Why do women still compete in the heptathlon.

I have been wondering the same thing for about 35 years.

Because women can't handle that many events in that period of time. It would be embarrassing.

Obv because their uteruses would fall out if they exercised any further.

I have also thought about this and why women's tennis is best out of 3 sets, but men's tennis is best out of 5 sets. Furthermore, why is their a ladies' tee in golf? Why aren't women required to register with Selective Service?

CrispyChicken wrote:

I have also thought about this and why women's tennis is best out of 3 sets, but men's tennis is best out of 5 sets. Furthermore, why is their a ladies' tee in golf? Why aren't women required to register with Selective Service?

Mostly true but men don't always play five sets in tennis.

CrispyChicken wrote:

I have also thought about this and why women's tennis is best out of 3 sets, but men's tennis is best out of 5 sets. Furthermore, why is their a ladies' tee in golf? Why aren't women required to register with Selective Service?

Same in cycling. Women can run the same distances as me, but in cycle road racing, they can't.

Scheduling would be an issue. But honestly the extra events would serve to embarrass women even more. The pole vault would change the landscape of the event to a monsterous degree. The field size would probably drop by 3/4

troofiness wrote:

Scheduling would be an issue. But honestly the extra events would serve to embarrass women even more. The pole vault would change the landscape of the event to a monsterous degree. The field size would probably drop by 3/4

Times, they are a changing. More and more girls are vaulting in high school thus enlarging the pool of potential female decathletes. A Wheaties box awaits.

troofiness wrote:

Scheduling would be an issue. But honestly the extra events would serve to embarrass women even more. The pole vault would change the landscape of the event to a monsterous degree. The field size would probably drop by 3/4

It's obvious how much of a knowledgeable fan of the sport you are.

paris2024hawk wrote:

Men have competed in the decathlon since 1884, at first women had no multi event, then in 1949 the pentathlon was introduced the in the 1980s the heptathlon was introduced. Im just wondering why both men an women don't compete in 10 events.The difference in number of events is a clear case of sexism and everybody is hard into social justice today.Its interesting that they haven't changed this already.

The biggest examples of sexism are the hurdle height differences. We should IMMEDIATELY raise the women's high hurdles from 33 inches to 42 inches to match the men. It should be 110 meters as well. Women's intermediate hurdles should be raised from 30 inches to 36 inches. Additionally, women should use the same throwing implements as the men. That would include doubling the weight of the shot.

Come now good sir. They want "equal" not equal.

The first and most obvious reason is there was no women's pole vault until 1992.

The triple jump and steeplechase are fairly new events for women.

The added events would be pole vault, discus and 100m.

200m would move to 400m and 800m would move to 1500m.

They should do it.

Freeze JJK as the forever heptathlon record holder.

troofiness wrote:The pole vault would change the landscape of the event to a monsterous degree. The field size would probably drop by 3/4

This is basically the reason (not that it would "embarrass women even more" -- seriously, gtfo). If we switched to women's decathlon, then we're requiring a different blend of not only skills, which can be learned, but physical attributes, which cannot. Many great heptathletes would not be competitive. If we were designing the sport from scratch in 2021, we'd absolutely have women's decathlon. But nobody wants to put a bunch of elite athletes out of business.

One could also ask why the men don't do heptathlon. There are unquestionably men who would be absolutely phenomenal at it, but who aren't competitive as decathletes. Either way, the parameters of an event (even a multi-event) are somewhat arbitrary. Neither is inherently better than the other.

If we are going to do women's decathlon, the way to do it would be with a very long transition. Start doing it in college and in occasional pro meets. Set a date several Olympiads away for the final switch over. That gives younger athletes time to plan their development and also ensures that established pros don't have the rug pulled out from under them.

not following closely wrote:

The biggest examples of sexism are the hurdle height differences. We should IMMEDIATELY raise the women's high hurdles from 33 inches to 42 inches to match the men. It should be 110 meters as well. Women's intermediate hurdles should be raised from 30 inches to 36 inches. Additionally, women should use the same throwing implements as the men. That would include doubling the weight of the shot.

Raising the hurdles to a proportionately higher height is certainly defensible, especially for the high hurdles. The 100/110 difference is related to maintaining a three step pattern for both sexes, but men's technique is significantly more difficult because they have to move their center of mass up over each hurdle, whereas most female hurdlers are able to maintain a relatively stable COM position.

There is a women's decathlon.

And a push to add it to the Olympics.

https://trackandfieldnews.com/article/american-record-in-the-womens-decathlon/

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1104047/womens-decathlon-at-paris-2024

Same reason women only run 6k in xc? From what I can tell enough coaches and athletes preferred this distance. Probably the same with the decathlon. Adding pole vault certainly would increase the barrier for entry to athletes as well.

If they tried the decathlon their uterus would fall out and they would no longer be able to have babies.

800 dude wrote:

not following closely wrote:

The biggest examples of sexism are the hurdle height differences. We should IMMEDIATELY raise the women's high hurdles from 33 inches to 42 inches to match the men. It should be 110 meters as well. Women's intermediate hurdles should be raised from 30 inches to 36 inches. Additionally, women should use the same throwing implements as the men. That would include doubling the weight of the shot.

Raising the hurdles to a proportionately higher height is certainly defensible, especially for the high hurdles. The 100/110 difference is related to maintaining a three step pattern for both sexes, but men's technique is significantly more difficult because they have to move their center of mass up over each hurdle, whereas most female hurdlers are able to maintain a relatively stable COM position.

Why a proportionately higher height and not equal? Are you saying there are biological differences between men and women?

No. They are equal in every way. It is due to systemic sexism.