During an online event a few years ago I shared a platform with a former Dublin ladies’ footballer and a former international Irish rugby player where the question of how to grow women’s sports was the main theme. The usual answers were put out there – more investment, more resources and more commitment to taking women’s sports seriously.
This year, it finally felt like that could happen, with much more interest in women’s football and camogie, the women’s soccer World Cup and the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
After we had finished that discussion, the former Dublin footballer mentioned that she had just watched Sydney McLaughlin storm to gold at the Tokyo Olympics in the 400m hurdles. Then she said: “I love how in the Olympics Sydney McLaughlin is compared to women in her sport, Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce is compared to other sprinters, Katie Ledecky is compared to other swimmers. When will we in Gaelic games get to that stage rather than constant comparisons with men’s teams?”
It’s a valid, pointed question and one that popped up in my mind over the weekend when Spain won the World Cup, beating England 1-0. If you haven’t heard by now, the Spanish coach Jorge Vilda isn’t well liked, and the footballing governing body in Spain, RFEF, isn’t far behind. That situation got 100 times worse after the RFEF president Luis Rubiales got very hands on with his players, even kissing Jenni Hermoso on the lips without her consent.
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And then we crossed over to the athletics and a very different situation. Female athletes, albeit still with a variety of challenges, were praised, celebrated and on an equal footing. We were just as excited for Karsten Warholm as we were for Rhasidat Adeleke. Swedish discus thrower Daniel Stahl provided oohs and aahs, as did Sha’Carri Richardson when she won the 100m gold, just months after telling people she’s not back, she’s better.
This should be the aspiration for football, Gaelic football and camogie as well as rugby and other sports. It was apt to see Billie Jean King invited into the Spanish World Cup celebrations. She might know a thing or two about breaking down barriers.
In one episode of her documentary, Alexia: Labor Omnia Vincit, which is now on Sky Documentaries, the Spanish footballer Alexia Putellas wonders when will she just be a footballer? When will she stop having to ask RFEF for charter flights while they insist on putting the team on buses to travel somewhere that’s over three hours away by bus, rather than one hour by aeroplane? When will she stop having to do interviews highlighting the hurdles that need to be overcome instead of just talking about her career, her accolades and the tactics in games?
As she asked those questions, I thought back to that talk. And while things have changed for the better, it still feels that there is a need to keep highlighting any controversy in women’s sports in order for it to cut through to the mainstream.
Think back on this year’s football and camogie championships. What do you remember it for? Do you remember the brilliant individual performances we saw along the way? Do you remember when Kerry attracted a record breaking 3,000-plus people to Austin Stacks Park in Tralee where they threw Meath out of the championship? Or do you only think of the protests, the lack of facilities and the controversy that took over?
So, to move forward with women’s sports, especially off the back of a successful Women’s World Cup, we need to ask ourselves whether we always need to find a controversy around every corner in women’s sport, or do we start analysing and watching games and accepting them for what they are? By no means should we overlook poor behaviour to female athletes, that’s just as important as it ever was.
But must every story, interview or topic of conversation in women’s sports be dominated by something dramatic? Is it not possible to watch athletics or swimming or gymnastics and acknowledge that these athletes are incredible in their own way, and that alone should be the selling point?
