Women fight back

March 8 was the International Women's Day. And the IOC proudly announced that there will be a full gender parity in the Paris, 2024, Olympics. There are some naïve/hypocritical statements about the 2.2 % female presence in the 1900 Paris Olympics which has evolved over the years, reaching 50 % 124 years later in the same city. 

But everybody knows that the 2.2 % of Paris 1900 was there because the organisers had taken the organisation out of de Coubertin's hands. And, in the almost 30 years that de Coubertin had the control of the IOC, the percentage of female participation stagnated below 5 %. While Amsterdam 1928 saw a substantial jump, thanks to the efforts of A. Milliat, it was not until after 1972 and the departure of another misogynist, A. Brundage, from the presidency of the IOC that women started being treated as equal to men. 

But, to tell the truth, I am not quite sure that they are really considered equal to men. When it comes to Athletics real parity has yet to be reached. While men participate in what I consider the king of events, the decathlon, women must content themselves with a boring, watered-down version, the heptathlon, light on technical events, which allows athletes who excel in just one event to shine, contrary to the decathlon which requires true versatility. 

I have written time and again on this point. Women have been fighting for the right to compete in the decathlon but World Athletics is turning a deaf ear. Well, women decided to fight back. This started with the organisation of the first women's indoor heptathlon. And now they are taking the offensive to the next level.

On the same day the IOC was gloating over women-men parity, the Women's Decathlon Association announced the creation of the first women's decathlon world championships. It will be held on August 3 and 4, the very same days of the men's Olympic decathlon. (If you think, as I initially did, that the event will be organised in Switzerland, read again; the venue is in Ohio).

Now, it is clear that only World Athletics have the right to organise World Championships. So, it will be interesting to see how they will react. They may ignore the event hoping that the movement will go away (it won't) or they can threaten the organisers with sanctions, or they can grudgingly acknowledge the existence of the movement and make vague promises for the future. Whatever happens, the ball is now in the World Athletics' court.