Formula One shows some sports are still just an elite boys’ club
I’M as quick as anyone for lauding the leaps forward women’s sport is making. And it is. Coverage, attendances, financial rewards and, perhaps most importantly, respect levels are all increasing exponentially. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that sport, or large sections of it, are anything more than an elite boys’ club.
There are a few sports which are more guilty of this than others, with Formula One one of them.
It’s an assertion that was confirmed last week, or at least backed up, by one of the greatest motorsport drivers – Lewis Hamilton.
“It is still a male-dominated sport,” said Hamilton, before going on to berate the discrimination of women in F1.
Hamilton was speaking in the aftermath of the revelation that F1 Academy director Susie Wolff has launched criminal proceedings against the sport’s governing body, the FIA. A few months ago, Wolff was subject to an investigation by the FIA over a potential conflict of interest due to her position as the head of the F1 Academy and her husband’s involvement as an F1 team principal.
The issue was looked into and dismissed by the FIA compliance department in December, but Wolff is suing for the reputational damage caused by the investigation being made public.
What has been most interesting, though, is Hamilton’s reaction to Wolff’s legal action.
The seven-time world champion and the Scot go back a long way – they have been friends for years having grown up in the sport together – so his support for Wolff is perhaps not unexpected, but his calling out of what he sees as blatant sexism and discrimination against women certainly is.
Hamilton also alluded to the wholly unedifying case that has been rumbling on inside F1 for a month now – the sexting scandal.
The participants of a sexting scandal rarely emerge with their reputations enhanced, but Red Bull boss Christian Horner has managed to ensure he has come out of this one particularly badly.
Horner, who is married to Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, was accused of controlling behaviour towards a female employee, something he was cleared of just days before a cache of text messages purported to be between the pair were released.
What has happened since has been depressing with the woman in question suspended, albeit on full pay, for exactly what most are unsure, but one of the things seems to be for not being male.
I am, of course, reading between the lines with this assertion, but being female seems to have done the woman in question few favours and is what, at least in part, has fuelled Hamilton’s excoriating comments.
“’We’re living in a time where the message is if you file a complaint, you will be fired and that is a terrible narrative to be projecting to the world, especially when we’re talking about inclusivity in the sport,” said Hamilton last week.
It should come as a surprise to no one that F1 can be less than welcoming to women.
It’s similar in so many other workplaces that are heavily maledominated, but sport seems particularly susceptible. Football, despite the rise of the women’s game, remains heavily male-dominated at the top and presents us, with an alarming regularity, examples of just how little is thought of women.
The latest example concerns former Barcelona footballer Dani Alves, who was found guilty of raping a woman this year, yet his former club has refused to remove his page from the “Legends” section of their website.
Alves may have been a good footballer but surely being a rapist should tarnish his credentials to be branded “legendary”.
What is so disheartening, and angering, about these two examples is they are so unsurprising.
Few women, particularly women who have either been involved in or observed male-dominated sports, will have been blindsided by the fact that there remains deeply sexist factions within said sports.
So, for all the progress that women’s sport is making, do not be fooled that discrimination is anywhere near being banished for good.
AND ANOTHER THING
THERE is sport, there is extreme sport and then there is the Barkley Marathon. It is almost impossible to describe the Barkley Marathon, the 2024 edition of which finished just a two days ago.
It is, most agree, the toughest test of physical endurance on the planet. The annual race takes place in Tennessee and since its inception in 1986, has taken on an almost mythical quality.
It is, though, suitable for only the most hard-core of athletes with the race 100 miles long, run in loops, with a 60-hour cut off.
Quite how testing the event can be is perhaps best illustrated by the statistic that, prior to this year’s race, only 15 people had finished it. Not 15 people a year, but 15 in total since 1986. Five finished it this year.
It is less of a running race and more of an expedition – there is 13,000 feet of climbing per loop and finishing even two loops proves impossible for the majority – in this year’s edition, more than 50 per cent of the field dropped out before 17 hours.
There was Scottish representation in the shape of the incredible Jasmin Paris who, this year, made history by becoming the first female to finish.
The mentality of people who want to test themselves in such an extreme challenge fascinates me – even as someone who spent over a decade competing in elite sport. I can’t fathom what would possess anyone to want to push themselves to such limits.
And it’s this that makes the Barkley Marathon so fascinating; in a world of seven billion people, you can count on one hand those who are undefeated by it each year.
Hamilton and Wolff go back a long way so his support for her is perhaps not unexpected, but his calling out of what he sees as blatant sexism and discrimination against women certainly is