Spanish women athletes’ performance in the Summer Olympic Games history

Abstract

In this study, an analysis was made of the qualitative and quantitative evolution of the participation and results obtained by the Spanish athletes throughout the Olympic Games, for which their records were compared to those of the men's team from Paris 1900 to Rio 2016. During the study, the growing weight of Spanish women athletes was analysed, resulting in the Women and Sport programme (2007), which seems to have been a determining factor in the improvement of the performance of Spanish women athletes, which surpassed that of the men's team in the last two editions, for the first time in history and in a consecutive manner. The data revealed a growing weight of women, with a historical representation much lower in the Olympic Games (less than 14% until Barcelona 1992) and significantly lower than men from the same (beginning to be more than 30%). This progression has been accompanied by a greater value in the variable weight of the medals, this fact was accentuated in the last editions of London 2012 (65%) and Rio de Janeiro 2016 (60%). It is clear from the results that there is plenty of room for improvement in women's sport. Empowering Spanish female athletes, increasing social and economic recognition, and identifying which are the differential factors that make them more efficient with respect to the male team, can optimize strategies and results in the third sector of sport in Spain.