With the recent and repeated off-field misdemeanours by Australia’s athletes, in a whole variety of sports, I couldn’t help but reflect on the fact the significant majority of these so-called misdemeanours were carried out by males.
I mean really, when was the last time you heard of a female athlete being drunk in public?
I can’t recall too many women athletes who have been accused of damaging private and public property, defecating in public, taking naked selfies and ‘accidentally’ posting them on Facebook.
Also I can’t remember many female athletes drunk in public, unleashing a Twitter tirade, or punching an opponent a-la David Warner.
When I was discussing this topic with a friend of mine, they pointed out (in their opinion) the obvious exception – Stephanie Rice.
But therein lies the double standard that exists within Australia’s media reporting of sport… And if we’re being honest probably very other facet of life.
What was Stephanie Rice’s crime?
Lets recap quickly. She was the golden girl and media darling after she won two gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
This was quickly followed by her numerous media appearances and a relationship with fellow swimmer (which made her fodder for the tabloids).
Injuries played havoc with her swimming and in London 2012, she didn’t achieve near where she wanted and in my view, was pillared and condemned for that.
All because she had a media profile. Paraphrasing the media, she had “too much time on red carpet, not enough laps”.
Sure, she did do some things that probably were a little regrettable and her swimming career may have faltered, but the way she was unfairly bashed by the media was out of line.
Australian 4x100m Freestyle Relay Team in London 2012 – our only swimming gold medallists.
Why wasn’t the focus on them? Instead it was on Nick D’Arcy and the brigade of people who seemingly didn’t have as much as passion as their female counterparts to succeed.
This was brought to light by the revelations of “knock and run” style games during the nights before competition.
Sally Pearson – World Champion and Olympic silver and gold medalist. Pretty simple really.
Anna Meares – Cycling freak. Gold in Athens 2004. Silver in Beijing 2008. Gold in 2012 in London against Victoria Pendleton of Great Britain – her fiercest rival.
Simply amazing – yet she seems (from reports) to live on a shoestring while training.
Oh yeah – and twice World Champion.
Layne Beachley – this woman revolutionised the sport of surfing in her own country and across the world. Seven World Championships. Six of them consecutively.
That’s right – read that again. Six consecutive years.
Stephanie Gilmore – Inspired by her idol Layne Beachley, Gilmore won the world championship at 19.
Libby Tricket – the biggest smile in the history of Australian Swimming.
17 Gold medals in three Olympic Games, four World Championships and one Commonwealth Games.
Nothing more needs to be said. Well actually it does. For her entire career she was a great ambassador for herself, her sport and her country.
Dignified under pressure. Graceful. More to the point – bloody good at her sport. Phenomenal in fact.
Sam Stosur – sure, Sam doesn’t always handle the pressure that well, particularly at the Australian Open. But hey, she isn’t hasn’t ever presented herself to be a petulant brat like one Bernard Tomic.
On top of that, she’s won a Grand Slam. While I’m on that, she won the US Open, beating Serena Williams in the final.
She didn’t just beat her – she annihilated her on her home court.
She arguably should’ve had a second at the French Open a year earlier.
Sam’s finished the year inside the world top ten for half a decade. She is the greatest female Australian player since Evonne Goolagong Cawley.
Ellyse Perry – Get your heads around this. This woman represented Australia in two – that’s right – two sports (cricket and football) at the age of sixteen.
Somehow she manages to this day to balance both sports – not without difficulty mind you.
I dare say, the amount of attention given to those who switch codes from rugby league to AFL to rugby union, or something in the middle of those, surely should be spent on this amazing achievement.
She should be help up as a shining example to the future sporting stars of this country, in fact to all young women of what is possible through hard work.
Finally – netball, arguably the most closely followed sport for Australia’s young females.
The ANZ Championship (for those of uneducated – the domestic tournament with teams from across the ditch) has huge followers on pay television and in live crowds.
Admittedly played in smaller venues in comparison to major football codes, they often still sell out every single week. Participation rates in the sport among young girls is as high, if not higher than any other sport.
A few questions stick out for me here. Firstly, why aren’t netball players household names?
If I’m being totally honest, I know one by name. No, wait…it’s two. Sharelle McMahon and Mo’onia Gerrard.
Why is this the case? We’ve won numerous world titles in my thirty years on this earth – its always us or the Kiwis.
By the way….we’ve had far better success there than we do in other Trans-Tasman rivalries in recent years.
What will it take for the media of Australia -and the world more generally – to give adequate coverage to the fantastic achievements of our female athletes? Is there another alternative?
Should there be a females only sporting website/newspaper/news service of some description, because it seems highly unlikely that the current lot will stop printing endless pages of NRL/AFL.
The women of Australian sport deserve better.
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