Is it insulting to women when the women's event is shorter or less than the men's?

What is the deal with the gender inequity in distances in Olympic cycling? The time trials are coming up. The men race 33 miles. The women race 18. Do they really think Olympic caliber women cyclists will have a dramatic performance dropoff after 18 miles?

I find this surprising since basically in t&f, men and women race the same distances now.

Pretty big push to allow women to swim the 1500 instead of the 800 in swimming. Equally big push to include the 800 and 1500 for both men and women. That said the 800 is not the shortest race for the women anymore. Both men and women swim the 10k in open water.

All very good points.

I'd like to see equality in all events. The men's events could be scaled back a bit to more reasonable distance for both men and women. For example the Olympic road race in cycling was well over 200 kms. Scale it back to 150 to 160 km max.

Equality is the best way to go.

Very good points wrote:

All very good points.

I'd like to see equality in all events. The men's events could be scaled back a bit to more reasonable distance for both men and women. For example the Olympic road race in cycling was well over 200 kms. Scale it back to 150 to 160 km max.

Equality is the best way to go.

Equality would mean they are racing against each other. Men and women aren't equal athletically, get over it.

Red Pill Giver wrote:

Very good points wrote:

All very good points.

I'd like to see equality in all events. The men's events could be scaled back a bit to more reasonable distance for both men and women. For example the Olympic road race in cycling was well over 200 kms. Scale it back to 150 to 160 km max.

Equality is the best way to go.

Equality would mean they are racing against each other. Men and women aren't equal athletically, get over it.

By the way, would you also like to see women throw objects the same weight (discus/jav/shot are all lighter) and hurdles raised to the same height? Doubt it.

Very good points wrote:

All very good points.

I'd like to see equality in all events. The men's events could be scaled back a bit to more reasonable distance for both men and women. For example the Olympic road race in cycling was well over 200 kms. Scale it back to 150 to 160 km max.

Equality is the best way to go.

Good point about scaling back the men's distance for the road race in cycling. Sure le tour often has some long stages, and used to have even longer ones, but that was to get the riders around the country with no transports between cities (which they often do today to spread it around more). But is it really necessary for the cyclists to cover 150 miles. Would the results be much different if the event had the same amount of climbing but only covered 100-120 miles?

olympics watcher wrote:

What is the deal with the gender inequity in distances in Olympic cycling? The time trials are coming up. The men race 33 miles. The women race 18. Do they really think Olympic caliber women cyclists will have a dramatic performance dropoff after 18 miles?

I find this surprising since basically in t&f, men and women race the same distances now.

The only legitimate reason I can see for this is if the women normally only race 18 mile time trials then it doesn't make sense to change things for the olympics. Some reasons they might do that during the normal course of the year might be for costs, time, and fitness differences, but I'm speculating.

women *should* race the same distance but unless they believe in themselves they will fall short of the challenge

stop piling on the excuses and start raising the bar

fdasafgsd wrote:

olympics watcher wrote:

What is the deal with the gender inequity in distances in Olympic cycling? The time trials are coming up. The men race 33 miles. The women race 18. Do they really think Olympic caliber women cyclists will have a dramatic performance dropoff after 18 miles?

I find this surprising since basically in t&f, men and women race the same distances now.

The only legitimate reason I can see for this is if the women normally only race 18 mile time trials then it doesn't make sense to change things for the olympics. Some reasons they might do that during the normal course of the year might be for costs, time, and fitness differences, but I'm speculating.

The difference is to allow the women folk time to pretty up. Put on some make-up, do their hair, get their uniforms looking nice for the male spectators who are waiting for the beach volleyball to start.