Do men and women deserve equal pay in running?

No way. I say the same thing about local road races. A chick can finish dead last and win her age group. It's not the same competition. Top 3, maybe the same. After that, nope.

The women's races are probably the same everywhere. If you are a female and run everyday, maybe one or two workouts a week you could easily make an extra couple thousand dollars a year at races.

It is not fair, but then offering less prize money on the women's side would not be fair either.

Why don't more women compete after college?

Hey I have an idea...

worry about yourself.

Well in Ameroca I'd say the women deserve more. Our top women are certianly bigger names and more competitive on the world scene...KK excepted of course.

Deen Drossin is a bigger name and a bigger draw than Alan Culpepper or Dan Browne no matter what way you slice it or dice it. the same could be said of Marla Runyan.

Regina Jacobs and SFH are bigger names than any male miler.

i believe alan webb is known more than any other miler in america...

misogynistic messages again from Mr. Equal?

your gaining a reputation as a woman-hater of sorts. did something go wrong?

If a female, say Paula Radcliffe, is the biggest draw in a race or a meet, her appearence fee should be greater than the other competitors brought in to run. But if the womens field as a whole is going to be weak, the money shouldn't be the same. That doesn't mean the top few slots can't be on par then drop off the ratio further down the results. I ran a small race in Texas once money to the top four 100,75,50,25. A friend took fourth and won 25, his wife was third female and won 50...oh, she was also last in the race!

I disagree wintermix.

He had his 15 minutes of fame and promptly disappeared from public view...not to say he won't be back there again....BUT Regina Jacobs is the biggest name in middle distance this country has right now.

Webb might be the biggest name on letsrun.com but we don't amount to too much in the grand scheme of things.

The idea of equal pay in sports is a ridiculous concept. Extrapolate the equal pay idea to basketball and then you could make the argument that some female players in the WNBA should get as much as Kobe Bryant. You should only get paid as much as someone thinks you are worth. Why does Webb get paid so much when other runners are better than him? Somebody out there thinks he is worth it?

Running is not a union organized steel mill factory job. Nobody can just go to a race and expect to get paid no matter what. If for some reason a female is a big draw like Radcliffe, then they will make their big money. Being comparatively better than the opposite sex means nothing when it comes to money.

As a long time tennis player, this is a subject I've heard about quite a bit. Currently the French Open and Wimbledon do not have equal prize money under the basis that men play longer matches(best of 5 instead of 3sets). On this rational, I believe women deserve more money.

Its two different races, are you racing the women or your fellow males? That should answer all your questions.

I am a male runner and all of my PR's are roughly 15% slower than the world records for distances between 1 mile and the marathon. I do OK in local races, depending on competition and usually place anywhere from 3rd to 10th. In these same races a woman who is roughly 15% slower than the female records would typically place in the top 3. It's obvious that there just isn't the same depth there. But I think that giving out equal money is fine. Anything to encourage more women to participate. =)

I think they deserve equal pay. I'm not going to say top women's times are NEVER soft, sometimes they are, sure. But how are you supposed to predict that a runnner is "undeserving" and therefore give less prize money?

You're getting in to dangerous waters doing that. Men and women for the most part deserve equal pay. Cutting women's prize money would be unfair, and wouldn't help to get more women competing at a high level. Having equal pay gives women an incentive to get better and improve, which is a plus.

NOT paying M&W the same if it's based on a largely subjective "depth fairness" gauge (and one that that's not easy to quantify in advance to boot) wopuld open up RD's to be singled out by people like Martha Burk, or, in the litigation-crazed US, sued by runners -- more likely, agents -- claiming they've been discriminated against. The vast majority of RD's don't deserve that kind of grief.

For those that don?t know, 16x is ultra women libber.

?Women, get paid less for not being as good or as big a draw? ?..oh the horrors!!!!? Get over it 16x, women should not be paid as much. The NBA/WNBA example is a perfect one: it will never happen in hoops. Then why should it happen in track?? Tennis is the same (and women get paid less not because of less tennis playing, but less depth, and less of a draw?.period.) So, track and field is incredibly generous to women to offer them the same $, and most here are being open-mined and saying: ok for the top 1-3 women, give them the same prize $, but after that NO WAY. The depth in women?s running sucks. Crappy performance should not be rewarded.

So 16x, are you afraid our idea will cut into your livelihood?.are you planning on making some cash for running a 38:00 minute 10k and placing in the top 5 in some local race? If you do, you should hand to the 20th place guy who beats you by over 5 minutes or so.

At Boston, with one of the weakest men?s fields ever, 8th place was 2:16 for men, 10+ off the WR. For women? 8th place, same $, was 2:37, 22 minutes behind the WR. Give me a break. Those 2 performances, even factoring in gender, are so unequal it is not even funny, but same $. Yep, very fair, very fair. It is usually an even worse relationship than that! (like I said, very weak men?s field this year)

McVeigh, couldn't men technically sue?? They are performing better, but getting paid less? Isn't THAT discrimination?

(and trust me, I am so liberal, I get called "commie" by all my friends. This is not some right-winger women basher)

Women deserve less $.

Maybe they could go with a different pay out scheme. Pay the over all winner the prize money then start paying out performance money after that. Some races do a form of this already by combining prize and performance pay.

16 x can't face the music wrote:

For those that don?t know, 16x is ultra women libber.

?Women, get paid less for not being as good or as big a draw? ?..oh the horrors!!!!? Get over it 16x, women should not be paid as much. The depth in women?s running sucks. Crappy performance should not be rewarded.

So 16x, are you afraid our idea will cut into your livelihood?.are you planning on making some cash for running a 38:00 minute 10k and placing in the top 5 in some local race? If you do, you should hand to the 20th place guy who beats you by over 5 minutes or so.

All this time spent posting and crying, you really should be training so you can scoop up that prize money out there and make a good living on the roads, well, like I do.

I imagine that the Kenyans put in a couple of miles why you were trying to find a kleenex. Get over yourself.

yes, they can sue.

What you mean is "will they win a law suit, and will they be rewarded performance or damages?"