Court of opinion
Judy Murray speaks to Rick Fulton about women in sport and how they are held to a different standard from male counterparts
JUDY Murray’s world changed during Wimbledon 2005.
Her youngest son Andy, then 18, made it as a wildcard to the third round of the tennis championship and got to play on Centre Court on a Saturday.
The commentators, looking to fill time when Andy wasn’t playing against David Nalbandian, focused in on his mum who was with him every second of the five set thriller, which the future Wimbledon winner, lost.
Judy, 61, who is also mum to another tennis champion, Jamie, said: “I found myself being picked out a lot – whether I was clapping, smiling, punching the air, baring my teeth, whatever it was – and the pictures that they used of me were always the aggressive ones.
“They immediately created this image of me as being the overbearing mother, too competitive, too pushy, and it just continued from there.”
It’s a source of frustration for the tennis coach, who now uses her platform to raise awareness of women’s tennis – and the wider topic of females in sport, through projects like the Judy Murray Foundation and new Sky Sports series, Driving Force.
She said: “If my kids had played rugby or cricket or football, I’d have been lost in the crowd with all the other parents, nobody would ever have seen me.
“The nature of tennis puts you in the spotlight in a way that probably no other sport does, with a parent who’s just watching their kids playing and supporting them.”
As a traditionally male-dominated industry, over the years sport has exposed audiences to testosteronedriven outbursts and physical altercations in equal measure.
However, Judy believes that women in the same arena, and those on the sidelines, continue to be held to a different standard from their male counterparts.
She said: “The other thing I realised
They created this image of me being too pushy
back then was that, if I had been the father of sons or the mother of daughters, I wouldn’t have been picked out in the same way – it was like there was something wrong with being a competitive woman.”
Judy has teamed up with executive producer Rosemary Reed and Sky Sports as part of the 10-part series to look beyond an athlete’s final performance and uncover the relentless work that paves the way for success. And with Covid-19 putting huge financial strain across men’s sport, not to mention the knock-on impact on the lesser-funded women’s teams and sporting programmes, raising the profiles of female athletes has become more important than ever.
“The success of the Lionesses, the women’s rugby, England women’s cricket – winning the World Cup, the netball and the hockey – these are world-class performers and they are teams. That has enormously raised awareness,” said Judy.
“Team sport is huge for engaging the nation, you can rally numbers behind a team.
“Now, we’re trying to raise the profiles of them as individual athletes.
“They all work hard to give back to their sport in some way, whether it’s encouraging kids to learn to swim or Kelly Holmes, she has a marvellous foundation that supports young athletes and mentors them.
“They understand the importance of them as role models.
“If you can see it, you might believe that one day you could be it.”
Driving Force begins on Tuesday, Sky Sports Mix, at 9pm and Sky Sports Main Event at 10.15pm.