sportswomen, the categories Full name, nationality, with the variables National Sportswoman/Foreign sportswoman; Sports discipline, using the variables corresponding to all sports according to the list set out by the IOC (International Olympic Committee). The category Theme with the following variables: Successes, failures, classification and medal, and the sportswoman’s Physical and mental characteristics. Preparation and organisation of the team/Personal issues/Concrete evidence//Direct rivalry/Economic aspects of elite sports/The sportswoman’s sports career/Olympic Village: day to day/ Health (doping, etc.)/ Olympic Games: organisation/Olympic Games: media coverage is registered to verify the priority topic addressed in the information units.

Finally, a critical reading is made of the coverage given to the women’s match race team’s participation in London 2012 and the badminton player Carolina Marín in Rio 2016. The objective is to determine the difference between the coverage of both achievements due to their expectations to win. The former was barely known, and the gold medal was a surprise while all hopes were placed on Marín to win gold. It is interesting to note what qualities of theirs stand out and if the chronicles are written in a tone of national pride.

3. Coverage the days before the start of the Olympic Games

Spanish sportswomen have been represented in the Olympic medal tally since the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, with 4 golds(Miriam Blasco and Almudena Muñoz in judo; the duo Theresa Zabell and Patricia Guerra in sailing and the women’s Spanish grass field hockey team), 3 silvers (Carolina Pascual in gymnastics, in doubles tennis Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Concepción Martínez, and in sailing Natalia Vía-Dufresne), and 1 bronze in tennis won by Arantxa Sánchez Vicario.

Spain’s organisation of these Olympic Games meant an increase in sportswomen’s participation, from 31 women in the 1988 Seoul Olympics to 128 in Barcelona 1992. Until then, Spanish women’s involvement in the 20th century Olympic Games had been almost non-existent. In Paris 1900, four women competed for the first time, and it was not until Rome 1960 that Spanish sportswomen competed again in an Olympic Games, with 11 participants. Since Barcelona 1992, the number of Spanish women Olympians has not fallen below 90, and their presence has increased, bridging the gap between men’s participation. Thus, in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, 143 women and 163 men competed in the Spanish team.

As mentioned above, Barcelona 1992 was a turning point in women’s participation in the Olympic Games, and this was reflected in the Spanish medal count: female athletes won 8 medals. After Barcelona 1992 and until London 2012, the tendency in the Spanish medal counts was to maintain women’s presence in them, but in a significantly lower proportion than men: Atlanta 1996 (6/10), Sydney 2000 (4/7), Athens 2004 (4/13) and Beijing 2008 (4/12).

This trend made it impossible to predict what would happen in the London 2012 Olympic Games. The Spanish female athletes won more than the men for the first time: 11, while the men won 6.