2028 Olympics to feature more women than men for the first time
Soror Shaiza | Apr 10, 2025, 22:55 IST
( Image credit : AP )
For the first time in Olympic history, women will make up the majority of competing athletes at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. This milestone comes on the heels of a major decision by the International Olympic Committee to expand the women’s soccer tournament while reducing the men’s, flipping a long-standing gender imbalance. The move pushes the Games past gender parity, while leadership changes and other sport updates signal a broader institutional commitment to equality.
Soccer quotas are restructured to boost female athlete numbers
The key driver behind the shift toward a female-majority Olympic Games in 2028 is the rebalancing of team quotas in soccer. The women’s tournament will expand from 12 teams to 16, while the men’s competition will be reduced from 16 teams to 12. This change marks a reversal of the setup planned for the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the men’s game retained more representation.
The decision, made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board on Wednesday, aims to correct a long-standing inequality in Olympic soccer. Since its debut at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, women’s soccer had consistently featured fewer teams than the men’s tournament. For nearly three decades, the women’s side lagged behind, only increasing from eight teams in 1996 to 12 by 2008. Meanwhile, the men’s tournament had consistently featured 16 teams since 1980.
By 2028, the women’s tournament will finally reach 16 teams, a goal long advocated for by FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino. Infantino previewed the IOC’s decision just days earlier, during his remarks at UEFA’s annual meeting, reinforcing that the women's tournament now holds comparable prestige and deserves equal space on the Olympic program.
The 2028 Games will feature more women than men for the first time
This soccer shift directly contributes to the IOC’s broader goal of achieving and maintaining gender parity at the Olympic Games. With the new team allocations, the core athlete quota for the Los Angeles Games will include 5,333 women and 5,167 men, giving women a slim but historic majority—50.7 percent to 49.3 percent.
The IOC has emphasized that this is not just symbolic progress but the result of deliberate and structural changes to the Olympic program. Paris 2024 is already set to feature an equal number of male and female athletes for the first time, but Los Angeles will be the first Games to tip the scale in favor of women.
That said, the overall gender balance becomes slightly more complex when new sports added specifically for LA are taken into account. Cricket, flag football, and lacrosse will collectively bring in 698 more athletes—322 women and 376 men—slightly narrowing the female majority but not reversing it.
Leadership shifts reflect the IOC’s broader push for equity
The decision to reconfigure Olympic soccer and expand opportunities for women came during a virtual meeting of the IOC executive board, co-chaired for the first time by president-elect Kirsty Coventry. Coventry, a former Olympic swimmer from Zimbabwe, won the IOC presidential election last month and will formally assume leadership in June.
Her appointment is historic in its own right—she will be the first woman to lead the IOC in its 131-year history. Presiding over a decision that expands women’s participation across several events, her early leadership already aligns with the organization’s ongoing efforts to build a more equitable Olympic framework.
Beyond soccer, water polo will also move toward gender balance at the LA Games. The IOC confirmed that two additional women’s teams will be added to that tournament, making it equal to the men’s competition at 12 teams each.
The case for change is tied to the quality of the women’s game
Underlying the decision to elevate the women’s soccer tournament is a broader recognition of the sport’s growing competitiveness and global appeal. National women’s teams typically send their best players to the Olympics, making the tournament a premier event. In contrast, the men’s Olympic soccer tournament is restricted to players under the age of 23, and top stars are often unavailable due to club obligations.
This disparity in star power has long undermined the prestige of the men’s tournament. A notable example came in 2024, when France was unable to include Kylian Mbappé on its Olympic roster following his high-profile transfer to Real Madrid. By contrast, women’s national teams face far fewer conflicts and can send full-strength squads, making the case for expanding their presence at the Games even stronger.
FIFA’s repeated calls for equality in Olympic soccer, particularly from Infantino, also placed additional pressure on the IOC to act. Accommodating the extra players and team staff required some logistical adjustment, as athlete accommodation quotas remain tight, but the decision to prioritize the women’s tournament reflects both competitive fairness and the IOC’s long-term strategic goals.