10 medal-winning sexist moments of Rio

It has been said over and over, that women have to work twice as hard as men to be noticed. Nowhere was this more evident than at the just concluded 2016 Olympics in Rio, Brazil which having promised to be the “sexiest Olympics ever” turned out to be a sexism fest. We take a look at 10 times when the spotlight was stolen from high-achieving female Olympians.

1.  A marriage proposal is better than a medal

Few spectacles captured the world’s attention more than the moment Chinese diver, He Zi, got a marriage proposal from her boyfriend of six years and fellow diver, Qin Kai. It was all love and romance until the BBC (in an article on the 15th of August) reported that the proposal was “an even bigger prize (than her silver medal).” America’s National Broadcasting Corporation on the other hand ran a video of the proposal with the commentary that Zi’s medal “wasn’t the top highlight of her day.” Social media went ablaze.

@majanthehun tweeted: “Yes, marriage is definitely a bigger prize than an Olympic medal!”

@WhyHiTy posted: “…I’m sure being worthy of a man’s love is much bigger prize.”

The BBC later edited the quote to “…she ended up with another prize.” However, even the tweak has raised debate among female sports columnists who argue that terming Qin as Zi’s ‘prize’ epitomises the idea that finding a husband is a woman’s ultimate accomplishment.

Zi’s boyfriend also came under fire for stealing her moment of glory (as well as that of the gold and bronze winners sharing the podium). While some critics have termed Qin’s move as classic a show of patriarchy (shifting attention to himself), others have hypothesised that the damage was in the fact that Zi would be remembered as ‘the girl who got engaged at the Olympics’, not the woman who bagged a three-metre springboard silver medal for her country.

2.  She’s as good as a man!

Months before Ryan Lochte became Rio 2016’s villain with false claims of being robbed at gun point (while in fact he had been vandalising a gas station’s bathroom), he was quoted in a May 30th issue of Sports Illustrated saying this about fellow swimmer Katie Ledecky, who is a five-time Olympic gold medalist, nine-time world champion, current record holder in the women’s 400, 800 and 1500-metre free style and fastest time holder in the 500, 800, 1000 and 1650-yard freestyle events. Lotche said, “She swims like a guy… I’ve never seen a female swimmer like that…”

There’s been no shortage of professional commentators taking note of Ledecky’s ability to “swim like a man”– even Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian, in a 2015 broadcast with America’s Universal Sports said, “she swims almost like a guy.” The comparison to men was topped by, among others, an August 8th article in the Daily Mail describing Ledecky as the “female Phelps.”

It is for this same reason, that Simone Biles, a Team USA gymnast (and perhaps one of the favourite Olympians at Rio), was forced to declare in an interview, “I am not the next Usain Bolt or Micheal Phelps. I am the first Simone Biles.”

Jamaican sprinter Shelly-ann-Fraser has also been referred to as the “Usain Bolt of women’s sprinting” since her prominence at the 2008 Olympics.

3.  She won, but let’s put a man in the headline

 A week after the Chicago Tribune’s gaffe, another newspaper, another headline - “Phelps ties for silver in 100 fly” read a big and bold headline. Beneath it, in half the font-size, ran this sub-headline, “Ledecky sets world record in women’s 800m free-style,”

Nancy Leong, a law professor at the University of Denver, then tweeted an image of the article following it up with this tweet, “This headline is a metaphor for basically the entire world.” The metaphor being that women have to prove themselves twice as much to get half of the recognition men have.

The replies to her tweet were heated. While the aggrieved felt that the headline should have been Ledecky and her record-breaking performance, others defended it saying that headlines were about selling papers, with @CollinMansfield tweeting that “Phelps is household name and sells papers.”

 @Polkabecky said that Leong’s post “is a metaphor for basically the entire modern feminist movement. Outrage over nothing”

This didn’t sit well with the angry mob – “So his silver headline is twice the size of her gold? The girl in the headline hasn’t earned enough headlines yet?”@munchie99 asked.

 “Gold in the same event in London in 2012 at 15 years old: 14 more golds since in other championships (and she’s still) a no name!?”

4.  The missus won

It all began when the Chicago Tribune ran this headline; “Wife of Bears lineman wins bronze in Rio.” They were referring to American Corey Cogdell, who won a bronze in trap shooting, but instead of naming her, they linked her to her husband, Mitch Unrein.

And the tweets flew:

 People wondered why her name had not been mentioned and what her husband had to do with the win.

@KateHarding tweeted: “What about female medalists who aren’t married? Who gets the credit then?”

However, this tongue-in-cheek tweet by @johnrobinson took home the prize: “Wife of former president who was impeached runs for president herself!”

While the paper posted a second tweet identifying Corey as an Olympic medalist, they still included a mention that she was Unrein’s wife.

5.  Girls, girls, girls!

In the final week of the Olympics, the American women’s gymnastics team appeared on the cover of People. Not bad, other than the fact that some people didn’t like that the accompanying cover line screamed “AMERICA’S SWEETHEARTS”.

“I think someone misspelt badass athlete”, tweeted @jeannineMLove.

Explaining the outrage over the word ‘Sweetheart’, reporter Heidi Stevens of the Chicago Tribune wrote: “I love that the final five made the cover but I think ‘America’s champions’ or ‘America’s pride’ or ‘America’s fiercest’ would have been less condescending…are we calling male Olympians ‘America’s sweethearts’ or ‘America’s boyfriends’?”

A quick perusal through all-male teams gracing sports’ magazine covers reveals accompanying headers with the words such as ‘titans, all-time Olympian, Captain America, dream team, etc.

There have been strong online sentiments against commentators constantly referring to women athletes as ‘girls’ and ‘ladies’ while the men are just ‘men’, not ‘boys’ or ‘gentlemen’.

6.  This is going to be a cat-fight

Majlinda Kelmendi is the woman responsible for winning Kosovo its first ever gold medal. She is also Kosovo’s first-ever Olympic medalist. Triumphing over Italy’s Odette Giuffrid in the 52kg judo event was the news, until a BBC commentator referred to the event as a “cat-fight.”

@BBCSport got a lot of flak for it, one being the recommendation by @redliz99 that they find a commentator “who’s in the 21’st century.”  Fast-forward to the moment Andy Murray won yet

another Olympic gold and BBC presenter John Inverdale asked him, “You’re the first person ever to win two Olympic tennis gold medals…” Murray on the other hand interjected, reminding him

that, “well…I think Venus and Serena (Williams) have won about four each…” Murray was applauded for “reminding Inverdale of the existence of women, who also happen to be ‘people’.”

7.  Why won’t she do her hair and smile like a girl?

Gabby Douglas, one of the women in the American gymnastics squad is a three-time Olympic gold medal winner. At 16, she competed at the 2012 London Olympics and became the first African-American woman to win gold in the team competition and individual all-around. She has written two books. That notwithstanding, a lot of mention about Ms Douglas on the Internet has been

criticism about her hair being “too nappy” and that she just wasn’t smiling enough, with some saying it could only be because she was “jealous of (fellow gymnast) Simone Biles.” Ms Douglas also

got a lot of flak for not placing her hand over her chest while the US anthem played, in contrast to swimmer Ryan Lochte whose false claims of being robbed were dismissed as “boys being boys

“and “he’s just a kid.”

8.  Shock as mother  competes and wins

While having to train for the Olympics barely 17 months after birth is an impressive feat, media has nevertheless been criticised for constantly referring to Team USA’s swimmer and bronze and

silver medalist Dana Vollmer in relation to her new motherhood – all the headlines about her wins contained the words “new mom wins” or “Olympian mom” or “Super mom”. Audiences felt that

such a reference epitomises women’s sports coverage where ‘Aesthetics trump athleticism’.

9.  “I’m on my period” – the ultimate feminist moment

Chinese swimmer and bronze medalist, Fu Yuanhui told reporters her lacklustre performance at the 400-metre medley relay was “because my period came and I felt particularly tired…” adding that,

“this isn’t an excuse; I still didn’t swim well enough.” She was commended and her comment deemed ‘revolutionary’ for openly talking about her period to billions of people, a subject that’s

considered taboo, especially, as one tweet put it, “in the man-cave that is sports.”

10.  Sexism not reserved for women – social media argues

On the 5th of August, the Cosmopolitan posted a tweet with a link to an article titled “36 summer Olympic bulges that deserve gold.” This led to commentary that while Rio 2016 might have been

sexist, it wasn’t necessarily only dished out to women. Other magazines to have published listicles of “Sexy male athletes who are heating up Rio” and their variants include Harpers’ Bazaar, Pop Sugar and Glamour.