By Lawrence Oshodi (SPORTS CORRESPONDENT)
At the Tokyo Olympics’ opening ceremony on Friday, certain countries stood out for having only one flagbearer, either a man or a woman.
Despite the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) request for both, this was not the case.
Despite having a mixed delegation, Ethiopian male swimmer Abdelmalik Muktar and Tajikistani male judoka Temur Rakhimov carried their own flags.
Congo, on the other hand, was represented by only one female sprinter, Natacha Ngoye Akamabi.
For the first time ever, the IOC released a statement in February asking participating countries to select both a male and female flagbearer where possible.
Other countries, like as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which only had a male flagbearer, had a male-only delegation.
As male rower Husein Alireza and female judoka Tahani Alqahtani raised the Saudi Arabian flag, delegates from countries known for traditional gender ideals complied with the IOC request.
After previous Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee President Yoshiro Mori was chastised for making sexist statements about women in February, the IOC vowed to move towards gender equality.
Mori later resigned from his position as a result of his remark.
In the meantime, the opening ceremony was dogged by controversy in the run-up to the Games.
A composer and a creative director who were both involved in the ceremony stepped resigned just days before it began.