Olympics camera operators given warning over filming women following past issues

Olympics camera operators have been issued a warning over the way they film female athletes as the Olympic Broadcasting Service boss admits 'stereotypes and sexism remain'.

The 2024 Paris Games kicked off last Friday (26 July) and people have been tuning in around the globe to watch their country battle it out for gold.

Since then, the head of Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) has called for an update in its guidelines for camera operators, who are reportedly mostly men, in hopes to combat 'stereotypes and sexism'.

Chief executive, Yiannis Exarchos, told reporters in Paris: "Unfortunately, in some events, they [women] are still being filmed in a way that you can identify that stereotypes and sexism remain, even from the way in which some camera operators are framing differently men and women athletes.

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

Exarchos added that such issues, which sees camera operators and TV editors seeming to show more close-ups of women than men, are predominantly due to 'unconscious bias'.

And that's not the only change as women's sports will also be given more prime-time broadcast spots.

"The schedules of sporting events have traditionally been biased towards highlighting men's events," Exarchos continued.

"Traditionally, in team sports, you have first women's finals, and then the men's final... In strength and combat sports, traditionally you have women's competitions in the morning and men's competitions in the afternoon."

Over the weekend, Olympic broadcaster Eurosport made the decision to remove Bob Ballard from its commentary team after making a sexist remark about Australia's female swimming team.

On Saturday evening (27 July), the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team - comprised of Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris - won gold.

In a clip that has since gone viral on social media, the former BBC commentator could be heard saying: "Well, the women just finishing up. You know what women are like … hanging around, doing their makeup."

Following his remarks, Ballard’s co-commentator, Lizzie Simmonds, called the remark 'outrageous' before adding: "Some of the men are doing that as well."

Eurosport has since released a statement following Ballard's comments which reads: "During a segment of Eurosport’s coverage last night, commentator Bob Ballard made an inappropriate comment.

"To that end, he has been removed from our commentary roster with immediate effect."

Ballard, who has been covering sports since the 1980s and has reported on multiple Olympic Games and World Championships, is yet to comment publicly on the sacking.

Tyla previously reached out for comment.