Paris, France, July 24, 2024: While Iran’s immediate goals are medals at Paris 2024, their long-term aims are very much in keeping with the Olympic ideals – gender equity in their athlete delegation.
The National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran will compete in Paris with 40 athletes – 29 male and 11 female.
In the not-too-distant future, leading sports officials are planning to increase this ratio to 50/50.
“This is the first time we will have 11 female athletes in the delegation, and in a wide variety of sports such as shooting, table tennis, athletics, archery, taekwondo and canoe and rowing,” said Dr. Seyed Manaf Hashemi, Chef de Mission of the Iran delegation and Secretary General of the NOC.
“In future we are trying to reach the goal of gender equity as part of the Olympic ideals. Women’s sport has been growing very well in recent years. If we continue to develop women’s sport, in the next four to eight years we can reach closer to 50-50 gender equity.”
Sports authorities in Iran are diversifying their portfolio in addition to the traditional power sports such as wrestling and weightlifting. These two sports alone have accounted for 20 of Iran’s 24 Olympic gold medals, with 11 in wrestling and nine in weightlifting.
Now, cycling and skateboarding are high on the agenda of developing sports, with female participation very much in mind.
The government is in total support, as evidenced by the presence of Seyedehsan Ghazizdadeh Hashemi, an accompanying guest of the delegation.
“It is a steady process, step by step,” said the CDM.
“Together with the government, we have a long-term plan for women to get medals in the Asian Games and Olympic Games.”
Iran won seven medals at Tokyo 2020 comprising three gold, two silver and two bronze.