Women are kicking ass at the Olympics; The media? Not so much.

There’s a lot to celebrate about women in the 2016 Summer Olympics: More women are competing in Rio this year than any other Olympic games, and female Olympians are breaking barriers and making history. For instance, U.S. fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad became the first U.S. athlete to compete at the Games in a hijab, and the first-ever Refugee Olympic team boasts impressive female athletes who have struggled against all odds for a shot at Olympic glory. Every day at the Games, women athletes are shattering Olympic and world records and inspiring a new generation of incredible athletes.

Unfortunately, the media has wasted no time in subjecting female Olympians to sexist, offensive commentary that is not only a shameful display of journalism, but also belittles the achievements of these powerful sports heroes. At times, the coverage has been outright shameful.

Some examples:

U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky broke her own world record — an astounding 3:56:46 — during the women’s 400-meter freestyle. Despite the massive accomplishment, The Daily Mail couldn’t give credit where credit was due, and contextualized her win in relation to a man, calling her the “female Michael Phelps,” exclaiming that she “swam like a man.” Similarly, People Magazine even called Simone Biles “the Michael Jordan of Gymnastics,” unnecessarily using a male sports hero to put her accomplishments into context.
In a stunning victory, Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszú broke the record and took home the gold for the 400-meter individual medley. Rather than focus on the merits of the record-breaking swimmer, sportscaster Dan Hicks credited her coach and husband Shane Tusup as “the man responsible” for her Olympic win.
Trap shooter Corey Cogdell became a two-time Olympic medalist when she won Bronze for the United States in Rio. However, in a shockingly tone-deaf move, The Chicago Tribune tweeted about Corey Cogdell’s Bronze medal win by failing to mention even her name or her sport and instead describing her as “wife of Chicago Bears lineman.”
The United States Women’s Gymnastics Team put on a nearly flawless performance during the qualifying round, impressing judges and audiences worldwide with their power and skill. But an unidentified NBC commentator used sexist language that trivialized their talent when he remarked that the team members looked like they “might as well be standing in the middle of a mall” as the camera panned on the team talking and laughing following their victory.
20-year-old Simone Manuel literally made history by becoming the first African-American woman to win an individual Olympic Games swimming event for her performance in the 100-meter freestyle, tying for the gold with Canada’s Penny Oleksiak. But the media couldn’t help but churn out a vile display of misogynoir; The San Jose Mercury News’ coverage of Ms. Manuel’s win read: “Michael Phelps shares historic night with African-American.”

These are just a few of the many instances of sexist coverage during these Olympics. Sexist media coverage of women sports heroes is nothing new. A recent study by the Cambridge University Press analyzed the language used in over 160 newspapers, magazines, and blogs and found that men were three times as likely to be referred to in a sporting context with words such as “strong,” “big,” and “great,” and women were disproportionately associated with words such as “aged,” “pregnant,” and “unmarried.”

So here are some clear DOs and DON’Ts for reporters and journalists covering female athletes and sports heroes in the 2016 Rio Olympic games:

DO treat female athletes in the same way as men, in which the focus of reporting should be on their athletic performance, not their marital status or similarities to their male counterparts.
DO include discussions on gender, but only in relevant ways, such as the outrageous pay disparity between the U.S. Women’s and Men’s Soccer teams, or the boundaries women are breaking in their sports, such as the record number of Saudi sportswomen competing in the Olympics this year.
DON’T discuss a female athlete’s physical appearance, such as her outfit, her make-up, hair style, body shape, or weight. Unless it relates to her athletic performance, descriptions of a female athlete’s physical appearance have no place in papers and on the airwaves.
DON’T write about women in terms of men they know, are related to, married to, work with, or date. The victories of female athletes are theirs and theirs alone.

We at UltraViolet urge journalists, commentators, and other reporters covering the 2016 Rio Olympics to refrain from sexist commentary about female athletes and put a stop to a disgraceful double standard in which male athletes are covered in regards to the substance of their athletic performance and women are time and time again treated as second-class athletes — merely female counterparts to the men in their sport — whose performance and virtue as athletes are understood through the prism of their femaleness.

These aren’t merely politically incorrect “comments” by reporters and commentators — the sexism that underpins these remarks represents not only a troubling journalistic bias, but sends a message to women and girls everywhere that their dreams of becoming a winning athlete will always be hyphenated with “female.”

In short, the media needs to do better. These athletes should be celebrated, yet the media is letting them and their viewers and readers down with their outright sexism.