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25 juillet 2023 - 17:33
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Why the Olympic monobob event is only for women
What the monobob does and doesn't do for gender equality
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Bobsledding (or bobsleighing) is one of the oldest Olympic sports, dating back to the very first Winter Games in 1924. Back then, women were barred from competing in nearly every event except figure skating. Of the 250 athletes that arrived for the first Winter Olympics, only 11 were women.
Times have changed, of course. The Winter Olympics in Beijing is considered the most sex-balanced to date, with female athletes making up 45 percent of the roster. But sexist regulations and outdated “science” still creep in. Who could forget the 2021 Summer Olympics, the questionable testosterone tests that barred female sprinters from competing in an event? As recently as 2008, the Winter Olympics was riddled with controversy over gender inclusion issues; female aerial skiers sued the Vancouver Organizing Committee over alleged discrimination. In 2005, the president of the International Ski Federation stated that ski jumping "seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view."
Uteruses, am I right?
As for bobsledding, it wasn’t until 2002 that female athletes were invited to participate in the games, but only in a single event — the two-women bob. Since 1932, men have had two events (the two-men and four-men bob). In 2022, a new all-women bobsledding event was introduced: the monobob, a single-person sled, but is it actually leveling the playing field? Maybe, but not entirely in the way you might think.
To read more about the rules and regulations and history of bobsledding check out these links from the IBSF: https://www.ibsf.org/images/federation/Rules_and_Regulations/2021_International_Rules_BOBSLEIGH.pdf
https://www.ibsf.org/en/our-sports/bobsleigh-history
I also loved this graphic that shows how different all the tracks are: https://www.ibsf.org/en/tracks
The Lake Placid Museum is a great place to read about more specific history: https://www.lakeplacidnews.com/news/local-news/2013/12/09/lake-placid-artifacts-celebrate-sliding-sports-heroes/
**A previous version of this description mentioned the Norwegian handball team being fined at the 2021 Olympics for refusing to wear Bikini's - this was actually at the Euro 2021 tournament**
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