As published in the Gold Coast Bulletin
LUCY ARDERN – GOLD COAST BULLETIN – MARCH 20, 2015
THE Gold Coast’s top sportswomen want to be able to win more medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
They are calling for an equal number of women’s and men’s events which would make the Coast Games the first to do so.
A new study shows women won 48.5 per cent of the medals at the 2014 Glasgow Games, the highest proportion since the event began in 1930.
Olympic gold medallist and Gold Coaster Sara Carrigan said there should be medal equality in April 2018.
Lindsay Fogarty would love to see a balance.
“It is time this happened,” said the Nerang road cyclist who won gold at the Athens Olympics and has since retired.
Carrigan said boosting medal events for women would deliver an important legacy.
“There would be an impact on professional sport,” she said.
“But the effect on amateur sport and health and fitness would be just as significant.
“This is the sort of thing that inspires women to get into sport.
“When you have a woman to follow, the fan base grows.”
Carrigan said when she started cycling professionally in 1980 many men thought women should stay off bikes.
“It was so male dominated then,” she said.
“Things have changed so much.”
Local kayaker Lindsay Fogarty, who competed in the 2012 London Olympics, also backed medal equality.
“We would love to see an equal balance,” she said.
Co-author of the Glasgow medal study, former Canadian athlete Professor Bruce Kidd, who was a rival runner to former Gold Coast mayor Ron Clarke in the 1960s, said there were opportunities to offer more medal events for women in boxing, track cycling, shooting and weightlifting.
“We would not want to reduce the number of medal opportunities for men,” he said.
“The way to go would be to expand medal events for women.”
Australian Commonwealth Games Association chairman Sam Coffa, who is on the Gold Coast 2018 Games board, said he hoped the medal opportunities for women would be greater in 2018.
“I would like to see the quota reached,” he said.
But Mr Coffa said there were restrictions, including cost, associated with expanding the sporting program.
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Link to article here: http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/gold-coast/female-athletes-push-for-medal-equity-at-gold-coast-games-after-growth-in-glasgow/story-fnj94idh-1227270015935
