Female Olympic Game Particiants

The image below is supposed to represent the Olympic Game rings. Even more specifically than that, this represents females that participate within the Olympic Games. There are more women athletes that compete in the Olympic Games every year. There are more than 200 countries that participate in the Olympic Games, and for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games every participating country sent female athletes to the 2012 London Games. This has changed a lot over the years; in 1996 at the Atlanta Games, 26 countries did not send any females.

 



Many female Olympic Game participants are ridiculed. There is alot of  neglect and even abuse that is aimed toward the female athletes who don’t fit the ideals of feminine physique or thoughs that do not appeal commercially as sex symbols, because they are supposed to "represent" their country as women. An example of this is Zoe Smith; a well known  woman weightlifter out of Great Britain (shown in the picture below).

 



 

In an interview Smith says that she is very good at what she does and enjoys it alot, but it is very hard to keep pushing herself when she has to suffer put-downs for being manly.

 

~Katlyn Vickery