MIXED UP: GENDER EQUITY IN TRIATHLON
WHEN I LIVED in Scotland, there was a Saturday morning group ride with one rule: “Hang on or die.” We would roll out from central Edinburgh, cruise to the start point and then hammer a 40 km loop, swapping turns at the front while, one by one, riders dropped off the back. Every place around the globe has a group ride like this – basically, stay glued to the wheel in front or you’re out. The ride typically started with a group of about twenty and ended with about four.
I was training as a full-time professional athlete at the time and had been away on training camp for the winter. I had never held on for the full 40 km and I came back ready to “take on the boys.” And on that day, I succeeded. Our final four sprinted to the line and almost immediately a dude wearing tartan cycling shorts filled by quads the size of my torso, turned to me and said in a broad Scottish accent, “Who the hell are you?”
And in that moment I felt pride, anger, joy, shock and excitement all wrapped up in one. I had held on until the end. Exciting. Was his remark sexist? Absolutely. Was it some kind of compliment? For sure. Did he underestimate me? You betcha. In my mind, this moment, and those feelings, sum up exactly where we are in terms of women’s equity in triathlon: it’s all mixed up.
“In my mind, this moment, and those feelings, sum up exactly where we are in terms of women’s equity in triathlon: it’s all mixed up.”
PRIDE
Let’s start with pride. There’s a lot to be proud of when we analyze our beloved sport through the lens of gender equity. Since the beginning, triathlon has had equal prize money and, while there are exceptions (ahem, Embrunman in France), for the most part, that battle has been fought and won.
Another little-known-fact is that triathlon’s inclusion in the Olympic Games was propelled by our rapid development of female elite athletes over the Olympic distance. In the 1990s, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was focused squarely on balancing gender numbers at the Games. Triathlon boosted our sum of world-class women, changed our race format to be more TV-friendly and boom, got into the Games of the XXVII Olympiad in Sydney, Australia.
Inclusion in the Olympics gave triathlon the popularity boost it needed to become a widelyknown mass participation sport.
The long-time race director for the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii is a woman called Diana Bertsch. And Bertsch’s responsibilities go way beyond Kona as she is the vice-president of world championship events.
Women have always been part of triathlon’s leadership at the federation level, with 40 per cent representation globally in the most recent count. And who could forget our fearless leader, Marisol Casado, who was, at one time, the only female president of an Olympic summer sport federation and often finds herself at IOC meetings as the lone woman.
There are countless other examples of ways, big and small, that triathlon stands above other sports when it come to treating women well, and for that, we should be proud.
ANGER
OK, maybe not so fast. We have a few reasons for feminist anger. A few years back, former ITU and Ironman world champion Erin Baker – known for her feisty nature – told this story about why she once boycotted the Nice Triathlon:
“At Nice one year, the first person across the line got a car, and as men and women started at the same time, well, the man was going to win,” Baker recounts. “They told me that if I won [the women’s race] they would give me a car, but they wouldn’t make it an official thing. So, I said ‘No, it has to be equal,’ and I didn’t go. However, I was the only one that I can remember that didn’t go. So much for women’s lib.”
At the Outspoken: Women in Triathlon Summit, held in Tempe, Ariz., last fall, Anne Hed, CEO of HED Cycling, and Julie Moss, who famously crawled to finish line at the 1982 Ironman World Championship, talked about the pressures they felt to look a certain way in order to obtain, and keep, sponsorship as pros in the early years. While their male counterparts could rely on results alone to make money, the formula for women was more like: performance and looks equal cash.
Sally Edwards, entrepreneur and founder of Fleet Feet recounted an infuriating story about how she was told point blank that she wasn’t “pretty enough” to do televised race coverage. And if you know Sally Edwards, you know she would be amazing at race coverage.
Our dear sport rested on its laurels, acting like it somehow avoided the sexist pitfalls of other sports because, “Look, we have equal prize money. We have a female President of our Federation. What more could we possibly do?”
But, to any woman who’s been blanked in a bike shop, or patronized in the transition area, or to Hed, who was asked to pose like Madonna on a magazine cover with the caption “Material Girl,” or to Sika Henry, who can count on one hand the other African Americans at any race she attends, it just doesn’t feel good enough.
“But to any woman who’s been blanked in a bike shop, or patronized in the transition area, or to Hed, who was asked to pose like Madonna on a magazine cover with the caption “Material Girl,” or to Sika Henry, who can count on one hand the other African Americans at any race she attends, it just doesn’t feel good enough.”
JOY
Moving right along to joy. There has been some progress in the last decade – and definitely some great strides forward have been made for women in triathlon. Perhaps the most striking is the move by Ironman to create a two-day event for the 70.3 World Championship, with women competing on Saturday and men on Sunday. I have yet to hear a negative word about the two-day format, pro and age group women alike seem to love it.
Another great initiative launched in 2015 is Women for Tri (W4T). Supported by the Ironman Foundation, W4T hosts an active Facebook group of over 55,000 women and funnels grant money to initiatives aimed at growing women’s participation. And, not to be forgotten, the USA Triathlon Women’s Committee also offers educational grants to women.
For the pros, at most events the women now have separate start times to help create a fair race course. At the federation level, USAT made an effort to find women leaders and now 42 per cent of its board of directors are women. And our very own Triathlon Canada CEO is a woman – Kim Van Bruggen.
SHOCK
And yet, somehow though the number of women participating in triathlon is creeping up slowly, it’s frankly a bit like watching a tortoise saunter along while our hare-cousin, the sport of running, bounces ahead and now has more women than men participating. Meanwhile the number of women participating in long course triathlon events is stagnant. It’s like we are in shock. Not moving forward and don’t know quite what to do about it.
Remember the time that the pro women asked for equal slots at the Ironman World Championship and were told no? Literally every sport in the world that has both men’s and women’s events offers equal access to both genders, even the sports that don’t offer equal prize money. Even the 70.3 World Championship offers just that – equal slots for male and female pros. I know a few people who still feel stunned by the fact that the dial hasn’t moved on this issue in Kona.
Further, our other cousin, the uber-macho CrossFit had 43 per cent women participating in the Open this year and I suspect that per centage is higher if we look at pure participation numbers. All this leaves me wondering what the heck triathlon is doing wrong? Why are we making such slow progress when other participation sports around us are seeing massive upticks in women’s numbers?
The question is: are we willing to ask the hard questions? And, then, are we willing to hear the answers? How do we create a culture of inclusion in our beloved sport?
EXCITEMENT
If we truly want women to feel included at every level of the sport, we have to include women at every level of the sport. I know – duh. So instead of focusing purely on women’s participation, we need to take a multilayered approach and figure out how to keep women in the sport after their first event, how to get more women into leadership positions, coaching and industry jobs. We need to create pathways, have mentors and develop programs that will engage women and encourage them to join our communities.
This multilayered approach was the goal of the Outspoken: Women in Triathlon Summit – to get everyone who is interested in addressing the hard questions and creating a culture of inclusion together in one place for a weekend of learning and idea swapping.
The ideas brainstormed at the summit have been realized across the U.S. and Canada, through leadership opportunities, mentorship programs, books published, non-profits founded and free to low-cost coaching for women new to the sport.
To create lasting change we have to work together and address persistent struggles with diversity and inclusion, we need to increase women’s leadership and give women something to grow into, as age-group athletes, as coaches, as pros and as leaders.
So, when my tartan-donning friend – instead of commenting in a mildly patronizing – probably sexist but with good intentions way, just turns and says (hypothetically): “Great job!” when a twenty-something woman keeps up on the “hang on or die” ride, then I will feel assured that we are making progress.