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Sunday, 04 December 2011

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Glen Poole

Yup most sport is one of those areas where the best men in the world are always better than the best women (they run faster, jump higher, throw things further) - and there are some sports where women can be the best (showjumping springs to mind) - and of course there are loads of great sportswomen who are better than a whole heap of men - i doubt anyone of us could could beat even a British women's tennis player for example.

So in a fair and equal world when it comes to best Sportsperson in he majority of sports its men.

Then there's the question of Sports Personality which isn't measurable - in the sense that you can't measure personality in the way that you can measure how fast someone runs. But this award isn't a measure of sports ability or personality it's a popularity contest - like X Factor - where the person who gets the most votes from the fickle public - wins.

Andy Murray, for example, would never win this on personality alone but you can bet that if he wins Wimbledon one year that he'll be in the running for the award - just like the last British winner of a Wimbledon Singles title - Virginia Wade - won it in 1977.

Insisting on women being given preferential treatment would be - to my mind - a huge insult to all the great sportswomen since Pat Smythe who came third at the very first award in 1954 who have made it into the top 3 on merit alone including Anita Lonsborough, Angela Mortimer, Dorothy Hyman, Linda Ludgrove, Mary Rand, Ann Packer, Marion Coakes, Beryl Burton, Ann Jones, The Princess Ann (God Bless Her), Mary Peters, Virginia Wade, Jayne Torvill, Fatima Whitbread, Liz McColgan, Sally Gunnell, Denise Lewis, Tanni Grey Thompson, Ellen McArthur, Paula Radcliffe, Kelly Holmes, Zara Phillips, Beth Tweddle, Rebecca Adlington and Jessica Ennis.........to name but a few!

John Kimble

Women already receive a huge amount of special treatment by not having to compete with men. If we had absolute equality then all events would be mixed and there would be no women even competing in many events never mind succeeding.

The best female football players would be playing in the conference, the very best tennis players never ranked higher than 250 in the world and runners would have to achieve times close to women's world records records just to qualify for the Olympics.

If this nonsense continues then I say we truly abandon sexism in sport and have all events as mixed.

Groan

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/media-centre/news/gender-agenda
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/dec/04/why-british-public-life-dominated-men

A couple of stories supporting special treatment. But both actually go on to describe why women are less frequently in the "top" spots. And it boils down to choosing other priorities and being less "pushy". As with sport the solutions offered are Quotas and accomadating part time work in roles where this is an obvious nonsense. Of course what ais not even mentioned is that the whole thing is nonsense on stilts as few men succeed too. The top slots have to be earned not just handed out. As you say john it is an insult to all those of either sex who've put the effort in. As for the popularity polls the answer is for many more women to take an interest ain and spend their money on sport.

Alan Corey

The problem is that there is no proof of sexism, it can be argued that some people, who happen to be women, should have been included. Thanks mate for sharing.

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