Latest news with #womensport
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Imane Khelif scandal brings everlasting shame on the IOC
It felt, then as now, like a huge exercise in misdirection. Yes, the IBA had questions to answer over its ethics and finances. But the core element of its case – that women's sport should only be for those with XX chromosomes, that male advantage was immutable – was sound. And now we see its argument that it disqualified Khelif from the 2023 world championships for being XY – a verdict, crucially, against which the athlete did not appeal – substantiated in writing, with a report carrying the letterhead of Dr Lal Path Labs in New Delhi summarising the genetic testing in two telling words: 'abnormal' and 'male'. I spent much of Monday pursuing the IOC, asking firstly for a response to the document and secondly for a sign of whether it would be apologising to the women denied Olympic medals. Eventually, on Tuesday morning, the following word salad arrived from Lausanne: 'The IOC has always made it clear that eligibility criteria are the responsibility of the respective international federation. The factors that matter to performance are unique to each sport, discipline and/or event. We await the full details on how sex testing will be implemented in a safe, fair and legally enforceable way.' This statement, somehow managing to avoid either question posed, is risible in myriad ways. For a start, the attempt to pass the buck to the federations is directly contradicted by the IOC's actions at the Paris Games. It took over running Olympic boxing from the IBA, establishing the so-called 'Paris Boxing Unit' and applying their own fatuous logic that Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, who had also failed tests, could compete because of the 'F' in their passports. As for their comment about rules being different depending on the sport? Clearly, they still believe men can be women in certain circumstances. In boxing, though, there was only one by which they needed to abide: to ensure women would not be smashed in the head by biological males. And it failed to uphold even that most basic duty of care. It is a monumental dereliction, to which the only natural response is anger. The IOC has caused havoc with its ridiculous 2021 framework on 'fairness, inclusion and non-discrimination', stating that 'athletes should be allowed to compete in the category that best aligns with the self-determined gender identity'. In 2024, it decided to test this fallacy in boxing, the most lethal Olympic sport. Except boxers do not compete with their feelings, but with their fists. In its desperation to advertise supposedly progressive credentials, it placed women in mortal danger. Could there be a greater betrayal? Those who cheered this on in Paris, who painted anybody doubting Khelif's claims to be a woman as a bigot, should take some time to reflect. And that includes many journalists. On Sky Sports News on Friday, an Olympics reporter, reacting to news that World Boxing would compel Khelif to undergo further sex testing to compete in the female category again, said flatly: 'There were no tests. There were no test results.' And yet there were. We knew of their existence in Paris nine months ago, and now we have seen them with our own eyes. In a curious way, there is some comfort in this. When people accuse anybody disagreeing with them on this subject of 'hate', it is a sure sign that they have lost the plot. And those insisting that Khelif's mental health matters more than the physical wellbeing of women have emphatically lost any moral argument. Think of it this way: in men's sport, people devote inordinate amounts of time to railing against the tiniest example of unfairness, to decrying the entire VAR system if Erling Haaland's toe happens to be offside. How can the same judges make their peace with women being denied the right to safety, the most basic fairness of all? 'Non è giusto', Carini kept saying to her corner in Paris after the Khelif bout, weeping that she had never been punched so hard in her life. 'It's not fair.' Let that plaintive cry stand as a monument to the IOC's everlasting shame.
ABC News
4 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
My Little Pony and inspiring the next generation: Is the marketing of women's sport falling short?
What do you picture when you think of women's sport? You might see excited young women holding homemade signs, a family-friendly crowd, or role models on the field creating a better future for women. In a domain that has traditionally excluded women, whether as players, spectators or administrators, women's sport is claiming space. Deloitte predicts that in 2025, sponsors of Australian women's sports teams will see a 75 per cent higher return on every dollar invested compared to sponsors of men's teams. But are elite women's sports selling themselves short when it comes to marketing? In a 2024 study, researchers interviewed more than 100 English and American fans who attended the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup about their perceptions of women footballers as role models. While many fans praised the athletes for their accessibility, selflessness and being relatable, some felt this angle devalued women's athleticism and competitiveness. The researchers worried that this perspective inadvertently puts pressure on women athletes, on top of their day jobs, to motivate the "next generation" who will reap the rewards of professionalisation. They believed this takes the responsibility off those who hold the power to make change to improve conditions now, like clubs, leagues and the media. The research found that this cultural narrative was propelled by athletes, sport organisations and corporate sponsors alike. In Channel Nine's recent documentary charting the rise of Women's State of Origin, Breakthrough, Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V'Landys called women's rugby league players inspirational. "I'm proud of what they do in the communities, I'm proud that they juggle jobs, family and playing," he said. "We want to use them as much as we can to inspire the future." Jess Richards, a senior lecturer in sports management at Western Sydney University, is concerned about a sole focus on women's sport as inspirational for girls and young women. "That all comes down to clubs and organisations all over the country improving the fan engagement," Dr Richards said. "Female empowerment is very important. But I think sometimes it can actually overshadow the athletic ability of these players … their competitive nature, aggression and those types of things. "Media coverage has really highlighted women's sport as primarily this vehicle for social change, and I think that draws attention away from the athleticism of the players." AusPlay data from 2023 shows more than 600,000 Australians aged 15 and over play netball annually. It's a sport broadly accepted as a fun and social way to keep fit. And while just under 14 per cent of that participation comes from men, it's a fast-growing sector of the sport. The major sponsorship of the elite national netball competition is "Team Girls", a partnership focused on keeping girls playing sport. Demonstrating the positives of team sport, like making friends and learning life skills like resilience, it aims to "support every girl's endgame". Since 2021, Netball Australia has also partnered with toy brand My Little Pony, encouraging children through its junior program NetSetGo to "find their sparkle" and be proud of their individuality. While these are meaningful inclusion initiatives, combined they could suggest to adult fans that the professional sport they're following is predominantly for children. Take a passing look at the Matildas' Instagram page and you'll find an emphasis on girls — fans on game day and at training holding signs seeking selfies and match-worn uniforms. You'd be forgiven for forgetting the diverse fanbase the Tillies have developed across Australia, particularly since they hosted the Women's World Cup in 2023. Carleigh Yeomans, a lecturer in sports management at Swinburne University of Technology, says engaging girls in sport is important so they can imagine themselves participating. Numerous studies have shown the high drop-out rates of girls in sport, with some suggesting up to 50 per cent stop playing by the time they turn 17. "We want them to get the mental and physical health benefits," Dr Yeomans said. "We need to be able to carry them through that 13 to 16-year-old drop in participation so that [their participation] can be sustained." Do you have a story idea about women in sport? Email us abcsport5050@ The perception of women athletes as role models is reinforced by the ongoing marketing of women's sport as family-friendly. "We want to make sure our marketing is highlighting the skill, the competition, the toughness that comes with women's sport just like it does with men's," Dr Yeomans said. Dr Richards agrees. In 2021, she co-authored a study of the Sydney Sixers Women's Big Bash League games, which found that the contrast in marketing with men's matches contributed to their atmosphere. Men's games were portrayed as a battle between rivals, while women's games were marketed as "cheap and enjoyable family days out." This framing, Dr Richards says, "may inadvertently reinforce stereotypes in a way that [suggests] girls need a softer approach. It subtly implies that they're not suited to competitive, intense environments." "I don't understand why we only just focus on the women's team when we talk about creating safe and inclusive spaces, because every sports game in any code in Australia should be a safe place for people to go and watch sport." In April, UK-based broadcaster Sky Sports released a study on women's sport fandom in the United Kingdom. Surveying more than 2,500 fans across age groups and sports, it found that women's sport's dominant audience is actually fans who follow both men's and women's sport, with 80 per cent of UK sports fans interested in at least one of each. According to the report, their fandom is driven by passion for the sport and its skill and achievement — not the gender of who's playing. Yet, only 1 in 2 women's sport fans thought analysis content on women's sport was easy to find, in comparison to more than two-thirds of men's sport fans accessing the same content. The report concludes that women's sports should deepen their engagement with these existing fans for commercial value by spotlighting individual athletes and their successes, rather than focusing exclusively on attracting new fans or fans of women's sport only. It takes concerted effort to shift away from a dominant narrative, but Dr Richards and Dr Yeomans agree that it comes back to concentrating on game play. Dr Richards points to the Women's State of Origin ads in 2024 that showed the athletes tackling and visibly sweating, in contrast to previous years' marketing. "We're still uncomfortable watching women sweat, bleed, and bruise," she says. "I think there's certainly been progress in this space around the way that we market women's sport, [as] not just something that women should have an opportunity to have a try [at]… it is a physical competition." Dr Yeomans was pleased to see Cricket Australia engage women and men in the same marketing campaigns last summer, and highlighted the increase in game play in AFLW promotional material. "[They're promoting it as] a contest as opposed to a player standing there and smiling. And I think that's an important transition to make because we want it to be comparable from a competitive landscape." Finally, another starting principle is not to expect everyone of the same gender to like the same things. "Women and girls sometimes are still viewed as a homogenous audience, like they're all the same," Dr Yeomans says. "We need to get a little more specific about what that target audience is." ABC Sport is partnering with Siren Sport to elevate the coverage of Australian women in sport. Danielle Croci is a policy officer and freelance writer and podcaster specialising in women's sport.
BBC News
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Tour of Britain Women joins BBC Sport's line up of women's sport this summer
This summer, BBC Sport will bring even more women's sport to audiences, having secured the rights to show the Tour of Britain Women. The event, which will run from the 5-8 June, will see a record number of 18 teams compete across four stages; starting in the Tees Valley and concluding in Glasgow. BBC Sport will stream every stage live across all four days on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app, bringing the race to fans wherever they are. Highlights, clips and key moments will also be shared across BBC Sport's social channels throughout the event. Alex Kay-Jelski, Director of BBC Sport, says: 'The Tour of Britain Women will be another great moment for women's sport this summer and we're delighted to bring this event to fans across the UK through our popular digital platforms. The BBC has a strong track record of backing women's sport. Not just the victories, but the stories, the grit and the passion behind them. And as the UK's most-used sports broadcaster, we're proud to shine a spotlight on this race and its great cyclists.' Managing Director of British Cycling Events, Jonathan Day, says: 'We are really pleased that the BBC will broadcast the Lloyds Tour of Britain women during a huge summer of sport for women. The event is breaking records this year with the number of teams riding across the four stages, so it is brilliant news that the races will be available across BBC Sport's platforms, allowing the British public to follow the action from this sporting spectacle.' BBC Sport's roster of women's sport this summer includes Queen's, Wimbledon, Nottingham & Eastbourne, UEFA Women's Euro 2025, Women's Rugby World Cup, The Hundred and women's cricket international highlights, as well as the World Athletics Championships. Read more: Women's Sport takes centre stage across the BBC in summer 2025 RM4
ABC News
27-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Players across Victoria to protest cuts to gender equity programs
Women football players across Victoria are planning a protest against recent Victorian state budget cuts programs around gender equity and inclusion in sport. The Office for Women in Sport and Recreation (OWSR) and the Preventing Violence Through Sport Grants Program were both axed after Treasurer Jaclyn Symes handed down her first budget earlier last week. In response, Not All Clubs Media has led an initiative across social media to call on the state to reinstate the programs and "commit to a long-term strategy to make sport safe, equal, and accessible for women and gender diverse people". The plan is for players to wear red armbands this weekend when they run out. One armband will be worn to stand against the cuts and defunding, and another will be worn to honour the women who have been killed this year due to gender-based violence. "These initiatives and programs were among the first of their kind — designed to make sport safe, more inclusive, and more equal for women and gender diverse people. Without them, we risk going backwards — towards more harm, more silence, and fewer women and gender diverse people in the game," a statement read on social media. "This is happening during a national crisis of gender-based violence. Already this year, 29 women have been killed by violence. Last year, it was 103. "We refuse to go backwards. We refuse to be silenced. We refuse to stay quiet while safety is defunded." The cuts to the programs were announced at a Sport and Experience Economy meeting on Wednesday last week, where the secretary acknowledged that some of the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions lapsing programs would not receive further funding, and thus conclude over the coming months. Director at Equal the Contest and former Mt Alexander Falcons player Mitch Nivalis said clubs and people wanted to learn, but could not do so without financial support. "My experience screening Equal the Contest right across Victoria and the conversations with audiences as a result, is that people want to learn," Nivalis said. "They want to know how to improve their clubs so everyone has equal access and everyone feels safe and welcome. But they need support and the Victorian state government has just removed that support with this decision, and with it, hope for women, girls and gender diverse people in sport. "This decision by the Victorian state government undermines years of cumulative work done in partnerships between sports clubs, local government, academia, women's health, prevention of violence organisations and regional sports assemblies. "This is long-term work and axing the Office for Women in Sport and programs like Change our Game is a failure for every woman in Australia experiencing and at risk of gender based violence." Nivalis said it also had an impact on men and boys at football clubs. "It's also a failure to men and boys, who were benefiting from programs and environments that create new narratives for behaviour in sport," they said. "The momentum for men's allyship was just starting to build traction. If anything, now is the time to increase support for this work to capitalise on this potential for change. "My question is, what happens now to the Fair Access initiative? What happens to all the funding given to male dominated clubs to support women's programs — where's the accountability going to be to ensure this is actually followed through and not just funnelled back to men's teams?" A spokesperson said the Victorian government "will always support women and girls' participation in sport and recreation". "The functions of the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation will continue to be held within Sport and Recreation Victoria," they said. OWSR administered the Change Our Game Program, which aimed at increasing the participation, leadership and visibility of women and girls in sport and active recreation. The Preventing Violence Through Sport Grants Program supported Victorian community sport and recreation in addressing gender-based violence, including family violence, sexual violence, and other forms of violence against women. The state budget was announced on Tuesday last week, with a focus on the cost of living and families, which promises a $600 million surplus for the first time since the pandemic. It placed thousands of public sector jobs on the chopping block as the government aims to save $3.3 billion.
Telegraph
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Gary Lineker's views on transgender ‘an utter load of bull----' says Navratilova
Gary Lineker has been accused of 'astonishing ignorance' by fellow BBC stars after telling The Telegraph he did not believe that the scandal of biological males in women's sport 'would ever be a real issue'. That assertion drew a withering response from Sharron Davies, the former Olympic silver medallist and BBC swimming presenter, who claimed that Lineker's perspective was the product of a failure of research. 'Not a real issue because it didn't affect the men's game,' she wrote, in response to his first public remarks on the transgender controversies convulsing female sport, where he claimed to know of just three such cases. Davies said: 'His ignorance in this article is astonishing. Should keep his mouth shut unless he can be bothered to do some homework. Over 1,600 men in women's sports in the USA and Canada alone!' Lineker alluded to the examples of American swimmer Lia Thomas, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif – not transgender but allowed to win gold as a woman at the Paris Olympics after sex tests indicating male chromosomes – as the only examples of which he was aware. 'Not just three – of which one is a DSD [differences in sexual development] athlete, not even trans,' Davies said. 'But suggest he has no idea of the difference? One removing fairness or safety for females in female sport is one too many.' Davies, Martina Navratilova and hundreds of other women had implored him to address the matter last November, when his podcast The Rest Is Football invited questions from listeners, but he ignored all such requests, explaining in his Telegraph interview that he felt the subject was 'too nuanced' to be discussed on the show and declaring that transgender people were 'some of the most persecuted on the planet'. Lineker insisted he had a positive relationship with Navratilova, the nine-time Wimbledon singles champion and regular BBC presenter at the All England Club, revealing he was helping her produce a podcast of her own. 'I don't think she has got an issue with me,' he said, although this was contradicted by her savage response to his latest comments. 'Truly unbelievable,' Navratilova said. 'What an utter load of BS – and I am being nice. Seriously Gary? It's OK for men to compete against female bodies? You must be joking.' This backlash from BBC colleagues comes amid acute unrest inside the corporation at Lineker's sharing of a post on Instagram about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which featured a rat emoji traditionally used as an anti-Semitic slur. While Lineker later issued an unreserved apology, Jewish members of BBC staff have expressed disgust at director-general Tim Davie's failure to impose any sanction. 'It is quite simply disgusting that the BBC has not kicked Lineker out,' said one employee this week, speaking anonymously. 'His repeated offensiveness to Jewish people has clearly brought the BBC into disrepute.' On the transgender debate, Lineker gave a clear explanation of where his empathy lay. 'I genuinely feel really bad for trans people,' he said. 'Imagine going through what they have to go through in life. You've got to be very careful not to have bigoted views.' Tina Daniels, an athlete who was a British men's record-holder in para-sport prior to gender reassignment, pushed back strongly on this perspective, saying: 'Hi, Gary Lineker. I'm a transsexual athlete and my male advantages are insurmountable. I stay out of female sports. Each place that a trans-identifying male takes denies a female a rightful opportunity. Her hard work is nullified.'
