In the United States, the 2012 Summer Olympics team was composed of more female athletes than male athletes for the first time ever. Discuss why it is important for women to also be equally represented in leadership positions within the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and within leadership positions for U.S. NGBs.

Few Women Leaders in Olympic Leadership The 2012 London Summer Olympics were dubbed the "Year of the Women" by several media outlets, including The New York Times, because, for the first time ever, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Brunei sent female athletes to the Olympic Games (Longman, 2012). However, despite these claims, not every country participating in the Summer Olympics sent female athletes to the Games. What is increasingly evident is that wealthy countries (e.g., the United States) are able to send a large delegation of male and female athletes, but developing nations continue to struggle to field an entire team and will only bring a small contingent of athletes. With the 2016 Rio Olympics having 45 percent participation of female athletes, women have failed to exceed 45 percent of participants at any Olympic Games (International Olympic Committee, 2016). When considering leadership in the Olympic movement, women continue to be underrepresented at all levels. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) requested that by 2005, women be provided with at least 20 percent of the leadership opportunities in international sport organizations. However, even the IOC failed to meet its own threshold until 2012. By 2016, twenty-two of the 99 members of the IOC were women, allowing the organization to meet the more than 20 percent threshold (24.4 percent) (Lapchick, 2016b). There are other firsts for women within leadership at the IOC-there are now three female members on the 15-member IOC Executive Committee (20 percent) and one female vice president of the IOC Executive Committee (25 percent) (Lapchick, 2016b). This is progress for women in leadership positions within international sport; however, there is much work to be done. At the national level, men continue to dominate leadership positions for National Olympic Committees. All-male leadership teams constitute the majority (85.3 percent) of National Olympic Committees. Only 14.1 percent of countries have male/female leadership teams, and only one country (Zambia) has an all- female leadership team. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has set a threshold of 30 percent for gender equity in its leadership structures (Smith & Wrynn, 2013). However, it has not met that threshold, because only 4 of the 15 members of the IPC are female (26.7 percent). Only 26 of 174 National Paralympic Committees have female presidents (14.9 percent). Despite the increase in the number of U.S. women competing in the Olympics, the National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of U.S. Olympic teams continue to be dominated by men. There are only five women in leadership positions out of a total of 39 U.S. NGBs. Of the 39 U.S. NGBs, there is only one all- female leadership team. The underrepresentation of women in leadership within the Olympic movement is a problem that will not be addressed by merely setting quotas for leadership, as evidenced by the IOC's inability to meet its own quota until 7 years after the deadline. In the United States, where the passage of Title IX has led to significant increases in sport participation opportunities for girls and women, women are not gaining access to leadership positions within sport, including within the Olympic movement. As you will read in the chapter to follow, there are a myriad of reasons for the underrepresentation of women in sport leadership. As a leader for the next generation of sport organizations, you will be faced with the challenge of ensuring gender equity in leadership positions at all levels of sport. If women are competing in greater numbers in sports, in particular in the United States, why are there so few women leading the organizations for which these female athletes are representing the United States on the international stage of competition?