by Alison Brown
Last winter, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” It is only the latest salvo in the battle to “protect” women’s sports. I watched many new sports at The World Games last week, including cheerleading, which gave me some new ideas regarding sports and gender.
A Couple or a Couple of People?
The World Games included the double pom discipline in cheerleading. Two athletes competed together as a team. It could be any combination of women and men. The Chinese team was two men. The American team was two women. Japan was a mixed pair. Each team was scored on the technique, difficulty, precision, synchronicity, and crowd appeal. All the medalists were teams of two women.
New Paradigm for Figure Skating
Could this be applied to, for example, pairs figure skating and ice dancing?
It is the premise for the movie Blades of Glory, where gender roles are played for comedy, but could it work in reality? Olympic gold medal ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Madison Hubbell teamed up to perform a breathtaking same-sex routine:
In 2022, Skate Canada changed its rules to allow any two skaters to compete as a pair in domestic competitions. The ISU, figure skating’s federation, declared earlier this year that any pair or dance couple must consist of one man and one woman. However, the ISU created a transgender policy which allows skaters who have transitioned to compete, albeit under strict criteria.
The idea of changing gender rules is not only about opening more sports up to transgender athletes. Pairs figure skating has pushed very tiny women and very strong men as the ideal body type. Same gender pairings may allow more people with different body types to compete. Yes, scoring protocols would need to be adjusted, but scoring criteria in figure skating are changed every Olympic cycle. Why not allow a pair of people, of whatever gender, to compete together?
Doubles Luge for Everyone, Not Exactly
Until women’s doubles luge became a separate event during the past cycle, the International Luge Federation did not articulate what gender either of the sliders needed to be. It was considered an “open” event though no women competed at the Olympics or World Championships. Para ice hockey and wheelchair rugby are both open events as well, though women have made limited inroads. Would more open events mean fewer opportunities for women?
(Note: we have interviews coming soon about women’s doubles luge, women’s para ice hockey and women in wheelchair rugby.)
Protecting Fragile Women or Protecting Fragile Masculinity
Or maybe, it is not about protecting the safety of female athletes, but the egos of male athletes. Women were allowed to compete in Olympic shooting starting in 1968, as an open event. Shooting became gendered in 1984 with 1992 Barcelona hosting the last mixed event. If you look at the results from Paris 2024 as an example, women in Olympic shooting frequently outperform men. Similar results are true for extreme endurance sports not in the Olympics or Paralympics, like ultra marathon.
Come Together as a Team
At The World Games, group aerobics and mixed team ultimate flying disc included varying combinations of men and women, with only a minimum of each gender outlayed in the rules. At Paris 2024, one man could be included on the team for artistic swimming, though no men actually competed. Again, scoring protocols would need to be adjusted so that greater upper body strength would not be overly beneficial to teams and a minimum mix should be dictated. However, beyond that, why not let more people participate in more sports?
Given the current political climate, especially in the United States, sports federations are unlikely to explore new gender roles within their events. Issues surrounding transgender athletes have sucked all the air out of the room and no energy is left for discussing other questions about how women and men can participate differently in sports. Watch out! A uterus may come flying out!