The year of the woman: Let’s keep it sporty

Dancers run form the court during the Women's Beach Volleyball Preliminary match between China and Greece on Day 5 of the London 2012 Olympic Games

When I was seven my parents received one of my more memorable school reports. My spelling was fine, my reading above average and my maths needed work. But what stood out was a comment from my P.E teacher. ‘Chloe must learn not to be afraid of the ball.’

I’d be the first to admit that I was not a sporty girl. Sporty girls and sporty boys were loved by teachers and pupils alike. If you didn’t cut it on the pitch, you probably didn’t cut it on the playground. When we played cricket at college, the team lumbered with me would tell me to ‘go deep’, where I would sit on the playing field making daisy chains, returning with dread when it was time for my team to bat. I’d swing wildly, eyes wide with terror as the ball came careering towards me. Needless to say I’d always miss.

This summer, we are celebrating the sporty girl. London 2012 has been heralded as the year of the woman. It is the first time every one of the 204 participating teams have included women. It is also the first time that each event will feature both a men’s and women’s category, with women finally taking to the boxing ring. In fact, Team GB features more female athletes than male athletes, showing that women are indeed taking London 2012 by storm.

Despite this, the media seems intent on focusing on Team GB’s women’s bra sizes, rather than on their talent, a problem that male athletes don’t come up against. Granted, no one complained when David Beckham’s bulging underpants were plastered across London, but it is clear that male athletes aren’t subjected to the same remarks as their female counterparts.

A case in point is Jan Moir’s comment about Lizzie Armistead in the women’s road cycling race. “Lizzie emerged without a speck of mud on her flawless complexion, manicure perfect, looking ready for her close-up.” Forget the first medal for Team GB at least Lizzie had had the foresight to get her nails done!

Victoria Pendleton recently did a photo shoot for Esquire. Victoria appears on a bed, all fishnet tights, glossy lips and bed hair. Yes, it’s proof than female athletes aren’t just big thighs and no breasts, although why that is so surprising I don’t know. But why don’t we focus on the aptitude of our sportswomen, rather than smothering them in fake tan and forcing them into the glossy world of celebrity?

The marked increase in the popularity of women’s beach volleyball is another example.  Ask anyone which event they would most like to see and more often than not, beach volleyball is up there. But I wonder how many fans of the sport could name the two members of GB’s team. The controversy surrounding the outfits of the GB beach volleyball team demonstrates the ‘sexed up’ image of women in sport. Some players demanded that women be allowed to wear shorts and a t-shirt, rather than the traditional ‘skimpy bikini’. Others argued that if women had to wear next to nothing, male competitors should strip off as well. Currently, Team GB’s women are set to stand in the drizzle on Horse Guards Parade, baring all. For many, the sport has become known for its ‘sexy’ outfits rather than for a team’s success and this where we must proceed with caution.

A fine line needs to be drawn between bringing the punters in and selling our women short. I hope we can return to the girls I envied at school, the girls who weren’t afraid of the ball. It wasn’t their shiny hair or big breasts that made them popular, it was their proficiency in their chosen sport.

Female Olympians are making talent cool. For that I salute them and welcome them as role models for the next generation. By all means, wear a bikini, get a manicure before a race, or do a photo-shoot in your smalls. But please, let’s keep the Olympics about sport, the medals and the achievements of Team GB’s women.

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• http://twitter.com/mondo9999 David L

  Breaking News! In Chloe’s next article she makes the case for trying to stop the earth from spinning on its axis! Get real Chloe. Men are attracted by women’s looks and as a result women are obsessed with their looks and on commenting about other women’s looks. Women are not quite so attracted to men on looks alone and men’s sports are overwhelmingly more popular with men than with women and as men do not obsess about other men’s appearance then male athletes’ looks are paid less scrutiny than women athletes. That’s just the way it is. You may as well complain grass is green and the sky is blue. Why don’t you earn your money for once and tell us something insightful about the world?

• SallyMaeSusan

  You want “insightful”, David?

  Well, some of those young ladies in the pretty picture above have managed to get the gussets of their bathing-costumes firmly wedged up their clunges.

  What else does a girl have to put up with for a photograph, eh?

• Elle Lund

  Well maybe that is just the way it is but it isn’t the way it has to be. The world is changing and such glaring gender imbalances like these need to be talked about and noticed, and in time hopefully they will change. It’s called progression. Get real David.

• bobbellinhell

  No, let’s not keep it sporty. Sports billies don’t change just because time passes. If anything, the fact that they’ve been allowed to take over our city to hold a jolly makes them even less worthy of regard than they were 30 years ago.

• bobbellinhell

  Translation, ‘why don’t you tell us something that corresponds with David L’s 1950s-style understanding of the world’

• greenun

  ‘clunges’ is a wonderful word. I’d never heard it before.Thank you.

• http://www.facebook.com/b.c.e.mercer Ben Mercer

  There are some interesting points of discussion from this article – both male and female athletes earn a great deal of their money from endorsements and photo shoots and also probably enjoy a great deal of these assignments as well. Sports represented at the Olympics do not tend to provide much remuneration compared to football or rugby etc. Being in prime physical condition they will be able to remember and document a time when they looked absolutely fantastic.

  Also Jan Moir’s comment about Lizzie Armistead is a bit trite but many female athletes, especially swimmers, remark that painting their nails is one of the main ways for them to express their femininity when competing or training as styled hair, fashionable clothes and make up are not conducive to athletic performance.

  I agree that the focus should be on the performance of the competitors but I also think that with the increasing excellence of the athletes – for example GB women’s rowers winning gold for the first time, the amazing performance of Ye Shiwen and the first Saudi female Olympian – that is where the focus is already. Attractive competitors are merely a pleasant side effect.

• Jubileegirl

  Having read this article, I have come to the conclusion that the writer is ashamed of her own gender. If this is what modern feminism has come to then suffragettes must be spinning in their graves.

• http://twitter.com/126_alan AlanS

  ” it is clear that male athletes aren’t subjected to the same remarks as their female counterparts.”
  Linford’s Lunchbox?