"Paris 2024 will be the first 100% gender equal Games in history": The announcement, made back in 2020 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board, was intended to draw the world's attention to the 2024 Olympics, emphasizing their novel, modern and progressive character. The "perfect parity" of the 10,500 qualified athletes would make the Olympic Games "reflect our society," said the IOC.

While the presence of as many male as female competitors is undeniably desirable and commendable, some of the IOC's assertions about the progress of gender equality in the Olympic institution have since been tempered.

While some have pointed out that the promised parity was far from being "perfect," the historic – and therefore sensational – nature of the event must also be put into perspective, given that the percentage of female competitors has risen steadily over the last 20 years. In this sense, the Paris Olympics represent less a break with the past than the validation of a long-term dynamic.

Last but not least, the idea that parity among athletes would finally make the Olympic Games "reflect our society" is questionable. As far as gender equality is concerned, and like the vast majority of high-level sporting competitions, the modern Olympics are, on the contrary, an exception in contemporary society. Indeed, while mixing sexes is the rule in most social spaces, this is not the case in top-level sports, where men and women almost always compete in separate categories.

Exceptions for sailing and horse riding

This system, referred to as "sex bicategorization" by researchers, is reflected in a number of ways. Firstly, in most individual events and disciplines, men and women do not compete against each other but against members of the same sex, giving rise to two separate and watertight rankings. In team sports and events, teams are also composed based on a sex criterion and do not compete against teams of the opposite sex.

Finally, the bicategorization of top-level sports has resulted in the gendered differentiation of certain events: In athletics, for example, men run a 110m hurdles race while women run a 100m hurdles race; the steel ball thrown by hammer throwers weighs 7.257 kilos for men, compared to just 4 kilos for women. At Grand Slam tournaments, individual tennis matches are played in three sets for women, five for men.

Other events differ entirely in form, as in gymnastics – where men compete on six apparatus (floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, high bar) and women on four (floor, uneven bars, vault, balance beam). Some rare disciplines are still exclusive to one sex or the other – only men take part in Greco-Roman wrestling, for example, and only women in rhythmic gymnastics.

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