Faster. Higher. Stronger – Together. The Olympic motto has implied a coming together of athletes for years, but 2024 is the first year that the IOC has genuinely made good on that promise. Heralded as the Equality Games, Paris sees gender parity on the field of play finally achieved, with more female athletes competing than in any game before it. That it’s been a long road to equality is clear. Even though women have been able to compete since 1900, it took until 2012 for all sports to permit female representation - so let’s pause for a moment and celebrate this important milestone.

But, it’s important to remember that even with this new era of equality, women still face many hurdles (no pun intended). While pay equity is less of an issue at the Olympics than in other sporting events (simply because the IOC doesn’t offer prize money to winners, although some countries and one international federation, World Athletics, do - with women and men both eligible for the same prize money), gender-equal media portrayal of female competitors is a key focus area for the IOC.

The sports body has acknowledged that female representation across accredited media averages just 20 per cent at the Olympic Games, broadly in line with other sporting events.  This matters not only for moral reasons but also because of the very real link between women’s visibility, viewership of women’s sports, associated potential advertising revenue, pay levels, and sponsorship deals offered to female athletes off the back of the Games.

The IOC must also be commended for its associated work to promote non-sexist coverage of female Olympians, aware that historically, such media coverage has often highlighted non-sports-related characteristics, such as their physical appearance and personal lives, rather than their athletic achievements. (IOC guidance for media outlets also includes an annexe with definitions, language practices, and considerations for respectful and inclusive coverage of transgender and non-binary participants, plus athletes with sex variations.)

So, if the Olympic governing body is making strides when it comes to equality, how are brands shaping up? Well, there’s the awkwardness of Team USA’s track and field athletes calling out their Nike uniforms for sexism, citing the exceptionally high cut of their unitards. “If this outfit were truly beneficial to physical performance, men would wear it,” explained one. While others dubbed it a “costume born of patriarchal forces.” With Nike already facing accusations of sponsorship contracts that penalise athletes who become pregnant, and star sportswomen leaving the brand for niche competitors they believe are more likely to support their voices as women (hello Simone Biles), you have to wonder why Nike didn’t foresee this inevitable backlash. Conversely, it’s not hard to work out why sportswear brand Erima is currently enjoying highly-deserved online love for its full-body leotards, designed for team Germany’s female gymnasts.

There are other interesting ways too that brands have been making a tangible, hands-on difference during the games, by honouring equality in its broadest sense. Proctor and Gamble, for example, have launched a Pampers nursery for athletes with young children, helping both male and female athletes who are trying to balance their sporting careers and family. Grindr, meanwhile, is supporting the 193 athletes who are openly out at this Olympics - the highest proportion of LGBTQ+ Olympians ever - by turning off its location services, protecting athletes that come from countries less supportive of the LGBTQ+ community and protecting them from being outed by pundits trawling the Olympic Village location on the app.

There has been a backlash to this air of equality, though, with some detractors lambasting the thoroughly modern France depicted in the tableau entitled “Festivité” featuring dancers, LGBTQ+ icons, and drag artists, labelling it ‘blasphemous content’. To the extent that one of the performers involved, DJ and lesbian activist Barbara Butch, has been forced to file multiple police reports having received rape, torture and death threats online. Brands supportive of the LGBTQ+ community - where are you? Is there not an opportunity to send a powerful message of support to a community under attack here?

Looking to the longer term, it will be interesting to see how the makeup of the IOC’s Olympic Partner (TOP) sponsor list does or doesn’t change given the current inflexion point. One-third of the TOP partnerships will be up for renewal after Paris, providing opportunities for companies to jump on board for the upcoming slate of Games in Europe and the U.S. and the increased commercial interest those locations should deliver.

Sports Business Journal has suggested that sponsors looking for more purpose-led deals, highlighting sustainability or gender equity specifically, may now be thinking about a bigger play. Beyond obvious categories such as personal care items, advertisers in the travel, pharmaceutical and insurance industries are increasingly interested in women’s sports. An interest which could develop into a longer-term ‘TOP’ involvement, motivated in part by the incredible opportunity gender parity at the Games and heightened interest in women’s Olympic achievements, offers.

Perhaps Terrence Burns, a veteran Olympic and sports marketing expert and former manager of the IOC’s global TOP sponsorship programme, puts it best. When thinking about brands and their intersection with the Olympics he explains:  “sponsors are not just buying a sports sponsorship; they’re making an investment in humanity.”

And I’m 100% here for more of that.