USA women contributed to the majority of Team USA’s gold medals at Tokyo 2020 Games

Access for women to participate in the Olympic Games started with the 1900 games held in Paris, France. The first gold medal was won by Switzerland Helene de Pourtales, a Swiss athlete in the sailing competition. Although met with resistance, Helene was one of 22 women of the 997 athletes scheduled to compete in the summer games. 

At the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, women competitors accounted for 45% of entered athletes with an increase to 58% in Tokyo 2020. An incredible 66 of Team USA’s 113 total medals were won by the USA were won by women in Tokyo.

“How exciting to read the statistics and celebrate that 125 years after the first modern games were held in Athens, Greece, women represent slightly below half of the opportunities offered in the world’s largest athletic showcase” said CHSAA commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green, a competitor and finalist in the 1988 US Track and Field Olympic Trails. 

“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has continued to provide non-traditional opportunities for sport under its umbrella that embrace the talents and competitive levels for women across the world and our country. Awareness of where our young athletes are engaged and then providing resources for engagement, preparation and connection is a major strength of the IOC which loop trickles down to HS driven opportunities. Who knows we may see pilot requests for climbing or skateboarding, probably not surfing in CHSAA’s future.

“Fundamentally, access to women sport in our country is catching up to the elite levels and we’re blessed that we’ve seen progress,” said Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.“The ability to achieve the highest levels in a number of sports and across a wide variety of sports speaks to the work that’s done by a lot of folks frankly who came before me that have worked really hard to build a system that will showcase them, and it’s starting to bear fruit.”