Irish women made up one third of the team that travelled to the Olympic Games in Rio.
In comparison to the amount of media coverage generated by women’s sport generally this is a significant improvement on what might have been expected. Or is it?
Of the more than 11,000 athletes that represented their countries at the Games, no fewer than 45 per cent were women.
On Team USA 292 of the 555 athletes were women, that’s nearly 53 per cent.
Even taking the Men’s hockey team out of the equation Irish women still only made up 40% of the rest of the athletes
That suggests Ireland is underperforming in relation to Women’s sport.
It is reflective of the fact that girls drop out of sport earlier than boys and that a smaller proportion of the female population is active in physical sport on a regular basis.
Performances like those of Natalya Coyle, Sinead Jennings, Claire Lambe and especially Annalise Murphy in securing top 10 finishes at the games, or Sara Louise Treacy (pictured) who raced in the final of the Steeplechase, should not mask the fact that in international terms we are still not hitting the mark when it comes to encouraging women to participate in sport and achieve at the highest level.
That should not be lost as the light fades from Rio and the traditional heavyweight sporting events reassert their hold on our imagination.
Half of the Ireland team heading out for the Paralympics, excluding the men’s football team are women so it proves that the structures are there to encourage genuine gender equality.
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