A woman’s world: US female athletes, long left out of the Olympics, have overtaken their male counterparts on the podium

US synchronized divers Sarah Bacon (top) and Kassidy Cook won a silver medal in the 3-meter springboard, the Americans' first of the games.Lee Jin-man/Associated Press

The medal count for the US team officially started on Day 1 when divers Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook won the silver medal in the 3 meter synchronized. Reaching the podium was a milestone for the pair, who found redemption after missing out on the Olympics in 2021.

“I’m still processing it in this moment,” Cook said. “I’m just so overwhelmed with emotions — the best emotions in the world.”

It was only the second time the US had medaled in the event, but Cook and Bacon not only got the ball rolling for America’s athletes but kept it rolling for America’s women, who for the past two decades have been bringing home the lion’s share of the country’s medals at the Summer Games.

Through Monday afternoon, Americans have set the pace with 78 total medals; women have won 44. If that holds, it would be the fourth straight Summer Olympics in which the US women won the majority of the country’s medals.

The first time Team USA’s women outpaced the men was in 2008, when they had a 56-55 advantage.

The London Games in 2012 were considered the breakthrough. Time Magazine declared that summer “The Year of The Woman.” It was the first time every participating country included female athletes. America’s women won 58 medals, 55.8 percent of the country’s total, while men won 45. Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee at the time, bragged, “This is a major boost for gender equality.”

The 2021 Games in Tokyo were where the shift turned seismic. US women won 66 of the country’s 113 medals, 58.4 percent, and 25 more than the men. It was the largest total by US women at any Olympics.

Nancy Hogshead-Makar won three gold medals and a silver as America’s most decorated swimmer at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and she saw the women’s performance in 2021 as another leap.

“These outstanding performances by America’s women’s team in Tokyo are the tip of the iceberg of women’s potential,” said Hogshead-Makar at the time.

An iceberg couldn’t have been more fitting. It’s impossible to look at the US women’s ascension without examining what it took to achieve it. In many ways, the timeline of women’s Olympics sports is a case study in how long it actually takes to remedy inequality. A battle for access, opportunity, and resources lasted more than a century and has just started to bear fruit.

Bonnie Hagerman, director of undergraduate programs and an associate professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality at the University of Virginia, has studied women’s participation in the Olympics since the origins of the modern Games. She used the first Olympics in 1896 as a point of reference.

“Pierre de Coubertin, who is largely regarded as the founder of the modern Games, really did not want women to participate at all,” Hagerman said. “In fact, he felt like he was being pretty benevolent allowing women to come to the Olympic Games as spectators, because the ancient Games hadn’t allowed that.”

That view, Hagerman said, held true until de Coubertin retired in 1925.

“I don’t think it’s any coincidence that track and field events are added for women starting in 1928,” she said.

Even then, de Coubertin wasn’t alone.

“James Sullivan, for whom the award is given to the best amateur athlete, in fact, made it impossible for women to try out for the Olympic Games,” Hagerman said. “He passes away in 1916 and we begin to see more women participate in the Olympic Games.”

While the era after the introduction of Title IX in 1972 is often heralded for creating the opportunities that have led to women excelling in sports, especially the Olympics, Hagerman is researching the impact of female athletes in the 1920s.

The 1928 Olympics were a prime example of women showing their ability. The US sent 280 athletes to Amsterdam, but just 44 women. The men competed in 80 events and medaled in 30 of them. Women competed in 14 and medaled in nine.

“I think that part of what we’re seeing with American women is that they’re fighting against institutional sexism,” Hagerman said. “There just aren’t the same number of events for women that there are for men.”

The impact of Title IX is undeniable in terms of opening doors for women in sports. But Hagerman said that was only one factor.

Indeed, 2012 was dubbed “The Year of the Woman,” but so was 1996.

“Let’s keep this all in perspective,” Hagerman said. “It’s great to throw some confetti, but what does that mean? We’re about 128 years of the Olympics being in existence, and we’re just getting to parity.”

The gains women have made can be seen not only in the medal count but also in the range of sports. The US men’s and women’s teams are typically led by swimming and track and field. Gymnastics is also a pillar for the women’s team. But in 2021, women participated in 44 sports and medaled in 24 (men medaled in 15 of 38). From wrestling to weightlifting, taekwondo to shooting, US women compete in — and medal in — a wide range of disciplines.

Medal count isn’t a zero-sum game. Women’s success doesn’t come at the expense of men. But men are bringing home fewer medals and participating in fewer sports.

Two Massachusetts natives, Stephen Nedoroscik (Worcester) and Frederick Richard (Stoughton), helped America bring home its first men’s team gymnastics medal since 2008. That ended a 16-year drought but also made it more glaring how development in non-major Olympic sports has diminished.

American men haven’t medaled in baseball, beach volleyball, road cycling, or water polo since 2008. They have a drought in weightlifting that goes back to 1984. They’ve medaled in water polo once since 1988. Badminton was added in 1992 and the US men have never medaled.

Meanwhile, weightlifting wasn’t a women’s Olympic sport until 2000, but American women medaled in 2000, 2016, and 2020. Women’s water polo became an Olympic sport in 2000 and US women have medaled in each of the seven Summer Games since it was added.

The total number of women’s events still slightly lags behind men’s (this year there are 157 events for men and 152 for women), but US women medal in a higher percentage.

“You’re talking about opportunities for women and taking advantage of those,” Hagerman said.

What was a milestone for US women just 12 years ago has now become the new norm after a long battle for equity.

“The bottom line is that, yes, throw the confetti, but understand who has contributed to making that celebration possible, because it’s been a long time coming,” Hagerman said. “Also remember, there are people who yet can’t throw the confetti because they still don’t have the kinds of access and opportunity that we need every sportsperson to have in this country.”