by Daria
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an expert on sport. In fact I’m only really interested in Wimbledon and the Euros. But I’ve had some thoughts as a casual observer of the sporting world and its opinions, attitudes and behaviour towards female athletes.
Like many of you I suspect, when I thought ‘is sport a safe place for women?’, my initial reaction was ‘yes of course!’. It’s true that the world of women’s sports has come leaps and bounds over recent decades. At the London 2012 Olympic games we saw the introduction of three weight classes of women’s boxing to the roster. Serena and Venus Williams are fantastic role models for aspiring female tennis player with 22 and 7 grand slam titles respectively. Women’s football is becoming more and more televised and recognised in the sporting world, especially as the England team have run circles around their male counterparts in the past few years.
But, unfortunately, the sporting world is still not equal. In terms of actual Olympic events, there are still three gender-specific summer Olympic events: Graeco-Roman Wrestling (men only), Rhythmic Gymnastics and Synchronised Swimming (women only).
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