Shuttleworth, aged 19) interviewed 39 year old American diver Ginger Huber about the necessity to perform off a lower board, Huber replied, “It’s not that we [female divers] are unable to jump from that height – woman have done it in the past! It’s more that we [the Red Bull competitors] have never really had the opportunity to. After all, there are not too many training facilities for us.” A sentiment aired by former Red Bull Cliff Diving Champion Joey Zuber.[27] In short, the language used by sports commentators, along with media and social perceptions, contributes to this marginalization and lack of belief in female athletes, relegating them to the position of ‘other’. Ask yourself why the men’s finals are always placed on the last day of all tennis Grand Slams or that the final Olympic event is the men’s 100m? In fact, the women’s finals of both of these examples are not even on the same day as the men’s, instead being demoted to the day before! Do we, as Morgan, Shanahan, & Signorielli suggest, attach more importance to male athletes? “The more prominence an athlete or sporting event receives from
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heavy television exposure, the more an audience views it as being important.” And if younger generations consider female athletes to be second class, will it inspire them to compete?[28] A prime example of this ‘second class’ in action took place in 2003 when in May of that year Annika Sorenstam became the first woman in 58 years to compete in a Professional Golfer’s Association event. Fellow Fijian golfer Vijay Singh asserted that, “she had no business there”.[29] And unfortunately, he wasn't alone. Many radio callers and online chatters trashed Sorenstam for daring to compete, leading to even Sorenstam herself, who didn't make the cut but played respectably, to take an apologetic stance, saying she would, "go back to my [Ladies Professional Golfers Association] tour, where I belong", implying she was inferior, despite outplaying some top male golfers under public and fellow scrutiny.[3]
Conclusion Will male and female athletes ever compete against one another? It is a more complex question than one would first think. It requires a
Autumn/Winter 2013
complete shift in social, political and economic power, as well as a more liberal attitude towards the genders, considering that an individual’s gender might more accurately be considered on a sliding scale rather than just being either male or female. At the heart of the matter is the presumption that there are vast "natural" differences between males and females. Males, we're conditioned to believe, are bigger, faster and stronger than females and their physical differences, we've been told, are so great that they need their own teams and rules. However, the notion that male athletes are always superior is constantly being tested. Gail Devers finished one heat of the indoor 60m hurdle event in 7.74 seconds at the 2003 USA Track and Field Championships, setting a new American record, while during the men's initial heats, only 3 out of 23 ran times that were faster. In 2002, British free diver Tanya Streeter descended 525ft into the water while holding her breath, breaking all the existing men's and women's depth records. This record still stands today.
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