The study of the media coverage of the Olympics and Paralympics Games carried out by Osservatorio di Pavia has been promoted by the International Olympic Committee and the Bracco Foundation with the purpose of garnering evidence useful for guiding the policy-making and actions of private and public institutions.
The survey is part of a programme for the monitoring of the main Italian television news services to verify their alignment with the International Olympic Committee’s Portrayal Guidelines for Gender-equal, fair and inclusive representation in sport.
By analysing the content, images and language used by the main national news programmes, the study determines whether gender stereotypes are influencing portrayals in the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The 3 phases of monitoring:
- Phase 1: Paris Games 2024: Olympics and Paralympics
- Phase 2: Analysis of one-year post-Games reference period (1 October 2024 – 30 September 2025)
- Phase 3: Winter Games of Milan Cortina 2026: Olympics and Paralympics
The study provides a comprehensive and detailed overview of national media coverage between July 2024 and March 2026, offering not only a snapshot of the present, but also a legacy of knowledge and best practices. This body of knowledge is not an endpoint, but rather the beginning of a shared commitment to increasingly informed and responsible sports communication.
PHASE 1
The monitoring of the main Italian newscasts during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris found:
- a balanced focus on gender (51% of news reporting was dedicated to women's disciplines and 49% to news-making female athletes);
- a tendency to interview more female than male competitors (58% women), but to use more men than women among commentators and experts (74% men);
- a resistance to the overextended use of male language (17%), a low rate of occurrence of certain sexist stereotypes (7%), and a predominantly inclusive, respectful, and non-stereotypical narrative.
The same analysis carried out during the Paralympic Games in Paris 2024 found:
- scarce attention being paid to the Paralympic Games (only 54 news reports compared to the 476 dedicated to the Olympic Games);
- an unbalanced focus on male competitions (61%) and male athletes (57%);
- a tendency to interview more male than female competitors (54% vs. 46%).
Read the research paper on the Olympics and Paralympics
PHASE 2
In the months following the Paris Games, from 1 October 2024 until 30 September 2025, the same news programmes were monitored to determine whether they had maintained their focus on women’s sport and female athletes.
- The results show that of the 2,706 reports dedicated to sports over the space of a year, just 25% also concerned themselves with women, with 13% of coverage going to female sports or sportswomen and 12% to females and males together or mixed disciplines.
- Among Italian national broadcasters, 40% of sports reporting is on football and, of that, 98% is dedicated to men's football.
- Tennis is the second most reported-on sport, accounting for 19% of the total, with only 23% of that dedicated exclusively (8%) or even partially (15%) to female players.
- Skiing, the third most reported-on sport (with a coverage of 7%), is better at giving visibility to women, with 76% of reports dedicated exclusively to women's competitions or female athletes, plus 8% to competitions involving both genders.
PHASE 3
The monitoring of the main Italian newscasts during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Games found:
- an increase in the visibility of female athletes (58% of news stories), partly due to the significant medals they won;
- 16% of content containing stereotypes targeted women in 81% of cases: a sign that the narrative has not yet evolved;
- a rise in the number of female experts interviewed as commentators or opinion leaders (31%).
The same analysis carried out during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Games found:
- still extremely limited coverage of the Paralympic Games (only 25 news items compared to 331 dedicated to the Olympics);
- a continued imbalance in focus toward men’s competitions;
- a tendency to interview men more frequently than women (86% vs. 14%).
