– It is frightening to hear. It is certainly a trend that must be reversed and addressed, says Therese Johaug to news about how the number of female athletes at the top has fallen. She herself was part of the women’s success in Sochi, when the woman breathed down the men’s necks in the medal collection. She was then one of only three women to win individual medals at the Beijing and Tokyo Games. CONCERNED: Therese Johaug. Photo: Nils Christian Mangelrød / news The underweight of women in cross-country skiing, which was raised in a new report this autumn, is only part of a larger problem for women in Norwegian sports. When the report was presented by NTNU professor Øyvind Sandbakk, he was clear in his speech about the condition. But how bad is it? Statistical material news has reviewed for Norwegian winter and summer sports shows that the differences between women and men are large both in terms of achievements and the number of athletes at the top level. And the differences have increased in recent years. Norway has also ended up at the back when measured against its rivals internationally. The arrow points down Last winter, Norway was clearly the best nation during the Olympics in Beijing. The Olympics in Tokyo were also described as a good championship. But it is the men who are now increasingly dominating Norwegian sports. The development has meant that the difference between the number of women and men at the top is now at its greatest in the 2000s, at least in the Olympics. At the same time as the arrow for the men has pointed upwards, the number of female medal winners in the Olympics has fallen significantly during the last decade. Norwegian women reached the top during the Olympics in Sochi. Here, Marit Bjørgen, Kristin Størmer Steira and Therese Johaug celebrate a triple victory in the three mile in 2014. Since then, fewer women have won medals. In Beijing, three athletes took nine individual medals. Photo: ALBERTO PIZZOLI / Afp – It is time to go deeper to see what we can do to turn this around. We have to see what we have to do to preserve the girls in sport and achieve the achievements we want, says Johaug. She won three golds in China. But now the 34-year-old has given up. Norwegian sports will notice that. She was one of only three women to win individual medals in the last Summer and Winter Olympics. So few women have not won a medal in the 2000s when you compare with the summer and winter Olympics going back in time. In comparison, 20 men took individual medals (18 if you take away the pure men’s event combined). On top of this, Norwegian men also won medals in six team competitions, while the women only won medals in handball. It was the first time since 2006 that the women did not win a relay medal in the Winter Olympics. Johaug, who will become a cross-country expert for news this winter, points out that the results do not lie in the top sport. – Then you have to look at the results, whether they are good or bad. There is a reason if there are consistently poor results. Then there is something that needs to be addressed, says Johaug. Reached a peak The women’s issue has been a topic for decades. However, the women peaked in the 2010s, when they approached the men. But the arrow has pointed downward in the last decade: Women took a total of 44 percent of the medals in London in 2012 and Sochi in 2014. The proportion of women dropped to 23 percent of the medals in men’s and women’s exercises in Tokyo and Beijing. In Sochi in 2014, eight women took 10 individual medals. 11 men took 12 individual medals in the Games. Since then, the arrows have gone their separate ways. In the Summer Olympics, only the handball girls have won a medal after the Games in 2008. Taekwondo athlete Nina Solheim is the last woman to win an individual medal in the Summer Olympics. It is now 14 years ago. – I think that the numbers are not encouraging. I think there are complex reasons, but I don’t have an insight into what is going on in investment areas in the Olympiatoppen today, says Solheim to news. She thinks it’s a shame to hear that no one other than the handball girls has followed up with a medal in the summer sports, after her silver medal in 2008. Nina Solheim is the last woman to win individual gold at the Olympics. Photo: Tobias Röstlund / NTB Before the Olympic silver, she greatly benefited from women’s projects where women from several sports were gathered. She saw that it also created a community for individual practitioners. She hopes female athletes get the same offer today. – I think there are just as many people today who can think that it is a positive thing, says Solheim. Women’s tops halved The descent also has another effect. Female winter athletes who receive Olympiatoppen’s so-called A scholarship, the highest level, have halved since last year. There are now only six women who are defined as “pod athletes” in winter. The figure is similar for summer sports. The men now have three times as many athletes at the top scholarship level as the women, when summer sports are also included. In winter sports alone, the men have more than four times as many A scholarship athletes as the women. Rower Birgit Skarstein is one of the women with a scholarship after winning gold in the Paralympics last year. In Tokyo, she was part of a squad where more women than men won medals. The rower Birgit Skarstein is one of the women who is considered to be in the top tier of Norwegian sports after the gold in the Paralympics. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB Skarstein sees that there is an obvious potential to win more medals on the women’s side in Norwegian sports. – We are a small country that still manages to assert itself. We manage to manage a number of talents and help them reach the top. If we can do it with men, then we should be able to do it with women too, says Skarstein, who also sits on the sports committee of the Norwegian Sports Confederation. Calling for objectives Øyvind Sandbakk, who led the work on the report on women’s cross-country skiing, believes that the first thing that should happen is that Norwegian sports must analyze the challenge, if they want the same number of top athletes among women and men over time. – Fluctuations can occur, but over time there is no reason why Norway should not perform as well on the women’s side as on the men’s side. We have to have that as a goal to get there, Sandbakk elaborates to news. Øyvind Sandbakk is head of the Center for Top Sports Research at NTNU. Photo: Kim Sørenssen, NTNU He saw that the trend was about to reverse in Norwegian sports, but that the situation for women has now returned to where it was before. He believes that clear priorities must be established over time to get out of this problem. – Many men have succeeded and it is important to recognize the work that has been done to create these unique results. But there is something or other that means we are not getting new female profiles, says Sandbakk. Haven’t cracked the code Top sports manager Tore Øvrebø believes the figures do not provide a basis for pointing to any clear development during his period as boss in the Olympiatoppen. He would rather say that they have the same challenges today as they did about 20 years ago. – The main trend over just over 20 years shows a bias that we have worked on continuously throughout the period, unfortunately without success. On the other hand, we have never won as many medals as the last two Winter Olympics, writes Øvrebø in an e-mail to news. He believes that Sochi as a statistical reference, where the women took approximately half of the medals, obscures the real picture over time. He points out that, roughly speaking, over time women take around a third of the Olympic medals. He points out that women also took several 4th places in Tokyo. Top sports manager Tore Øvrebø during the Beijing Olympics Photo: Fredrik Varfjell / NTB In the strategic plan for the Olympic Games, it is now stated that the goal is for “the number of women’s medals to increase”. – Do you have a plan to raise women’s sports? – The proportion of women in top sport is a complex issue. The challenges already start in the teenage years, where the dropout rate among young women is significantly greater than among boys. Already here, a bias starts that the sport takes with it to the next level. How the sport meets this dropout may have a significance in this picture. Here, both the special associations and NIF have an important role. He points out that for over 20 years the Olympiatoppen has had several projects and invested significant resources with a desire to promote more women as athletes, coaches and managers. – Unfortunately, we have not been able to crack the code, and have not been able to achieve results that have changed development permanently, Øvrebø points out.
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