The Latest: Rio Games reveal Brazil’s sports gender gap

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (all times local):

3:30 a.m.

Brazilian female athletes are shining at the Rio Olympics — and people here are paying attention, some for the first time.

In a country where men’s soccer is king, Brazilian women have found it difficult to find their place in sports because of the lack of athletic programs, funding and what they call unfair marketing decisions that promote men.

But now each victory of Brazil women’s soccer team is being savored. And when Rafaela Silva won gold in women’s judo — Brazil’s first gold medal of this Olympics — major newspapers splashed her photo on their front pages.

The country’s most famous female soccer player, Marta, told reporters “all the love we are getting during the Olympics, we hope that it doesn’t go away … with that much-needed support, women’s soccer can grow.”

Her team faces Sweden in Tuesday’s semifinal.

The gender gap is not unique to Brazil. In the United States, female national team soccer players have filed a wage discrimination complaint, saying the U.S. men are paid much more even though the women have out-performed them.

___

AP Summer Games website: http://summergames.ap.org