“A coach once made a mistake and, instead of sending a message to my psychologist, in a competition in which I was having a hard time, he made a mistake and sent it to me. And what the message said was: ‘What she needs is for you to fuck her‘. From that point on, my relationship with my coach, in whom I trusted one hundred percent, was horrible… That to improve my mentality my psychologist had to sleep with me, it was very shocking.“.
This is one of the dozens of testimonies collected in the investigation titled ‘Inequalities of highly competitive athletes in Spain and measures for effective equality‘, and in which the interviewee herself acknowledges that, at the time of receiving that message, she did not know that she could have acted against this situation.
To finish with this, and many other experiences of sexism, unequal treatmentharassment, abuse and sexual assaults within sports federations, the Ministry of Equality has presented this report that collects the experiences of 16 highly competitive female athletes; six representatives from the field of sports, professional and technical management; three sports journalism professionals and two experts with extensive experience in professional women’s sports.
Dildos for them, money for them
All of them leave anecdotes and cases, their own or those of others, that demonstrate the differences between men’s and women’s sports. As with awards. “In cycling, for example, there were times when the prizes were awarded and the women still hadn’t finished,” criticizes a world ski champion and former Secretary of State for Sports. “Sometimes it is a dildo, a kitchen robot, a manicure set, a vibrator; for them, however, prize money. This has happened in sport in recent months and in recent years.”
The Dutch cyclist Ellen van Dijk, world time trial champion, showed on Twitter the gift given by the Tour de Friesland organization with a message that said that “prizes in women’s cycling are improving.” “You can leave me tips on how to use them in the comments,” she said.
Prizes in women’s cycling are improving 😅. You can leave tips on how to use it in the comments😂 pic.twitter.com/Fh23MVG4vv
— Ellen van Dijk (@ellenvdijk) March 3, 2022
In the 19th Women’s Race, held last May in Madrid, the test champion, Ivana Zagorac, was awarded a Thermomix, a kitchen robot; her sister, Sladjana Zagorac, received a cordless vacuum cleaner; and the third to reach the finish line, the Spanish Silvia Rey Vegareceived, like the rest of the thousands of participants, slimming products.
Are you sick?
Another problem that comes to light in this report is the lack of information and knowledge that the technical establishments have about menstruation. “It often does not occur to male coaches and technicians that Female athletes may be menstruating and this may be having an impact on their performance, with the worst situation being experienced among the youngest women, who often find it difficult and complex to refer to this in front of a man, even if he is their coach. When it does not happen, as one athlete points out, that men express their sadness, describing their menstruation as an illness (“Are you sick?”), the study includes, as has been emphasized. David Moscoso Sánchezco-director of it and professor of Sociology at the University of Córdoba.
Her other co-director, Maria Martin Rodriguezdoctor in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, recalled that for these athletes, menstruation is “a valuable indicator of health and, therefore, performance.”
“I myself masculinized my body when I was young and as soon as I got my period, I took an ibuprofen and from there I started training, doing what I had to do. Not anymore. I became aware of myself and I said to myself: If your body is today “You feel bad and you are menstruating, it is because today you cannot do a strong workout,” another athlete acknowledges.
Body Ratings
But there are technicians who nor do they have knowledge of this, nor tact when it comes to making body ratings. In the report, adjectives appear such as “skinny,” “fat,” “delicate,” and “delicate.” or “too muscular” in reference to her body or even her menstrual cycle (“You have a delicate cycle.”).
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“As for the weight and everything, we even had a physiologist who told me that I was never going to be international with that fat index.” [fue campeona del mundo de natación]. When I have never had the same body as a hyper hyper strong girl and, instead, I have been much faster in the water […]. In the end what the trainers did was give me more weighing and fat measurement tests. And I had horrible traumas. I stopped eating for maybe two days, if they told me: “In two days they are going to make your folds again”.
“Sport is a reflection of what happens in society,” said Moscoso. With these testimonies, and with his work, which reflects 50 measures summarized in 10 proposals, they hope to improve it a little better.