardson, and by fellow Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah, in a race that will also set exciting new standards in nail art and flamboyant hair-dos.
* In what was one of the most incredible races in Olympic history, Norwegian Karsten Warholm destroyed the 400m hurdles world record in Tokyo by a full second, with American Rai Benjamin and Brazilian Alison Dos Santos coming in second and third, and also breaking that previous record. Who ever heard of such a thing? And what will the three do in Paris?
* They won’t be breaking any records, but who can resist watching Rafael Nadal play Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz, on the red clay of Roland Garros?
Happy viewing. What a fortnight it promises to be!
(To reach Rudraneil Sengupta with feedback, email rudraneil@gmail.com)
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