Milano Cortina 2026: OBS Demonstrates its Commitment to an Inclusive Sports Media Landscape

The Olympic Games are not only a showcase of athletic excellence, they are also a catalyst for social responsibility and industry transformation. Through a series of inclusive and forward looking initiatives, OBS is helping build a more equitable and progressive sports media landscape by creating opportunities and reinventing the narrative.

From training young women to confidently step behind the camera, to guiding Olympians and Paralympians into careers in commentary, from equipping female engineering students with hands on broadcast experience, to mobilising local students across the host city, each initiative shares a common goal: to expand access, amplify new voices, and challenge the gender imbalance in sports broadcasting by empowering more women to lead in production, engineering, and storytelling.

Milano Cortina 2026 OBS female representation:

5,000+ OBS personnel, 100 nationalities

Full parity among OBS permanent staff as of November 2025

Eight of 12 OBS departments show equal or higher female representation

Two thirds of venue management teams led by women

54% of commentators are female - the first time they outnumber men (19 out of 35 commentators) as of November 2025

Reshaping Gender Equality in Sports Broadcasting

Since Tokyo 2020, OBS has taken a structured approach to tracking gender balance across its venue production teams. Each team involved in delivering the Games' broadcast coverage is required to review and report its gender composition. OBS Production engages directly with teams, offers data on gender ratios, and consistently reinforces a clear message: increase female representation.

This ongoing dialogue has created a feedback loop that keeps gender equality central to staffing decisions, even in countries or disciplines where experienced female professionals are underrepresented.

The result is a growing culture of accountability. Production teams now actively monitor their progress and challenges in achieving gender balance, making diversity a measurable and visible priority.

Beyond reporting, OBS has launched a proactive initiative to expand career opportunities for women in broadcast production. As part of this effort, every freelance production team includes at least one, and sometimes two, roles reserved specifically for women in development positions. These placements are not entry level; they are designed for women with existing broadcast experience who are ready to take on more senior responsibilities. By targeting this mid career segment, OBS is helping bridge the gap between early exposure and long term career growth.

We're walking women through every step of their career, says Karen Mullins, OBS director of production management. She highlights success stories of women who started in Paris and are now returning to Milano Cortina 2026 as directors or in other senior capacities. The programme is a deliberate effort to build a pipeline of female talent, ensuring that women gain the hands on experience and visibility needed to move up in the industry.

The journey is not without its challenges; the scale of the Winter Games, for example, means fewer opportunities compared to the Summer Games, and cultural differences can make it difficult to find women for certain roles.

Mullins notes: In some countries, the number of women in broadcast roles is significantly lower and yet we're still pushing to seek out those few women who may have been previously overlooked. The hope is that, over time, these efforts will help grow the industry's talent pool and inspire more women to pursue careers in sports broadcasting.

Framing the Future

Complementing these efforts is OBS's Framing the Future initiative, a programme launched at Paris 2024 to bring young female professionals into the world of live sports broadcasting. Unlike the reserved roles for seasoned women, this initiative focuses on those just starting their careers. It offers participants a rare opportunity to step into the field as camera operators at one of the world's most prestigious sporting events.

The impact has been tangible. Women who participated in the Framing the Future programme during Paris 2024 have since secured freelance roles at major international sporting events, and some are now preparing to return for Milano Cortina 2026.

Framing the Future is not a one off initiative, but a long term commitment to transforming who gets the opportunity to shape what the world sees. Each Games presents a different production context, but the goal remains the same: to build a more inclusive industry, one opportunity at a time.

We know we're not changing the industry overnight. But by giving these women real opportunities, real experience, real visibility and a real place in the team, that's how change begins, says Mullins.

Engineering the Future

OBS's Engineering the Future initiative, launched by the Engineering department, is tackling imbalance head on. Launched in early 2025, Engineering the Future aims to provide young women studying engineering, particularly in telecommunications, with hands on experience in one of the most complex broadcast environments in the world.

Through partnerships with universities in Madrid, OBS integrated a six month internship into academic curricula, balancing both curricular and extracurricular placements. Despite low female enrolment in technical engineering courses - sometimes as little as 5% - five young women were selected for the inaugural programme.

We knew the numbers would be small, Guillermo Jimenez, OBS director of broadcast engineering, explained. But we also knew that the talent was there. You just have to make the effort to find it.

Each intern was paired with a dedicated supervisor and embedded into real engineering projects tied to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. From AI assiste

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/02/17/milano-cortina-2026-obs-demonst...
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