Since time immemorial sport has been considered as a male sphere where boys became men in terms of some socialization norms; therefore we can claim that sport creates gender differences and media gender representations are occurring in the same manner. The media coverage and representation of sportswomen have supported the gender inequality in the sport for years, since women were less represented in media and, it often occurred that their physical characteristics were more emphasized than their achievements. However, some positive changes in media coverage have occurred in the last few years. In the master thesis, I was therefore determining the representation of Slovenian sportswomen in comparison to sportsmen during the coverage of 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games on the case of articles, published in newspapers Ekipa SN and Slovenske Novice. Furthermore, I was also interested in the reasons for such representation. The articles were analysed with the critical discourse analysis, wherein I have focused on a macro level. Detailed interviews were carried out in order to determine the reasons for possible different representation amongst key players (journalists, editors) within each separate media. In the empirical section, I have discovered that the representation of sportswomen in coverage of major sports events in media has improved and, as told by the interviewed key players, the role of sportswomen in comparison to sportsmen is improving, especially in the representation of their sports achievements, even in the years, when there are no major events or Olympic Games. In some sports, however, their status will never be identical to men’s.
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