that this behavior gets attention...

Men would get naked and oil up with olive-oil. After the event, they first used a special scraper to scrape the oil&dust-mix of the skin before a thorough cleaning.

IIRC, the only discipline where women competed was foot-racing.
The women wore a loose robe akin to a modern-day summer-dress or sleeve-less shirt.
The men raced naked, except for a single item of equipment: To keep the penis from slapping around during the race, they would pierce a hole in the foreskin with a needle and bind the penis to the thigh with a piece of tread.

They had boxing.
Except that the sides of "the ring" were referees holding long sticks and branches. If the fight went on for too long, if the fighters danced around instead of properly punching each other to pulp, the referees would make "the ring" smaller and smaller until the fighters had no options left but to stand directly in front of each other and just punch.



They had pancration.
Which was similar to the Mixed Martial Arts of nowadays.



They had horse-racing and chariot-racing.
Chariot-racing was THE biggest sport in Ancient Europe in terms of publicity and money. Chariot-racers were rich superstars and had fanatic fans.

... looked down at a male gymnast's crotch when he spread his legs.

She mentioned it because of my known natural tendency to look when women in skirts bend over.

That might help!

And this op-ed's authors are creepy for implying that an athlete who has spent almost his entire life training non-stop, 24/7, WANTS to be sexually harassed by observers.

Disgusting.

On edit, oh, I see - the link is to the Wall Street Journal.

It's easy to say you want to be objectified when you know that you will always be respected, valued, and taken seriously thanks to your gender.

This thread was posted as an excuse to complain about ... who knows what - manspreading...?

The source, the argument, the tone, the sexual harassment miasma currently in the news ... All garbage.

I have to step away from social media, and this is a perfect example.

It would help. Men's floor routines are so split up that it's hard to call them a routine. Also women's gymnastics are much more about fluid movement where men's gymnastics is much more about upper body static strength. It's very difficult, but it's less visually exciting. Few people watch weight lifting competitions.

And sure it helps that the women's team is so dominant right now. Not just Biles, but they finished 1, 2 and 3 in the qualifying round and the team was 10 points out in front. We may all like an underdog story, but we love front runners even more.

Kind of strange how it's evolved that perception in modern times in many western countries that it's a "feminine sport" since it's roots go back to ancient Greece where only men competed (and in the nude), and the sport was viewed far, far from feminine.

It wasn't until the late 1920s when women actually were allowed to compete in the sport. Since then the female version sort of took on a life of its own, especially starting in the 1950s. Women began to compete on different apparatus and moved away from the men's way of doing it. There was more focus on beauty, grace, and artistic expression. While the men's side focuses on strength and skill.

Society didn't like the idea of women showing off athletic ability. So the women's side of gymnastics tried to move away from the men. The entire reason women wear long-sleeves on their leotards is so they can cover up their muscular arms which many perceive as masculine. The leotards are also tight fitting and meant to show off feminine features.
Just look at how women and men compete on the floor exercise. Men simply show off the skills while women have incorporated music and dance routines. This evolved during the attempt to separate the two sides of the sport.

Over recent years, the women's side has begun to move back to being more skill-based. The level of difficulty has increased incredibly. And the scores are now almost entirely based on the gymnast's athletic skill. But some have criticized this shift. And especially older judges and older spectators still seem to hold it against gymnasts if they don't look graceful enough in their routines.

Ratings-wise, women's gymnastics gets far higher ratings then the men. It's one of the rare exceptions in sports. Practically every other sport out there in existence, the men get far, far higher ratings than the women. In our society, we view sports that focus on strength and skill as masculine and sports that focus on artistry and beauty to be feminine. Since women's gymnastics get higher ratings, that is the perception that has dominated the sport in much of the west for the last half-century.

People like to watch their team win. Not so much on the hard luck backstory.

why else would males who have otherwise well kept bodies be invisible in sexual popular culture?

Heightism against short males is more of a problem than with short females because being short is seen as compatible with femininity; but not masculinity. Also, height cannot be controlled by exercise or diet; weight/fitness can be.