Women in Sport

I am deeply gratified to see two women in today’s sport section in the Independent on Sunday. Admittedly, the first two pictures are meant for the boys with Heather Watson aged 19, in a patterned black and white dress showing shapely legs. In the second one she is wearing tennis gear, and is on one knee, both hands on the court, with her leg splayed open.

Maggie Alphonsi is the subject of an article by David Flatman (well done man!) with a photograph that is in my opinion, a true sporting gem. She of England’s women’s rugby team, is depicted with the ball tucked under her arm, muscles bristling, lips curled over a mouth guard, and face creased in concentration. Let’s just say that she looks like you wouldn’t want to tackle her.

For years now, the sports pages for me have been only good for fire-lighting. A quick browse through never turns up any women and my reaction is always, ‘Seriously? In this day and age?’ I love a good work out. I swim three times a week, I used to run nine miles daily until a knee injury put an end to my participation in any impact sport, and I generally try my best to stay active. As I also like to read about sport, I am always looking to see what other women in the world of professional sport, are doing. I like to spectate at their amazing feats and inevitably compare myself to them, even though I am aware I could never measure up to their sporting talents. Unfortunately, every time I pick a paper up, I am met by the same conspicuous absence of women, interspersed occasionally with a scant coverage of some major women’s sporting event that even the male-dominated sporting side cannot ignore.

Don’t get me wrong I love men’s sport too, but my feelings are that there are a lot of exemplary sportswomen out there, and they too deserve a day in the sunshine. To me it seems a rather lopsided view of the sporting world to exclude them.

Some will argue that women are not interested in the sports pages, which is why newspaper publishers try and focus them on men. This is a self-perpetuating situation, where women don’t read them because they are not in them.

I am still holding out hope though that I will live long enough to enjoy the pleasure of seeing sportswomen fairly represented, and not just relegated to the back pages of sport sections (if at all they make it in there). I want to see them in their full sporting glory - action shots complete with drops of sweat, saliva and such passion for the game it makes you want to bolt out of your seat and run straight to the gym.

The photographs of sportswomen in beautiful dresses dolled up for some celebrity event have their place, but the idea that they can only be depicted this way, or that a woman’s sports picture should be mitigated with a glamorized version, should be gone faster than Maggie Alphonsi can run and hit. Editors, I am looking in your direction.