I follow pro women races so closely that I know them by name. That makes me a huge fan, supporter, groupie-if-I-could-be, sort of person. So it has troubled me a bit, to watch the developments of the 50 Women to Kona campaign, without being drawn into it. Whilst I am all for equality (I am a minority female engineer in the oil industry and know all about it), something about the campaign did not sit right with me.
I did not think that any, or perhaps many, deserving pro women were missing out on Kona, because there were only 35 slots. To this triath-a-geek, the big names were in. On the other hand, was it right that there were less women represented in this big race? I didn't really think so either. Following trirating.com suggests that pro women needed to work harder to qualify, So something was amiss, I just never figured out what.
But today I was enlightened. I read a great post by trisutto.com who suggests that rather than fighting for 50 slots for women, we should be fighting for a compromise of equality e.g. 40 men AND women to Kona. Now that I can buy in to. Let's make this an equal playing field, not necessarily by sending 50 Women to Kona.
By lowering the standards for women, you end up with the risk of me turning up in Kona as a pro, and I certainly do not deserve that. There are many pseudo-pros who have a pro licence, but work and live a normal life beside it. I could in theory be one of those, and I certainly would not want to devalue the true pros who have devoted their lives to this sport. I am just a part-timer who gets to enjoy the finer things in life whilst dabbling in triathlon, albeit seriously.... :)
Let's focus instead on increasing the value of the true, good pros. The Mirinda Carfrae, Daniela Ryf, Rachel Joyce, Jodie Swallow, Helle Frederiksen, Camilla Perdersen, Michelle Vesterby, etc of the world (and yes that list is Danish biased). They deserve it!
