There is a common assumption among sport and media analysts that female athletes worldwide simply do not enjoy adequate media coverage. This article aims to challenge this notion by highlighting an important aspect of women's sport reporting often overlooked in other analyses of sportswomen in the media — Olympic press coverage. In contrast to everyday press representations of women's sport, the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 provided several positive examples of reports written by Australian journalists about female athletes. Incorporating quantitative and qualitative approaches, this paper assesses both the allocation and content of articles printed about female Olympians during the Sydney Olympics by four major Australian newspapers.
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