The International Olympic Committee is requesting that each national committee prioritize sending at least one male and one female athlete to the Paris Olympics as part of its gender equality movement, a source familiar with the matter told Kyodo News recently.
The IOC is also calling for joint male and female flagbearers and for 30 percent of coaching staffs to be female, a source said, as Paris is set to see the same number of athletes from each gender for the first time in the games' history.
According to the IOC, the delegations from Brunei, Suriname, the United Arab Emirates, and Vanuatu did not include a single female in the Tokyo Olympics due to the pandemic that forced the event to be postponed for one year until 2021.
The IOC had also requested pairs of male and female flagbearers in Tokyo, where 91 percent of the participating national committees complied.
The ratio of female staff was below 30 percent across the board, however, with 13 percent for coaches and 19 percent for team leaders, among other criteria, according to the IOC.
The games return to the French capital for the first time since 1900 when female athletes debuted. The competition schedule for this summer reflects the gender equality drive.
The women's marathon will be held on the final day for the first time, a day after the men's race. Table tennis will end with a women's event, while the final gold medal of the games will be won in women's basketball.
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