The Paralympics received one-tenth of the coverage of The Olympics in the past year

• The Olympics generated more than ten times the coverage of the Paralympics over the past 12 months
• The USA has the biggest disparity in coverage between the Olympic and Paralympic Games, with the Olympics receiving nearly 30 times more coverage than the Paralympics. 

The Paralympics has received a tenth of the coverage of the Olympics over the past twelve months, new research has revealed.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics received a thousand percent more media coverage in the English language than the Paralympics, with a total of 122,000 articles written about the Olympics, to 11,664 about the Paralympics.

America was the country with the biggest disparity between coverage of the Olympics and the Paralympics. In the USA, the Olympic Games generated 53,000 articles and the Paralympics generated 1800, meaning that for every one article covering the Paralympics, there were 30 about the Olympics.

The study, by gaming experts CasinoScores, analyzed English language media in 11 countries on the number of articles written about the Olympics compared to those written about the Paralympics. It also compared the number of articles written about both sets of Games to the number of medals won by each nation’s Paralympic and Olympic teams.

In the UK, for every one article written about the Paralympics, there were seven produced about the Olympics, despite the fact that Team GB Paralympics won 124 medals and Team GB Olympics won 65 during the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Comparing the number of articles about the Paralympics and the Olympics to the number of medals won by Team GB reveals that for every Paralympic medal there were 15 articles, and for every Olympic medal there were 206. This means that, in the UK, the Olympics enjoyed 13 times more coverage per medal won than the Paralympics.

Canada also had a significant gap between media mentions of the Olympics and the Paralympics. Coverage of the Olympic Games was 12 times higher than coverage of the Paralympic Games, and ten times more articles were written for every medal won by Team Canada Olympics, compared to Team Canada Paralympics.

Nigerian media had the biggest gap when it came to the ratio of articles to medals, producing 50 times more articles in English per Olympic medal than Paralympic medal.

And despite Singapore receiving zero medals in the Olympic Games and two in the Paralympic Games, the Olympics still received 23 times more coverage.

Ireland, which earned seven medals in the Paralympics and four in the Olympics, had the smallest gap in media coverage between the two, producing five times more articles for the Olympics.

New Zealand had the second smallest disparity between articles written about the events, generating six times more articles for the Olympics, compared to the 29 times more of countries like the USA.

A spokesperson for Casino Scores, which conducted the research, said: “With growing awareness about the need for equal bonuses and pay between Paralympic and Olympic athletes, it’s interesting and important to compare the amount of coverage that both sets of Games receive in different countries across the world. While countries like the US and UK had extraordinary success in the Paralympics this year, the lack of coverage of the Paralympics compared with the Olympics shows we still have some way to go when it comes to recognising the merits of both Games equally”.

The research was carried out by CasinoScores, which is dedicated to providing players with live casino statistics, live scores and more. 

Olympic VS. Paralympic media coverage 

Media coverage per Paralympic and Olympic medal