Study: Olympic TV Coverage Biased Vs. Female Athletes

A new study found that commentary accompanying coverage of Olympic athletes often downplays the athletic ability of female athletes.

Olympic Gymnast Shawn Johnson

The study is from University of Delaware Professor James Angelini and his partners published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. The researchers found that broadcasters were more likely to attribute the success of female Olympians to luck, while men were applauded for their skill and committment to the sport.

They also found that female athletes were blamed for their failure to succeed but when male athletes failed, the skill of their competitors was emphasized.

There was also a disparity in the overall coverage by gender, as the results found that 75% of the most mentioned Olympic athletes were men.