Olympic chiefs have warned camera operators about the potential ‘sexist’ filming of female athletes at Paris 2024 after admitting ‘unconscious biases’ still exists.
Yiannis Exarchos, the head of Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), stressed that significant work has been done to tackle biases in the way television coverage shows men and women’s sports.
OBS produces the live television, radio and digital coverage of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which their output provided to rights holders worldwide.
Exarchos admitted the majority of camera operators are men, with the organisation updating guidelines on how they should cover sports.
He added that a training session was held last year for female camera operators to help increase equality in this area in the future.
The OBS chief acknowledged there were still issues with how Olympic stories were portrayed, highlighting that this was an area where ‘a lot of unconscious bias still exists’. ‘Unfortunately, in some events they [women] are still being filmed in a way that you can identify that stereotypes and sexism remains, even from the way in which some camera operators are framing differently men and women athletes.
‘Women athletes are not there because they are more attractive or sexy or whatever.
‘They are there because they are elite athletes, they are there for their sporting performance, they should be showcased in the same way.
‘The same way with commentators, using a men as a reference to qualify how a female athlete is doing, it is absolutely the wrong way.’
Credit: dailymail.co.uk
