Cracking the gender code in language about athletes

The headline about Cogdell-Unrein is likely to be added to the 160 million English language words from the past 30 years or so that have been logged by researchers at Cambridge University Press. They are studying the differences in the ways people speak about male and female Olympians, and how those words might influence gender attitudes toward athletes.

Sarah Grieves, a researcher on the Cambridge team, said in an interview that the word “man” has generally been used roughly three times as much as the word “woman” in sports-related coverage, despite the fact that women make up some 45 percent of athletes competing.

This happens even as women dominate NBC’s prime-time television coverage.

According to an analysis released Sunday by three scholars who are working on a book, “Olympic Television: Inside the Biggest Show on Earth,” female athletes received 58.5 percent of prime-time media coverage during the first half of the Games, compared with 41.5 percent for men.

The shift continues a trend that began at the 2012 London Games, when women received 55 percent of coverage.

This is attributed in part to the intense focus on five sports in prime-time where American women dominate — beach volleyball, diving, gymnastics, swimming and track and field. The U.S. women’s Olympic teams took home more medals than American men in 2012, and efforts by athletes Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel and Simone Biles this year have kept the focus on female athleticism.

The increased media coverage might be the reason for the increased scrutiny on why the words used to describe the women are still very different from those used to describe their male counterparts.

“We found things like men being described as fastest, strong, biggest,” Ms. Grieves said. “For women, it’s unmarried, married, references to their age. There is an inequality there.”