The 2012 Olympic Games in London was the first time all participating nations allowed women to compete, but there were still 1,233 more male athletes and 30 more medal events exclusively for men.

A recent study conducted by Dove shows that six out of ten Canadian girls has quit a sport they enjoyed because of insecurities about their body. The company has launched the Unstoppable Girls Campaign to get parents and mentors to speak up.

Women's sports foster leadership, self-confidence, and fitness--all good things. So why is one women's college earning praise for cutting its entire intercollegiate sports program? Back in November, Spelman College, a historically black women's university in Atlanta, announced plans to drop out of the NCAA and use the money launch a campus-wide health and fitness program

Here's a commercial you'll want to watch. It's for the crap zapper--a remote control created especially for Superbowl Sunday. It will blank out the bad commercials and just show you nice messages about good things. You won't have to sit through women washing cars in hotpants or watch naked women getting URLs painted on them.

The Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, were in Nigeria from October 30 to November 2, 2012. Their visit was at the behest of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club’s Breaking The Mould Initiative (BTM). This gender-driven intervention aims at inspiring Nigerian women to reach greater heights, and the Williams sisters are a personification of the fact that success does not depend so much on gender but on industry.

Mavzuna Chorieva, Tajikistan's “Million Dollar Baby” who brought the country a bronze medal in the women's lightweight boxing at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, has hung up her gloves, at least for a year. On October 27, the 19-year old boxer got married and announced that she would not return to the boxing ring until after she has a child. "I love the sport,” she told journalists. “But family is more important to me.”

Elizabeth Stanton preaches a gospel of sport.

July 20, 2012 is a date that will forever be engraved in our hearts and minds. Late that evening in Aurora, Colorado a young man went on a shooting rampage in a movie theater, killing a dozen people, injuring so many more. Thousand of miles away a young woman by the name of Missy Franklin was in London, England preparing for the 2012 Olympics. Franklin, 17 years old, attends high school in Aurora. When news broke about the massacre, Franklin’s thoughts were fixated on her hometown.

Aisuluu Tynybekova is no ordinary athlete. A 19-year-old female wrestler from Kyrgyzstan's mountainous Naryn province, her bid for Olympic glory has won her accolades in the the global media, who have memed her as the “the Central Asian country’s best hope to bring home a medal”. But her rise towards stardom has also brought her some less desirable attention at home, where she will face a criminal charge of “hooliganism” after her time at the games is over. Netizens have overwhelmingly backed Tynybekova's Olympic bid in spite of the charge.

The high ideals in the Olympic Charter include “to oppose any political or commercial abuse of sport and athletes”. Organisers of the London Olympics say they are using the games as a springboard to promote physical activity in the community. It is hard to reconcile the objective of controlling commercialisation with the reality that the Olympics’ “Top Sponsors” include Coca-Cola and McDonalds.

Saudi Arabia will be sending two female athletes to the 2012 London Olympics, which officially begin July 27. Wojdan Shaherkani (Judo) and Sarah Attar (athletics) will be the first two women to ever represent the kingdom, where conservative religious clerics forbid the participation of women in competitive sports. Of course, what the athletes will be wearing is a huge focus in the country.

Women now compete in every sport at the Summer Olympics, and every country is sending a female athlete. This trend will continue into the 2014 Winter Olympics with women permitted for the first time to compete in ski jumping. Since their inclusion in the modern Olympics in Paris in 1900, female participation at the Olympic Games has been increasing, both in the number of athletes competing, and the number of women’s events.

A new video from the site Science360.gov spotlights Olympic-bound U.S. weightlifter Sarah Robles. Funded by the National Science Foundation and NBC Learn, the video is one in a 10-part series called "The Science of the Summer Olympics." In this installment, "Robotics engineer Brian Zenowich compares Robles' movements to those made by the WAM Arm, one of the world's most advanced robotic arms." Cool!

"This was to be the first Olympic Games to have women in every national delegation participating but the Saudis have consistently resisted calls to send a female delegation," reports the Telegraph's Jacquelin Magnay. However, the International Olympic Committee, which has been under pressure to take action against Saudi Arabia, failed to impose sanctions on the nation this week, angering human rights groups.

"This year, for the first time, women will be allowed to box at the Olympics, and Britain has three contenders hoping to make history. They are currently in China at the World Championships, fighting for their places in the Olympic team," the Telegraph reports. The paper printed essays by the three women, 27-year-old lightweight Natasha Jonas, 29-year-old flyweight Nicola Adams, and 20-year-old middleweight Savannah Marshall, nickname the Silent Assassin, who writes, "My ultimate dream is to fight in every Olympics until I retire."