Beijing 2022 makes good progress in gender balance, says IOC chief

Special: 2022 Winter Olympics

With less than 24 hours to go until the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach recognized China's effort in delivering a safe Winter Olympics and achieving gender balance at a press conference on Thursday.

"The amazing venues are all ready. The Olympic Villages are ready," said Bach. "Most importantly the athletes are all ready."

"I think we can feel very safe in this closed loop. Despite the challenges of the global pandemic, what we have seen so far is that the closed loop is really highly efficient," he noted. "But it depends on the understanding and respect for the rules of each and every one."

"We would like to take this opportunity to thank you and everybody who is in the closed loop for respecting these rules, and in this way, making a great contribution to a safe Winter Games.

"From tomorrow on, Beijing will officially be the first city to host both the Summer and Winter editions of the Olympic Games. It is well-prepared in many respects," Bach commented.

The Beijing Winter Olympics is set to have the lowest ever gender gap at a Winter Games with 47.25 percent of the total medals being contested by female athletes, and Bach believes it shows "good progress."

"This is one of our goals in the Olympic Agenda 2020," said the IOC chief. "We have set this goal to make the Olympic Games [achieve] gender balance. We have achieved it for the first time in the Summer Games last year, where we had a gender balance."

"We will have full gender parity in Paris 2024, with the same number of athletes and events for men and women. We had gender parity in the last Winter Youth Olympic Games. The clear target and goal in Milano-Cortina is to meet the gender parity."