Women signal new norm by beating men at own game
Last year, a growing number of sportswomen triumphed in mixed-gender sports, but, as Jim White explains, more participants are needed to keep the trend growing
In 2019, a series of astonishing results were achieved by sportswomen.
Jasmin Paris set the tone in January, winning the 268-mile Spine Race along the Pennines, finishing a scarcely credible 15 hours ahead of her nearest rival, smashing the course record in the process. In March, Bryony Frost rode Frodon to victory in the Grade One Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham. Then, in August, Fiona Kolbinger won cycling’s 2,485-mile Transcontinental Race, a marathon described by one competitor as “mind-meltingly tough”. And finally, in September, Sarah Thomas rounded things off by becoming the first person to swim the Channel four times non-stop.
Four different sports, but all four champions had one thing in common: they were competing against male athletes. These were women taking on men at their own game. And, until the virus put a halt to such endeavour, it seemed the victory trend was set to continue.
“We’re going to see a lot more of it,” says Barry Hearn, a leading sports impresario. “We’re going to produce women players who can stand shoulder to shoulder and give a man a good game or a good beating.”
Hearn is not suggesting it is going to happen in every sport. In some, such as sprinting, boxing and rugby, the physical differences may never be overcome. But in many that have traditionally been regarded as male preserves, there is growing evidence of gender equality. Not least in two of the sports Hearn promotes: darts and snooker.
“Back in those days, when I first started, I’d always get the talk that women will never be as good as men. I had it every time I played,” says Deta Hedman, a pioneer female darts player in the Nineties who now mentors up-and-coming talent. “It is nonsense. It doesn’t exactly take a muscle man to throw a dart. Women can easily match men there.” As Fallon Sherrock demonstrated, when, in December, she completed 2019’s eye-opening sequence of female sporting achievements by becoming the first woman to beat a male player in the PDC World Championship. And she did it twice.
“Because it was the World Championship, because there was so much media, what Fallon did will have inspired many more young women into the sport,” says Hedman. “She was showing them that what they had always been told was total rubbish: ladies can play darts, of course they can. More important, they can win.”
In order to win, however, they have to be good enough to compete. This has long been the glass ceiling for women contenders: it is not so much physical shortcomings that have prevented them from competing, as lack of opportunity. Ng On-yee, the best female snooker player in the world, reckons she was blessed by the fact her father worked at her local snooker club in Hong Kong.
“People were surprised to see me playing, especially with my thick glasses,” she recalls of first starting out. “A lot of people had the impression a snooker club was a place for men. Ladies playing snooker was not common in Asia in those days [Ng is 29]. But maybe because my father worked there, nobody was unfriendly.”
Her father’s proximity to the game gave Ng another huge benefit: after first picking up a cue at 13, she was able to practise incessantly through her teens. “While classmates were watching movies, playing computer games and shopping, I was practising. I gave up education,” she says.
Though what really gifted her an opportunity to challenge on the open circuit, was when, 10 years ago, the Hong Kong Sports Institute first provided her with sufficient financial backing to pursue the game full time. She is increasingly discovering that she is not alone.
“I’m seeing more and more new faces, powerful lady players from Thailand, Australia, mainland China. The more women participating, the more noise they generate, the easier it is to find sponsorship.”
It is, Ng’s experience suggests, a numbers game: the more women get to elite levels, the higher the chance of success. Which is why sports such as horse racing are investing significant resources into finding ways to encourage more women into its ranks. While equestrianism has long been an open sport, with men and women competing in equal numbers, racing has lagged behind.
“Increasing opportunities for female jockeys is a priority,” says Rose Grissell, the head of diversity and inclusion at the British Horseracing Authority. “It is simply the right thing to do. But commercially, too, we can see a benefit.”
No single moment last year, Grissell suggests, did as much to promote the whole sport as Frost’s victory at Cheltenham. It delivered the kind of attention that cannot be bought, and with it gave huge encouragement to the next generation of women riders.
“I think there are lots in the older generation still hung up on the idea that lads are better,” says Grace Mcentee, an apprentice jockey in Newmarket. “But riders such as Bryony and Hollie Doyle on the Flat have proved women riders can get on and win.”
That in turn has ensured that younger female jockeys are getting better horses, and with that more chance to ride home first.
“It took me a while to get my first winner. I did question myself whether I could do it,” Mcentee says. “But after I had my first win in January 2019 at Chelmsford, I realised I could. So did trainers and owners. I’ve had 20 wins now.” All of them against male jockeys.
But Grissell cautions that, while her sport appears to be undergoing something of a revolution, racing is nowhere near reaching the point when female wins are reckoned run of the mill.
“We recently did some data crunching and discovered that if we continue at the same speed as we have over the last five years, it will take 50 years to achieve absolute equality in Flat racing and a century over the jumps,” she says. “Yes, things are getting better, but we really have a long way to go.”
Or, as Hedman says of her own sport, darts: “As good as Fallon is – and she is fantastic – I reckon it will be a while before we see a woman winning the world title. To be the best in the world, to beat the men at their own game, you need hundreds of Fallons. Not just one.”