2030 Olympics will be 1st Winter Games with gender parity, IOC says

The International Olympic Committee says it will have gender parity at a Winter Olympic Games for the first time in 2030.

The 2030 Olympics, set to be hosted in the French Alps, will also feature the Olympic debut of synchro9, a form of synchronized figure skating, and freeride ski and snowboard.

The changes to the 2030 Olympic programme were announced on Tuesday following an IOC executive board meeting in Switzerland, after months of consultation with international sporting federations.

The 2030 Games will see an estimated 3,046 athletes competing across 126 events. That will include 1,525 women and 1,521 men.

Several new events will result in more women competing, including a women's team event in ski jumping, a mixed team event in freestyle skiing (ski cross), a mixed team event in snowboarding (snowboard parallel) and new team sprint events for both men and women in speed skating, among other additions.

"What I expect in the future is to be a little bit fluid," IOC president Kirsty Coventry said on Tuesday when asked about the expectation of gender parity at future Olympic Games.

"We don't want to leave anyone out just because we're stuck on a specific number. We would love to be able to ensure that every Games is 50/50. But if we are going to get down to a process in the programme where maybe it's 49/51 per cent or vice versa, male female, I think that would be OK too. I think it's just the priority that this is important for us to continue to keep working towards."

The quota of female athletes was also increased in luge, skiing, bobsleigh and hockey.

Men's hockey teams fielded 25-player rosters, compared to the 23-player rosters allowed for the women's tournament at the 2026 Olympics. Women will make up 45.6 per