to think that Olympic sports events should be 'open' if they aren't offered to both men and women

[woollyheart]

While Olympic sports are much fairer on being available to both men and women than in the past, sometimes new sports are initially offered to men only. Or men might have a wider number of events in a sport available to them.

Am I being stupid, but wouldn't it make more sense to offer an event on an 'open' basis (i.e. anyone could compete) rather than offer an event to only half the population?

Havent you read the 6 billion threads on here? Women wouldnt stand a chance competing against men

It’s not that it’s initially offered to men. When a sport is in the olympics a certain number of athletes have to be at qualifying standard to be able to compete.
Like we saw in Sochi when the ski half pipe was a new event, more men are at a qualifying standard, especially in the Winter Olympics because male athletes seem to train for a number of disciplines (which can help their performance in the one they want to compete in) whereas women seem to specialise their training.
So the reason some sports are only played with male competitors at Olympic level is not for lack of trying, but female Olympians are less all round athletes and are likely to not have bought qualifying to put on the event

There was a very interesting conversation this morning about what everyone is referring to as the 4-man bobsleigh which is actually a 4 person bob because it IS an open event. There just isn't enough competing teams in the world to form an all woman competition so it remains an open event, however, mixed teams are not as competitive at top level so teams are all men. There is no real incentive to enter all women teams as they will invariably end up bottom of the field which is demoralising and not be able to attract sponsors and funding which is vital. The UK 2-women's bobsleigh team is presently crowd funded as it is - as the country funding was directed toward the 3 men's teams.

The equestrian events are open :)

This time last year, I would have agreed with you. But having seen what is going on with girl's and women's sport (and having had my eyes opened by MN) I think we have to be pushing for a strict separation of males and females in sport, other than in those areas where it is the norm for them to play with or compete against each other (eg equestrian).

That doesn't mean to say that I don't think we have to abandon our push for equality, just that we have another fight on our hands.

sports where weight and strength don't matter can be open - equestrian, sailing, (there are different boats for different sizes) perhaps curling (why isn't it?) I can't think of any others but there must be some.

but running, throwing, jumping and sliding (needs weight) have to be segregated or they won't work.

Men and women are different biologically.

So no I think there would be no point doing this. As it would just mean that there would be no women in the sports at all.

I can't see any harm in offering a new sport as 'open' instead of offering it as men only.

The equivalent isn't true for a sport that is currently only offered for women - though I don't know if that has happened.

perhaps curling (why isn't it?)

There is mixed pairs

I didn't think there were any events these days which were not equal? Well at least in athletics. The 50k race walk was the last event to be opened up to women.

Cross-country excepted where distances are often shorter for women.

I wasn’t suggesting that sports should be offered as open instead of men and women’s in the long term. Of course, women should have events available that they have some chance of winning. But when first introduced, it would be better for talented women to have a chance to compete in an open rather than no chance at all. Especially if there are very few qualifying women at that point.