The 2016 Rio Olympics were a magical time. Team GB secured second place in the medals table, bringing home a whopping 27 golds and becoming the first nation to increase our medal count at five successive Games. Cyclist Laura Kenny became the most successful British female Olympian in history, winning four gold medals; Mo Farah won both the 5,000m and 10,000m; and rower Katherine Granger became the first British woman to win medals at five consecutive Olympics.

But while the 2016 Olympics were undeniably awe-inspiring, they weren’t quite as good as previous years in terms of female representation. Britain sent 164 women and 202 men to Rio, meaning that just 44% of Team GB was female – a drop of 4% from the London 2012 Games. The International Olympic Committee has said that it wants all countries to bring teams with a 50/50 split of male and female athletes, but in 2016, Team GB fell notably short.

At next year’s Games in Tokyo, however, things could look very different. According to Mark England, the man who heads up Team GB, women athletes from the UK are set to outnumber their male teammates for the first time at the 2020 Olympics. If his predictions are correct, it will be the first time in history that women make up the majority of the British squad.

“For the first time it looks like we might have more women than men in the Great Britain team for Tokyo as we see the fruition of some fabulous athletic talent,” England told BBC Sport.

This amazing Olympics news proves investing in women’s sport pays off