Equality in sport

I've been thinking lately about swimming vocabulary, thanks to a post by Evan.  It all started out with his discussion of the term to get chicked.  I have a long history with this term, starting at a very young age when my Italian mom would throw shoes at me.  It doesn't matter how fast you can run if your mom can knock you out with her pumps.

Most memorably, at least for me, was in 1985, when I attempted (and finished!) my first and last Olympic distance triathlon.  Of course, it 1985 they weren't called that yet.  They were simply standard distance triathlons; 1.5K swim, 40K bike and 10K run. 

I didn't know much about training for these things.  I would never train right.  In fact, my first 10K at the ripe age of 15 was the result of running a mile a day for a couple of months prior.  Granted, I had a great first mile, 5:25, followed by an 11:00 second mile.  (My father warned me against standing at the front of the pack at the start line.  What the hell did he know?, I thought.  Well, another instance of Father Knows Best.)  My final time was just over one hour.  But still I didn't learn.  I started training for my triathlon as if the run part were just a 10K (I held then, and still believe, that one should train for that triathlon 10K as if it were a stand-alone 20K).

My 1985 triathlon started out alright.  I came out of the water fast and transitioned to the bike quickly.  I had the numbers of the other five guys from my age group (19 and under) on my arm, and at the half-way mark on the bike, I passed a guy and realized his number was on my arm.  In the end, I made up 12 minutes on him on the second half of the bike.

But the run killed me.  And this was where I met Ruth.  The first 5K of the run hurt like nothing I could imagine.  My thighs were on fire, and I had to stop every few 100m to squat down.  That felt great, but then I had to get on my hands and knees and get to vertical like a drunk.  I could then run another couple hundred meters before the cycle restarted.  Ruth caught up with me at the half-way mark.  She was very sweet, and made me look around and reflect on what a beautiful morning it was.  And it was.  She was absolutely right.  I ran with her for about a mile, but then she asked if I was going to do this tri next year, and my thighs started to remind me of the pain.  I begged her pardon, told her I'd see her at the end of the race, and did the squat-thing again.

And there she was, at the finish, somehow in the company of my father and sister (how do grandmas do that?), cheering me in.  She clapped me on the back, told me congrats, and then ran off.  RAN OFF!  A week later I learned that she had won her age group, 60-64.  (I ended up 3/6, and the guy I passed on the bike made up 9 minutes on me to come in 4th.)

Again, this never affected me like it does some guys.  After all, with a mom like mine and two sisters, I knew early that women could do anything they wanted.  And in some instances, better than men.  So today I thought: In what sports can men and women compete head-to-head? 

Iditarod came to mind, as does NASCAR.  Yachting also, I think.  But I couldn't come up with any more.  Until I read Evan's post today.  Once marathon swimming gets beyond a certain distance, the advantage men have over (most) women is lost.  Shelley Taylor-Smith still holds the world record for swimming around Manhattan.  She did all 28.5 miles in 5:45.25.  That record has not altered since she swam in 1995.  Two of the world's fastest and strongest marathon swimmers, who both happen to be men, attempted to beat her record last year, but alas, they were not fast enough. 

So perhaps marathon swimming can be added to the list of sports in which men and women can compete equally!

Comments

[evan]

Actually I think women are pretty competitive in endurance sports generally. If you look at ultra-distance running and cycling (not just swimming), the gender gap is very small if not nil. As Sully pointed out on my original post, Chrissie Wellington beats most men at the Ironman, especially the run & bike portions.

[Gords]

I totally got chicked last year at a 10 mile race. I took second place, but she beat me by almost 30 minutes. Very humbling.

[Katie]

You are too funny! LOL on the 5:25/11:00 split. That which does not kill us (i.e. projectile shoes and speedy grannies) makes us strong.

I'm not a fast swimmer (improving, though!). But, I notice that I pass a lot of big strong guys, even when I'm swimming in slow, recovery mode.

I think there's a "feminine" quality that really helps in swimming. I just relax and slip thru the water without much effort. I hardly ever think about "endurance". When I get tired, I discipline myself to remember my reason for going out there: it feels great to be in the water.

At the end of every swim, I take off my cap and goggles and float on my back for a few minutes without moving. Hopefully, people think it's a drill (the other choice being "Katie is a total spaz"), but really I'm just doing it for the joy of feeling supported by the water.

[IronMike]

Yea, something about the extreme sports, I think it levels the playing field between men and women. I should probably add mountain climbing, and something weird I saw on tv years ago: those free divers. Yikes scary.

Katie, I've said in the past, and I've gotten looks of "misogynist": I think women have more powerful hips and thus kick better. I think, possibly, women get a greater percentage of their forward momentum from their kick than men. I don't know why, but watching otherwise equally fit men and women do kick sets, I see the women effortlessly kick past their male colleagues. Incredible.

Gords, as soon as all these young punks realize there is a reason for age groups and sex divisions, and they're truly only competing against the other guys in their age group, then getting chicked will not be a big deal. But, also, as long as young punks continue to compete in these sports where it is natural to run on a beach in short-shorts, and there is the possibility that a hot-_(fill in the descriptive quality de jure)_ woman will see them running by, well, then, we'll have guys worried about getting chicked. Sigh.