Sky website, article about Athletics

[Juells]

news.sky.com/story/sky-views-athletics-is-rarely-mentioned-and-it-only-has-itself-to-blame-11817526

A different situation, but with interesting implications for women's sport.

When nobody believes a result is fair, public interest in sports dies. Will women's sports eventually be a little heap of ashes dominated by trans and intersex athletes? Held at midnight in a desert in Namibia?

Thanks, interesting but slightly odd article. It felt like Kelner knows a lot more than she is able to say.
She didn't really prove her point that perceptions of unfairness is the reason for declining interest, perhaps because she was hampered by not being able to print what people are saying?

I do think that if women’s sports are regularly won by athletes who are clearly male then the public, who already think this is totally unfair, will switch off. Even better they might start booing or slow hand clapping which would force change.

I've seen complaints about meanies booing trans athletes at competitions in the US, but it seems to make supporters of trans athletes double down, because 'people are being so discriminatory'.

Of course people boo cheats, what do they expect? Justin Gatlin gets booed pretty much every time he appears and his cheating is trivial compared to trans cheating.

It's a bit of an odd article that doesn't really go into much depth about the situation. Lots of hints and little substance.

As an athletics fan of many decades there are several issues I can see. Records still standing that we know were achieved via illegal doping in the 80s. The farce of dividing by country then having countries effectively 'buy' athletes to compete for them. The replacement of the Golden League events with the Diamond League hasn't really worked. The lack of personalities, which is a wider problem in an age when famous people are berated for straying even marginally off script. And of course the elephant in the room of allowing males to compete in women's events which is deeply unpopular with the public no matter how much woke idiots bleat on about big old meanies.

As an athletics fan of many decades there are several issues I can see. Records still standing that we know were achieved via illegal doping in the 80s. The farce of dividing by country then having countries effectively 'buy' athletes to compete for them. The replacement of the Golden League events with the Diamond League hasn't really worked. The lack of personalities, which is a wider problem in an age when famous people are berated for straying even marginally off script. And of course the elephant in the room of allowing males to compete in women's events which is deeply unpopular with the public no matter how much woke idiots bleat on about big old meanies.

That's a good summing up.

Athletics is, and has always been, its own worst enemy.

(Another longstanding - and dispirited! - fan here.)