Olympics Camera Operators Warned to Avoid ‘Sexist’ Filming of Female Athletes

The official Olympics broadcaster has warned camera operators against “sexist” filming of female athletes at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

In a press conference, CEO of Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) Yiannis Exarchos revealed that he has called on camera operators to film male and female athletes in the same way to avoid “stereotypes and sexism” creeping into the TV coverage of the sporting event.

@skynews #Olympic Broadcasting Services CEO Yiannis Exarchos said #camera ♬ original sound – Sky News

According to a report by The Guardian, OBS is responsible for the TV coverage of the Paris Olympics, with its images shared with rights holders around the world.

Exarchos told reporters in Paris that his organization has updated its guidelines for camera operators, most of whom are men, to avoid “sexist” portrayals of female athletes at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

“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,” Exarchos says.

“Women athletes are not there because they are more attractive or sexy or whatever. They are there because they are elite athletes.”

“[Equal participation of women] is not enough. It has not been enough for us,” the OBS head adds.

“We wanted to make sure that the actual sports content was also reflecting this equality.”

Exarchos pointed out that the problem primarily stems from “unconscious bias,” which leads to camera operators and TV editors favoring more close-up shots of women than of men.

The 2024 Paris Olympics are the first in the 128-year history of the modern Games to achieve gender parity between male and female athletes, with women’s sport also given more prime-time broadcast spots to help raise its profile.

“The schedules of sporting events have traditionally been biased towards highlighting men’s events, almost always you have women’s competitions in the mornings, then the men’s,” Exarchos tells reporters.

“We have worked during these years together with our partners in the federations and our broadcasters in order to make the schedule, the program of competition of the Games of Paris, as equal as possible.”

In June, PetaPixel reported on a Japanese sportswear brand Mizuno that had introduced an infrared-blocking fabric to protect female athletes from illicit photography ahead of the Olympics.

Mizuno’s sportswear clothing blocks infrared light. This is because some untoward photographers have used infrared thermal cameras to pick up heat signatures beneath female athletes’ undergarments.

 
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.