Mixed gender race at sports day

[littlegreydevil]

Hi, long time lurker but first post and I’m aware I am stepping in with a particularly hot topic but here goes…
Our primary school organised its annual sports day this week and for unknown reasons, decided to mix boys and girls for the sprints. Teams are usually mixed genders for the less competitive activities like the sack race, egg and spoon race, etc. but this is the first time they’ve mixed genders for the competitive races. Of course this has resulted in only 2 girls making the podium across all the year groups and both “only” hitting third place.
I’m really bothered by this as I thought sports day was about celebrating sporting achievements and encouraging kids to enjoy sports (I know this can be disputed but that’s a whole other debate) and today, I have watched a ream of very sporty, very talented female runners lose to their male counterparts and I can’t see how that fits in the ethos of sports day.
I am planning to speak to the head to question their motives in making this odd decision.
imo sport is gendered for a reason and it should be about equity rather than equality. You might be able to argue that younger age groups could be mixed as supposedly their physical ability is the same up to age 7 or 8 (need to find the references for this) but from year 2 onwards, it doesn’t work anymore. Girls start going through puberty from as young as 9 so by that point, it should be gendered.
For full transparency, I have 2 children, a boy and a girl, neither of which is talented in athletics (they are very good in other sports) and usually come in at a solid bottom 3rd place so this is not about my kids being slighted.
If you were me, what questions would you ask from the head and, seeing as they have a track record of being quite obstinate, what arguments would you produce?

Races were always mixed when I was in primary in the 80s and 90s. They are in my son's primsry too. There's no real difference in boys and girls at these ages. It seems odd that you would split by sex at primary... Maybe at year 6 at a push when more kids start hitting puberty?

It's interesting that at the OP's sports day 100% of the gold and silver medals and most of the bronzes were won by boys, and the huge scientific study posted shows male sporting advantage in young children, but people are still plugging along with the idea that "it's all the same pre-puberty".

And I'm a bit sceptical of everyone saying mixed races were common when they were young. The only races that were mixed sex at my primary school were the cross country runs, where we all set off together for reasons of practicality, but the results were very much split by sex.

To the people claiming there's no physical difference: do you also believe there's no academic difference at such a young age?

there seems to be.

In my kids classes, the top of the class are boys, medium mainly girls and the bottom of the class are boys.

I am sure it will change in secondary!

And I'm a bit sceptical of everyone saying mixed races were common when they were young.

they are common RIGHT NOW around me. None of the local schools has boys/girls teams.

@wholivesondrurylane that's what I mean - there absolutely are physical, emotional and mental differences between boys and girls

then sports day are ridiculously too competitive if there's an impact.

It should be planned in a way to allow for mixed team and mixed races like the ones we have, and it's a non issue.

So, we have schools running mixed sexed events while the government is also recognising that girls are particularly hard to encourage into sport.

The evidence is showing that there are physical advantages that boys have vs girls from 6 years old. And no one in the schools are making a connection that maybe, just maybe, running athletics as 'mixed' is having a detriment on girls choosing sport. Because, it is just for 'fun' and there are no complaints and it 'was always this way'.

What does it matter if there is a selection of activities that are competitive and reward the outstanding athletes plus a selection of activities for 'fun'?

Why are you so against competitive athletics?

what is funny is looking at late primary school kids, where the girls tend to develop first, so the tallest (and often fastest) are the girls 😂

You are right, we should stop the boys from being unfairly put at a disadvantage and let them stay with other boys. At least they know their place when puberty starts and some become young men in the blink of an eye.

And they wonder why girls pack in sports earlier than boys.

Sack race, egg and spoon etc yes that's fine it's fair game and I'm all for equality but in the sprints that's ridiculous.

It's a school sports day.

Why are you against kids having fun? The favourite event in our school is tug-of-war, kids absolutely love it, and yes, it's also mixed. What's wrong with that?

They race, they jump, they do all sorts of things and no one is sulking on the side, they get very competitive for their house to win.

If you really need a competitive event, campaign for your school to have a mums race 😂 and let the kid enjoy the day.

true. In primary, the girls win all the sprints, they are tallest and much faster.

So, it is only a social sport's day. With no races?

And what part of 'plus a selection activities for 'fun'' led you to believe that I am 'against kids having fun'?

That seems to be quite a leap and quite a ridiculous one.

We always had mixed gender races at primary, always won by girls who are taller at that age. I think you're talking shite.

@wholivesondrurylane

Well sometimes yes. My stepdaughter is huge she won her sprint if she had raced mixed she probably still would have won or maybe 2nd but who knows if the 2nd and 3rd place girls would have beaten the boys as some of them looked 2 years older than their age.

Obviously different children in different schools will have girls bigger than boys or visa versa but either way neither the boys or girls should be disadvantaged. There's enough inequality in life so when there's something that can be controlled like girls races and boys races why schools wouldn't jump at that chance is beyond me

We had segregated races 30 years ago in primary school. I was always in the top 2 girls and always finished in the top 10 in the cross country (mixed race), so I was pretty fit. I would never ever have beaten the boys who were in the top 3 for sprinting. They were faster than me, at least over smaller distances. There are some girls who might have triumphed at that age, but they would be really exceptional girl athletes beating good boy athletes, for the reasons stated in the studies posted. Generally speaking, the boys will win - of course, there may be some early puberty growth from girls or birth distributions so that the girls are typically older, but generally statistically across all schools the boys will be more likely to win. Whether you think this matters or not will depend, but I would think by 8 that it actually does matter. Why would it be a bad thing for an 8 year old girl to understand that in a competitive sporting sense as she grows her competitors will be other girls? I mean, that will be the pattern for the rest of her life, whether or not it is true in sports day at 8. Whereas, it might be a bad thing for an 8 year old girl to understand that boys are better at lots of sports than her and she can't compete and no one will reward her for her performance even if objectively it is a really good one (ie she is actually relatively fitter than them but has been beaten by a not very sporty boy despite her best efforts).

yes.. mixed races. Boys and girls.

But maybe less competitive parents than in some other schools?

It was mixed when I was at primary and the winner was always the same girl by quite a bit. The boys used to moan about it. I came third one year, so it one boy arriving second. I was so proud of myself as I wasn't a regular runner.

You can make all the snide remarks you wish, whatever. I have never said a thing that would indicate to you that I am a 'competitive parent', that is your own jumping to conclusions there mate. Good on you! I am pointing out that there is now evidence that shows that there is a physical advantage between girls and boys from aged 6.

Crack on, it must make you feel good.

I don't disagree with the physical advantage, it's the girls who win all the races. And who are best at tackling - we have mixed rugby team too, you must love that one 😂.

It doesn't last, boys do catch up, but it's ok to stop the mixed team by the time they start secondary.

I have watched mixed rugby with kids and I noticed that many of the boys are reluctant to tackle the girls. In fact, I have talked to the boys playing and they confirmed this to me.

But, by all means, continue with your snide assumptions. They show far more about you than they do me.

Any non-physical differences are due to social factors, imposed by gender biases, so the answer is to keep challenging those, rather than reinforce them as if they were essential differences. I feel segregating sports pre puberty would be essentialist and send a negative message, as it would suggest there are innate differences other than reproductive. That would reinforce sexism and oppression.

My kids are 31, 23 and 16 - they all ran in mixed gender races in primary school. My two daughters regularly won the sprints as they were some of the strongest runners in their years. My son never won a thing. This isn’t new