With all due respect, this topic is discussing the issue in all races, of all distances, and I don't think you appreciate quite how disruptive a middle ranking male can be in a close women's finish if he is obsessed with beating women and ends up getting in the way. I even had one push me out of the way in the finishing strait when it became very narrow, before the finishing line, when I was racing another woman a few seconds ahead of me, whom I might have otherwise caught. I've had a few men catch my heels in road races too because they insist on running right behind me.
Its a bit amusing how all these men, who have never had it happen to them because they are men, are trying to tell women what it is like to be a woman and have that happen to a woman, and then dismissing women's expressed opinions because it either doesn't agree with their narrative or some other women came along and said it hasn't bothered them.
Imagine if a man came along and said it really bothered him witnessing it. You would be stuck between following the male opinion and disagreeing with some of the women![/quote]
I'm apologize in advance as this may seem argumentative but in the specific scenario where a male is drafting a female athlete throughout the race and outkicking her, would this be viewed differently if it was a male drafting another male?
That type of strategy happens all the time so I'm curious as to the female perspective of that. I'm a male and I could see how that is viewed as creepy by a female to have this individual following them the whole race. I do think if a male is sandbagging and not running to their potential by following that female, then that is definitely weird. But there are certainly the situations where a female could be a perfect pacer and pull another individual along to a PR, etc.
It is interesting to think about male to male and female to female interactions as humans that are normalized but if it was the same interaction to the opposite sex, it would be viewed inappropriate, weird or some other negative connotation.