Girl power: Canadian women upstage men in Rio

Here’s a thing Canadian men can learn from their female counterparts: how to win Olympic medals.

After four days of competition in Rio de Janeiro, the Canadian team have clinched five medals – all of them won by women.

Canada’s female athletes, who make up about 60% of the 279-strong Team Canada, were successful in diving, rugby sevens and swimming, clinching four bronze medals and one silver.

“Girl power, right?” rugby sevens captain Jen Kish told the Canadian Press. “I think as females we have something to prove. We can compete in a male-dominated world in sport.”

Female athletes ignored?

London 2012 was a landmark event for women, who made up 44% of all Olympic competitors. The London Olympics were the first modern Summer Games that saw every country sending women athletes and in which every sport had female participation.

Yet, with the exception of women’s tennis and a few other sports such as athletics, many female athletes are still ignored by marketers and broadcasters once the Olympics are over.

In the UK, female athletes typically receive .4% of all commercial investment in sport and only 7% of media coverage, according to UK charity Women in Sport.

“Someone once told me that female sports don’t sell and I just don’t believe that,” said Kish. “Women do deliver, and we are.”

Is Olympic coverage undercutting women’s achievements?

Male pride

Back in Brazil, Canadian women have been showing their male counterparts how it’s done, leading them 5-0 in the medal stakes.

“But I think they’re super talented and they’ll get (their medals),” 100 meter backstroke bronze medalist Kylie Masse told Canadian Press.

Canadian tennis doubles pair Daniel Nestor and Vavek Pospisil may be able to restore some male pride on day five as they face 14-time major winner Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez of Spain in the semi-finals.

Battle of the sexes in the unequal language of sport

Other male medal hopefuls include sprinter Andre De Grasse, a bronze medalist in the 100 meters at last year’s world championships and Mark de Jonge, a two-time world champion and world record holder in sprint kayak.