The Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) welcomes Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell’s call for gender equality in the Olympics and Paralympics. As it stands, men can compete in 164 events while women can only enter 124.

Sue Tibballs, CEO of WSFF comments: “We are pleased that the action taken by Tessa Jowell has helped shine a light on what is one of the most blatant inequalities in sport. The Olympics and Paralympics offer one (rare) stage where men and women enjoy a similar spotlight in terms of the interest and media coverage it receives, so to then face such massive discrepancies in the medals available is just not right.

“Having made such a splash in Beijing, it’s important women don’t drop off the radar, but instead, their position in sport goes from strength to strength. We are working with the UK’s leading sporting bodies, to put pressure on the International Olympics Committee (IOC) and the relevant international federations to ensure that women have more medal chances in London 2012.”

WSFF works to tackle gender inequality across sport, and in 2008, announced the Commission on the Future of Women’s Sport. Including Baroness Sue Campbell, Dame Kelly Holmes and Jennie Price and chaired by Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, the Commission is made up of senior figures to drive positive change.