At the pre-race press conference, a reporter asked a question about the possibility of changing the women's race distance to 8k. Julia said that a longer race would benefit her, but that it may ultimately make things less interesting for spectators because "our (female) talent pool is much less condensed than the men's."
I was interested by this comment, especially coming from an elite female runner. Did she mean to say that males are more talented (i.e. capable of running faster) than females, or that it is harder for a male to do well relative to his peers than for a female to do well relative to hers? I understood it to be the latter, and I've never heard this opinion expressed with solid reasoning behind it. In what way is the male talent pool more condensed, and why? It almost seems that logically, the female talent pool would be deeper for distance running, because you don't have football drawing girls away. I don't necessarily disagree with her though.
Opinions on this ? Maybe Julia herself could respond, as she has admitted in various interviews to be a patron of Letsrun ?
- Ed Cheekstone