Commonwealth Games 2018: Gold Coast offers sun, sea and, thankfully, gender equality

The Commonwealth Games federation have ensured that men and women compete for an equal number of medals in this year's game.

This Commonwealth Games has been announced as gender-equal in terms of medals. (Source: Hockey India Twitter)

This International Women’s Day, the organisers of Commonwealth Games realised that it is 2018 and the opportunities, as well as the rewards given to the participants, should be equal – men and women. In positive news for women athletes, for the first time ever, there will be an equal number of women’s and men’s medal events at a Commonwealth Games. The Federation approved seven additional women’s event categories to Gold Coast 2018 to ensure that men and women compete for an equal number of medals (133 women’s events; 133 men’s events; 9 mixed/open events).

The announcement comes as a welcome change which will see an equal representation by both sexes, not just in terms of medals but also participation. In Glasgow, 58.8% of the athletes were men and 41.2% were women. It sends a vital message to everyone watching that it is time to accept equality of both genders in sports, as it has been in other spheres of social and economic life.

The inclusion of women in sports has come a long way since the first Commonwealth Games in 1930, when women’s participation was limited to seven diving and swimming events (comprising only 12% of events). Medal events at the 2010 Games had gone up to 46 percent in women’s, even though the number of events increased steadily for both men and women during that time. The last edition of the Games in Glasgow created the highest ever percentage of medal events for women at 48.5%, placing true gender equality in medal opportunities at the Games clearly within reach.

It is no secret how men and women athletes are treated differently, not just in Commonwealth Games but other major events in the world likeAustralian Open, Olympics etc. Sportswomen fail to get even media attention if and when their male counterparts are playing at the same time. Our cricket and hockey teams are good examples of that. A massive pay disparity continues to exist even now. Recently, BCCI announced updated annual contracts for all cricketers. While they fixed Rs 7 crore a year for men’s captain Virat Kohli, only Rs 50 lakh was announced for skipper of the women’s team Mithali Raj. So this comes as a huge boost for women athletes of all the nations participating in the mega sports event.

While the sporting fraternity is rocked by sex scandals, abuse and discrimination around the world, women athletes have come out despite the odds and performed not just equally well but in many cases even better than male athletes. Rio Olympics 2016 was a perfect example of that. While we pinned expectations on many athletes to get us medals at the biggest sporting event in the world, it was our women athletes – PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik – who saved us some embarrassment by getting the only two medals won.

In another benchmark achievement for gender equality, the International Federations for Basketball, Hockey and Swimming have confirmed that at least 50% of their technical officials presiding over the sporting action will be women.

The CGF has also implemented its Women Coaching Internship Programme for Gold Coast 2018. Under the innovative programme, there will be opportunity to fully integrate aspiring women coaches in their Gold Coast 2018 coaching team.

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However, even though an equal representation in terms of medal events at Gold Coast Commonwealth Games should be celebrated, there is still a lot of work to be done.