GENEVA - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed to have two flagbearers, a male and a female, for each team at the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony on Wednesday.

"We have changed the rules to allow National Olympic Committees to nominate a female and a male athlete to jointly bear their flag during the opening ceremony," said an IOC statement.

"We encourage all National Olympic Committees to make use of this option."

The IOC also announced that July 24-August 9 Olympics will be the "first gender-balanced Olympic Games in history with 48.8 percent women's participation".

The IOC's executive board meeting added that there should be - for the first time - at least one female and one male athlete in every one of the 206 teams as well as the Refugee Olympic Team participating.