UCI Gender Equality Plan

TheStone
TheStone Posts: 2,291
edited December 2009 in Pro race
So as expected there's 5 events for both male and female at London 2012.

IP, points and madison are gone.

Both will now have individual sprint, team sprint, keirin, team pursuit and the omnium.
I like the idea of the omnium, should be great to watch.

I find it a bit strange. I'm all for equality, but what percentage of cyclists are women?
5-10%? Seems a bit much to give a smaller number of cyclist as many medals to go for?

Maybe the extra medals will increase the number of women cyclists?
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Comments

  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    The olympics arn't about representing society's attitude to different sports.

    How many women cycle or watch cycling is beside the point when it comes to the olympics.
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.
  • LittleB0b
    LittleB0b Posts: 416
    TheStone wrote:
    , but what percentage of cyclists are women?
    5-10%? Seems a bit much to give a smaller number of cyclist as many medals to go for?

    err no.

    try looking around you.

    I can't think of any of my female friends and colleagues who don't own a bike.
    blog: bellevedere
  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    LittleB0b wrote:
    TheStone wrote:
    , but what percentage of cyclists are women?
    5-10%? Seems a bit much to give a smaller number of cyclist as many medals to go for?

    err no.

    try looking around you.

    I can't think of any of my female friends and colleagues who don't own a bike.

    Your friends aren't representative of the population at large though :wink:
  • TheStone
    TheStone Posts: 2,291
    teagar wrote:
    The olympics arn't about representing society's attitude to different sports.

    How many women cycle or watch cycling is beside the point when it comes to the olympics.

    Thinking about it, it's only really the olympics that will have equality and their distribution
    of sports and medals is very odd anyway.
    LittleBOb wrote:
    err no.

    try looking around you.

    I can't think of any of my female friends and colleagues who don't own a bike.

    You serious? I have a very different experience.
    exercise.png
  • eh
    eh Posts: 4,854
    Big load of sh*t IMO, so we have lost some of the best events with really strong fields to a situation with a rubbish event (WTF is the omnium!) and a load of weak fields just because the IOC/UCI want to be PC.
  • William H
    William H Posts: 61
    The Belgians suggested keeping the points and pursuit, while scrapping the team sprint and not bringing in the omnium. Would have been much better IMO
  • LittleB0b
    LittleB0b Posts: 416
    Garry H wrote:

    Your friends aren't representative of the population at large though :wink:

    OK my friends are generally quite active - but at the same time the streets of Edinburgh aren't short on females on bikes

    5% - i can't believe your all taking that figure seriously
    blog: bellevedere
  • eh
    eh Posts: 4,854
    Well it seems I agree with the Belgiums, that sounds like a much better idea.

    Plent of girls may cycle, but we aren't talking about cycling we are talking about track racing which isn't the same. :roll:
  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    LittleB0b wrote:
    Garry H wrote:

    Your friends aren't representative of the population at large though :wink:

    OK my friends are generally quite active - but at the same time the streets of Edinburgh aren't short on females on bikes

    5% - i can't believe your all taking that figure seriously

    I was pulling your leg ( I know who your friends are!!).

    I think the 5% figure is a load of tosh. I guess it all depends on whether you believe Olympic events should only reflect "real life". I don't think so. Track cycling being very much a minority sport, which ever gender you are, would have been out years ago.

    It's all politics and chest puffing anyway. There was never a real reason to drop any events at all. They could have just added the female events.
  • TheStone
    TheStone Posts: 2,291
    5-10% was a guess.

    Maybe more? Could even be less. I'll try and do a count on the commute home.
    Sportives are easy to check.
    Garry H wrote:
    Track cycling being very much a minority sport, which ever gender you are, would have been out years ago.

    That's a very good point.
    exercise.png
  • LittleB0b
    LittleB0b Posts: 416
    Garry H wrote:

    I was pulling your leg ( I know who your friends are!!).

    It's all politics and chest puffing anyway. There was never a real reason to drop any events at all. They could have just added the female events.

    I know (still not climbing?)

    And that last point is the right one. (:
    blog: bellevedere
  • Eau Rouge
    Eau Rouge Posts: 1,118
    TheStone wrote:
    5-10% was a guess.

    Maybe more? Could even be less. I'll try and do a count on the commute home.
    Sportives are easy to check.

    How many track cyclists will you see on a Sportive. They don't *do* endurance now do they :D
  • Eddy S
    Eddy S Posts: 1,013
    Eau Rouge wrote:
    How many track cyclists will you see on a Sportive. They don't *do* endurance now do they :D
    Nah, we don't do them because sportives aren't a competition... :wink:

    Back on subject - it's a terrible decission but hardly a surprise after what happened to the Kilo/500TT.
    I’m a sprinter – I warmed up yesterday.
  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    LittleB0b wrote:
    I know (still not climbing?)

    Nah, fell last winter. Shoulder still mangled, but may venture onto a wall soon.
  • graeme_s-2
    graeme_s-2 Posts: 3,382
    I'm happy to see an equal number of men's and women's events, but ditching events to make way for them seems ridiculous. Surely the biggest cost of having track cycling at the Olympics is the velodrome, once you've built that I can't imagine that having 10, 12 or 14 events makes that much difference to the overall costs, especially when athletes double up and do more than one event.

    I'm pretty sure they never discussed ditching the 1500m when women were first allowed to compete in athletics.
  • koppenberg
    koppenberg Posts: 32
    TheStone wrote:
    5-10% was a guess.

    Maybe more? Could even be less. I'll try and do a count on the commute home.
    Sportives are easy to check.
    Garry H wrote:
    Track cycling being very much a minority sport, which ever gender you are, would have been out years ago.

    That's a very good point.

    Track cycing a minority sport-says who ? :shock: Yes maybe in the big picture of all sports but within cycling just think how many have/are starting out on the track? :shock:

    Sportives-whatever next they shall be in the Olympics,with Gold Silver Bronze to everybody in there time group :twisted: :evil:
  • TommyEss
    TommyEss Posts: 1,855
    Garry H wrote:

    It's all politics and chest puffing anyway. There was never a real reason to drop any events at all. They could have just added the female events.

    I thought that there were only a handful of sports that were allowed an "unlimited" number of events - athletics (track and field), swimming and gymnastics - the rest are all limited I believe.

    I don't think cycling was allowed to add any more events (they take cycling as a whole - BMX, XC MTB and the road racing - think it's only 15 events in total - will see if I can find where I read that)

    The track as a part of that is quite large to be honest.
    Cannondale Synapse 105, Giant Defy 3, Giant Omnium, Giant Trance X2, EMC R1.0, Ridgeback Platinum, On One Il Pompino...
  • LittleB0b
    LittleB0b Posts: 416
    Garry H wrote:

    Nah, fell last winter. Shoulder still mangled, but may venture onto a wall soon.

    eek - but when you do, you'll be welcome to join us anytime
    blog: bellevedere
  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    koppenberg wrote:
    TheStone wrote:
    5-10% was a guess.

    Maybe more? Could even be less. I'll try and do a count on the commute home.
    Sportives are easy to check.
    Garry H wrote:
    Track cycling being very much a minority sport, which ever gender you are, would have been out years ago.

    That's a very good point.

    Track cycing a minority sport-says who ? :shock: Yes maybe in the big picture of all sports but within cycling just think how many have/are starting out on the track? :shock:

    Sportives-whatever next they shall be in the Olympics,with Gold Silver Bronze to everybody in there time group :twisted: :evil:

    Even within cycling, I would say that track competitors are a minority, compared to competitive road cycling on a global basis. Although you may be correct on the UK level. However, my point was that it doesn't matter that a sport/event doesn't reflect the broader picture. It's no grounds in itself to disclude it.
  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    TommyEss wrote:
    Garry H wrote:

    It's all politics and chest puffing anyway. There was never a real reason to drop any events at all. They could have just added the female events.

    I thought that there were only a handful of sports that were allowed an "unlimited" number of events - athletics (track and field), swimming and gymnastics - the rest are all limited I believe.

    I don't think cycling was allowed to add any more events (they take cycling as a whole - BMX, XC MTB and the road racing - think it's only 15 events in total - will see if I can find where I read that)

    The track as a part of that is quite large to be honest.

    Fair points, but are there any reasons why they cannot change the rules? As somebody else has already said, the biggest cost is the velodrome...
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    The IOC won't give any more events to any sport. I think that's because they want medal table totals top be comparable across different Olympics. Makes sense to me - the line's got to be drawn somewhere or else every sport would have 100 events.

    This means that new events result in existing ones biting the dust. Loss of IP seems crazy to me - they want people to train for 4 years with NO chance of individual glory? Other than team sports, where else does that happen?

    Be interesting to see what BC do about the Omnium though - an event that hasn't really had much focus and is likely to be wide open in 2012.
  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    edited December 2009
    LittleB0b wrote:
    Garry H wrote:

    Nah, fell last winter. Shoulder still mangled, but may venture onto a wall soon.

    eek - but when you do, you'll be welcome to join us anytime

    Not that dramatic I'm afraid (gladly). Fell on the walk-in to Cairn Etchachan from the ski centre car park. The irony of it all :(
  • squired
    squired Posts: 1,153
    The only reason I can see for including the omnium is that due to the number of races it includes they can fill out sessions in the velodrome with it. How many hours of track time would be taken up with something like the pursuit? How many for the omnium? Quite sad really, although maybe it will turn into a good event now there is an Olympic gold on offer.
  • tarquin_foxglove
    tarquin_foxglove Posts: 554
    Graeme_S wrote:
    I'm happy to see an equal number of men's and women's events, but ditching events to make way for them seems ridiculous. Surely the biggest cost of having track cycling at the Olympics is the velodrome, once you've built that I can't imagine that having 10, 12 or 14 events makes that much difference to the overall costs, especially when athletes double up and do more than one event.

    I'm pretty sure they never discussed ditching the 1500m when women were first allowed to compete in athletics.

    +1

    How many medals can women boxers get at the olympics?
  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    Looks like they're "robbing Peter to pay Paul", or more specifically, robbing Rebecca to pay Victoria! Sure Rebecca will be able to try her luck at something else though. Still, hardly significant step for women's rights in the sporting arena though is it.

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