they want to do," states Darrow, who also happens to hold her high school's record for the most chin-ups - male or female! But it seems not enough because, whilst Darrow is dedicated (lifting weights daily, participating in cross-country runs in the autumn, training several times a week at the TNT Wrestling Centre an hour from her home), she has been plagued by the perception that wrestling is only for boys. The notion that girls can wrestle – or, more than that, wrestle successfully - against boys, seems too much to bear for some, to such an extent that a state representative in Minnesota filed a bill to ban mixedsex school wrestling. Fortunately, the bill died, but not before it ignited a debate over long-held beliefs about femininity, masculinity and the differences between them.[3] Increasingly, however, female athletes – from the likes of Darrow to professionals such as golfers Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie (who at the age of 13 and 6 feet tall could drive – and often outdrive - from the men's tees) - are challenging stereotypes of female physical inferiority. And yes, while golf is more skill than strength, there are women showing their ability in that respect too. An example is Emily Watts, a 35 year old mother of two American open water swimmer, who in 2002, won the 28.5 mile Manhattan Island Marathon Swim
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in 7 hours 46 minutes. Her opponents included two men’s relay teams and she commented that, “people were surprised I won!” She also recalled, "One gentleman came up and was bowing to me. A woman came up with her daughter and said, ‘look at that! A woman won!’ I don't think it shocked me. I do consider myself as equal. Even in practice, even in other races, if I am swimming next to men, I am just another competitor."[4]
Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) decided that running alongside these men makes women “artificially faster”.[5] However, this retroactive ruling struck a nerve and led to a chorus of protests forcing the IAAF to reverse their decision. "We realize that these performances were excellent performances," stated Helmut Digel, a council member of IAAF, when explaining why the IAAF backed down.[6]
Yet another example of female athleticism is Pam Reed from Arizona USA who, at the age of 42, became the overall winner in the 135-mile 2002 Badwater Ultramarathon that begins in California's Death Valley and ends at the highest peak in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, beating the second place finisher by almost five hours.
However, it wasn’t an entire reversal of their decision. Their conclusive ruling actually means that women who run in marathons that feature a mixed group of pacers – as in many of the world majors (including The London Marathon, Berlin and Chicago) - won't register times that qualify as the women's world record. The new rule also means that no woman can ever set another world record unless she's being paced by other women.[7] As a result, Radcliffe's old record was only referred to as "world best" up until recently when the decision was made to allow it as an official record.
And of course, let’s not forget that for many years, women were assumed to be physically incapable of breaking a 2:20 marathon time, but the record was shattered three times in 18 months and again in April 2003 when British marathoner Paula Radcliffe broke her own record, finishing in 2:15:25, only 9 minutes 47 seconds off the men's record and within seconds of the men's 1960 world record. But in January 2004 the record was removed from the annals of marathon world records. Why? Because the London Marathon allowed women to run alongside male pacemakers and officials from the International
Autumn/Winter 2013
This doesn’t seem entirely fair, considering that whilst men have shaved three minutes off record marathon times in the past 35 years, women have improved by 31 minutes. Not bad considering the scientific community up to the late 1960’s considered marathons too dangerous due to uterus dislodgment! However, this was by no means the
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