Those who follow my blog know that I am a great fan of women's decathlon. Officially created in 2004 the decathlon has been left to die by World Athletics. I do not understand the reason for this. The heptathlon is a joke. And still the high instances of athletics insist in maintaining this blatant disparity between men and women just so as not to annoy some renowned coaches and a few heptathlon queens. My taking is that this is a remnant from the time when women were considered the weak sex. Apparently some things never change.
Fortunately there are some combined events athletes who think that it is time for a full men-women parity in athletics and do not hesitate to promote this discipline. Foremost among them is Jordan Grey, US decathlon record holder, who has launched the "Let Women Decathlon campaign", with a petition to sign, here. I urge you, if you really care about athletics, to visit the campaign site and sign the petition. More than 17000 persons have already signed it and J. Grey hopes to reach the 25 k objective.
Will that be enough for the women's decathlon to enter the programme of the official championships? I strongly doubt it. Radical thinking is not something WA is known for. But if the campaign manages to convince one of the major combined events meetings like Götzis or Talence to include a women's decathlon in their program, that would be a great victory (and perhaps it would force World Athletics to reconsider their position).
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