Women’s sports received more coverage than men’s sports during NBC’s primetime Paris Summer Olympic broadcast on Saturday, August 3, 2024.

Four men’s events had at least one minute of broadcast coverage.

Men’s gymnastics had just over 20 minutes of airtime for the pummel horse and Team USA’s Stephen Nedorosick, who won the bronze medal in the event.

Men’s track and field clocked more than 17 minutes of coverage for the 100 meter heats and the finals of the shotput. Team USA’s Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs won gold and silver in shotput. This is the third consecutive gold medal for Crouser and the third consecutive silver for Kovacs in the event.

Men’s swimming had more than 4 minutes for the 100 butterfly where Hungary’s Kristof Milak won gold.

Men’s cycling had just over two and a half minutes as Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel won gold in the road race, becoming the first male athlete to win both the road race and the time trial.

Four women’s events had at least one minute of broadcast coverage.

Women’s swimming clocked in at just under 34 minutes as America’s Katie Ledecky won gold and teammate Paige Madden won bronze in the 800 meter freestyle. This is Ledecky’s 14^th Olympic medal, putting her in sole possession of 5^th place on the all-time Olympic medals list behind Michael Phelps (28), Larisa Latynina (18), Marit Bjørgen (15) and Nikolai Andriandov (15). She also set the record for gold medals by an American woman (9) and is tied with five other Olympians for second place on the all-time Olympic gold medals list behind Phelps (23). Ledecky was interviewed in-studio near the end of the broadcast. Women’s swimming also featured the 200 individual medley, where Canada’s Summer McInstosh set an Olympic record and won gold. American Kate Douglass won silver. Team USA’s Alex Walsh appeared to have won bronze, but was disqualified for an illegal turn.

Women’s gymnastics had more than 20 minutes for the vault final, where Team USA’s Simone Biles and Jade Carey won the gold and bronze medals, while Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade won the silver medal.

Women’s track and field had just under 25 minutes for coverage of the semifinals and the finals of the 100 meter race. Julien Alfred won the gold medal, the first Olympic medal in Saint Lucia’s history. Americans Sha’Carri Richardson and Melissa Jefferson won silver and bronze.

Women’s fencing had more than two and a half minutes of airtime focusing on Ukraine’s gold medal in saber fencing, the country’s first medal in the Paris Games.

Three mixed sex events were covered for more than one minute:

Swimming had more than 10 minutes of airtime as Team USA won gold while setting a world record in the 4×100 mixed medley relay.

Track and field had just under 9 minutes devoted to the 4×400 mixed relay finals where the Netherlands won gold. The Americans, who just set a new world record the day before, won silver.

Judo had more than 1 minute of coverage for France winning gold in the mixed team event.

Equestrian had 23 seconds of coverage of Germany’s Isabell Werth winning a medal at 7 different Olympics.

Overall, coverage of men’s events accounted for 30.94% of NBC’s primetime Olympic broadcast. Women’s events received 55.22% of NBC’s coverage. Mixed sex events (e.g., equestrian) received 13.84% of NBC’s coverage.

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After 9 nights, when mixed sex events are excluded, men’s events have received 44.40% of NBC’s primetime broadcast coverage compared to 55.60% for women’s events.

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Regular updates about NBC’s coverage of men’s and women’s sports on its primetime broadcast will be posted throughout the 2024 Paris Summer Games on FiveRingTV.com. Additional updates will also be posted on the @FiveRingTV X feed. A mid-Olympic report, with complete sport-by-sport coverage breakdowns, will also be issued.

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Method: The percentage of primetime devoted to men’s, women’s and mixed sex sports is calculated by a single researcher, utilizing a stopwatch and DVR or DVD time codes, measuring (to the millisecond) the total amount of time devoted to each event. Any time spent at the actual athletic site, on a profile about an athlete, promos about a specific athlete or sport, and host commentary about a specific sport or athlete is recorded. Split screens combining commercials and live coverage are included in the calculations, but commercial breaks are not included. The NBC broadcast network East Coast feed is used for the calculations. Olympic coverage on cable networks and live streaming are not included. Network overruns beyond 11:00pm up to the break for local news are included within the calculations.

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