Women again win the majority of Swiss medals at the Olympic Games in Paris. Five out of eight awards went to Swiss women. This corresponds to a value of 62.5 percent.
12.08.2024, 12:51
12.08.2024, 14:04
SDA
The trend of Swiss women being more successful at the Olympics than their male counterparts has thus continued. In Rio de Janeiro (57.1%) and even more so three years ago in Tokyo (76.9%), women contributed more to the medal haul than men.
In the recent history of the Summer Olympics, women had only previously won more medals than men in Sydney in 2000.
In addition to the fact that the importance of women's sport in Switzerland has recently increased significantly and that it is also receiving more targeted support from the federal government, these figures are only possible thanks to the upgrading of women's status by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
In recent years, the number of medals awarded to women has increased steadily. Since 2012 and the inclusion of women's boxing, women have been eligible to compete in all sports. And in Paris, for the first time ever, there were as many women as men at the start.
Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games, had rejected the participation of women and described women's sport as "uninteresting, unaesthetic and incorrect". It took until the 1970s before women were allowed to compete in a relevant number of disciplines.
Until 2000, there were only three Swiss Olympic champions: Hélène de Pourtalès, Christine Stückelberger and Brigitte McMahon. Since then, the number has almost tripled thanks to Nicola Spirig (2012), Belinda Bencic, Jolanda Neff and Nina Christen (all 2021) and now Chiara Leone in Paris.
