Tokyo Olympics 2020: gender equality and Indonesia’s accolades
The long-awaited Tokyo Olympics 2020 has finally commenced a few days ago after being halted for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides the postponement and the fact that it is held in the midst of a severe pandemic, this year’s olympics is considered quite different compared to the previous ones, although it is not the first Games to battle a pandemic.
The first significant difference is the host city bans live spectators to comply with the COVID-19 preventive measures. Amidst pandemic concerns and a state of emergency, designs incorporated in the Games are also considered the crucial aspect of this year’s olympics.
The promotion of gender equality is also seen as another remarkable and progressive difference. Tokyo 2020 is the first ever gender-balanced Olympic Games in history with 48,8% women participation. For a historical context, at the 1900 Paris Olympics, there were only 22 women out of 997 competitors. The International Olympic Committee is committed to its mission to encourage and support the promotion of women in sports at all levels and in all structures, as stated in the Olympic Charter.
This year, women will compete in more than 300 events with new mixed-gender numbers in some disciplines and in events that were previously only open to men. All participating countries are expected to have at least one female and one male athlete, and for the opening ceremony, all teams are encouraged to have two flag bearers, one female and one male.
Indonesia sent 28 athletes to compete in eight disciplines, namely athletics, archery, rowing, shooting, badminton, weightlifting, swimming and surfing. At the opening ceremony, the Indonesian team was led by Rio Waida, an Indonesian-Japanese surfer as the country’s flag bearer, although the country announced that Nurul Akmal, a weightlifter from Aceh, will be the female flag bearer.
Rio donned a Balinese traditional attire known as Payas Madya. He wore a set of white shirt and black beskap outer for the top and Balinese batik cloth at the bottom which represent the Indonesian culture. He also wore Japanese traditional sandals, tatami, as a courtesy to Japan as the host country, as well as to represent Japan as his second home.
To date, Indonesia has won two medals, both from weightlifting. Young female weightlifter Windy Cantika won a bronze medal, while veteran weightlifter Eko Yuli Irawan won a silver medal. Indonesia also recorded an outstanding achievement in badminton with all of its athletes winning their opening matches, the first time in the country's Olympics history.