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Men and women marathon winners to be paid the same
The organisers of the Brussels marathon will pay male and female race winners the same prize money, after criticism that the fastest man earned three times more than the fastest woman.
A photo widely shared on social media showed the men's and women's podiums after Sunday's 42km race, with the male winner Stephen Kiplagat holding a cheque for €1,000 and the female winner Christelle Lemaire just €300.
"They ran the same distance," said Brussels secretary of state for equal opportunities Bianca Debaets, who said there was a wider issue of pay discrepancies in sport. "It's not unusual for male footballers to earn more in one afternoon than their female counterparts in a whole year."
CdH member of parliament Catherine Fonck said the decision to pay different amounts was "surreal".
The marathon organiser said in a statement that the difference was because the men's race attracted international athletes, while the prize money for the women's race was on a par with similar amateur sporting events in Belgium.
"However we understand people's anger," the organiser said. "The prize money will be the same for both categories from this edition onwards."
Comments
I'm always perplexed, when I agree with someone in principle, but I have to point out that the arguments that person is using are ridiculous. I'm refering to:
["They ran the same distance," said Brussels secretary of state for equal opportunities Bianca Debaets, ]
2000 runners have run the same distance, but that's completely besides the point. They've run it at different pace. The lady winner had to outperform far less competitors than the man winner. Yet still I believe the prizes should be equal for that very reason - to attract more ladies to sport. Today it's far easier to win a race when you're a woman - that's a fact, but that's not the winner's fault.
Men get more prize money than women in 30% of sports
A total of 56 global sports were looked at in the extensive study. Out of 35 sports that pay prize money, 25 pay equally and 10 do not. Fourteen sports, including rugby union and hockey, do not pay any prize money at all. Five sports did not provide information for the investigation and men and women compete alongside each other in horse racing and equestrian.
For winning this year's World Cup in Brazil, Germany received more than £21m more than Japan's women did after they were crowned world champions in 2011...
Marc how do you know were only having to put compete less people? We're the numbers of male and female entrants also advertised it isn't clear from this article.
Woman have a physical disadvantage over men on the amount of muscle and strength on average it's biological.
Does this mean the fittest woman can't put perform many men? No it doesn't. Does it mean woman and men should always do separate sports? No. I think this is long over due women athletes of all disciplines often have to put either having children on hold or their training on hold to have a baby in their prime years in a way men simple don't.
I applaud anything that encourages women to compete and allows them to make a living doing this.
The official results on the event's website provide the split by gender. Male - 1273 entries vs. Female 212 entries. That's quite clear disproportion, beyond a statistical error, right? Interestingly the shorter distances have more balanced gender participation. In 5K there were more woman than man. What so special about it? Well, apparently woman have advantage over man when it comes to endurance. In ultra running there is still fewer woman than man, but the elite woman ultra-runners compete with man like in no other sports.