Former Olympic swimmer brands Japanese media sexist
biased when it comes to gender,” said Naoko Imoto, who is also a former Olympic swimmer. The Japanese media isn’t discriminating against female athletes, it’s just not taking them as seriously as the men, according to her. “Many of the channels look at female athletes as ‘female’ or ‘girls’ or ‘wives’ or ‘mothers’ and not really as pure athletes,” Imoto said at the daily briefing run by the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Games organizers. Five of the eight medals Team Japan has won thus far were won by women, including three of the gold medals, according to the latest Olympics medal count . “You should see female athletes as athletes,” said Imoto Naoko, seen here holding the Olympic torch during the flame handover ceremony on March 19, 2020. Aris Messinis / Pool via Reuters Imoto, who competed for Japan at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, did not specify which of Japan’s TV stations were using the sexist language. But in earlier interviews , she note...