Advertisement
Help Keep Boards Alive. Support us by going ad free today. See here: https://subscriptions.boards.ie/.
https://www.boards.ie/group/1878-subscribers-forum

Private Group for paid up members of Boards.ie. Join the club.
Hi all, please see this major site announcement: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058427594/boards-ie-2026

Sports in which women could compete against men

245

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    I think the biathlon in the winter olympics is segregated because the women are better, the top women are better than the top men anyway.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 31,693 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Off the top of my head, they would be pretty equal in these sports:

    Archery
    Shooting
    Equestrian
    Sailing

    There may be other sports, but physical advantage such as height and weight would probably go against them.

    Archery would only be equal at short distances, you need strength and draw length (arm length) to shoot accurately at longer distances.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,455 ✭✭✭maudgonner


    I did often wonder how Cora Staunton would have fared in a mens football match.

    She had unbelievable skill level and was fairly hardy as well (although obviously not near the mens level).

    Cora is an unbelievable athlete. And she's still playing BTW :) I believe she did play with boys when she first started, there was no girls team in her club.

    Fun fact: the teacher who first pushed her to get involved in GAA is Aoibhinn Ní Shuilleabháin's dad.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,830 ✭✭✭CMOTDibbler


    looksee wrote: »
    Archery would only be equal at short distances, you need strength and draw length (arm length) to shoot accurately at longer distances.
    AFAIK, Olympic archery is shot at 70m by both women and men. I know that's not all archery, but it's clearly the pinnacle for the sport.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,830 ✭✭✭CMOTDibbler


    I think the biathlon in the winter olympics is segregated because the women are better, the top women are better than the top men anyway.
    They do a shorter circuit than the men. It's 20Km for the men and 15Km for the women in the individual event. In the sprint it's 10Km/7.5Km and in the pursuit it's 12.5Km/10Km.

    All the events have a shorter distance for women basically. Even in the mixed relay they do a shorter distance.


  • Advertisement
  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,985 ✭✭✭philstar


    clay pigeon shooting ?

    maybe...BMX? (half them fall over anyway)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,080 ✭✭✭✭titan18


    I think the biathlon in the winter olympics is segregated because the women are better, the top women are better than the top men anyway.

    Not even close to being true. As mentioned, they do shorter distances (same in Cross Country skiing), and even outside that, the best male skiers would annihilate the best female skiers.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,616 ✭✭✭muddypaws


    Dog sledding, including dry land mushing isn't segregated. I guess an argument could be made that, as in equestrian, its about the animal more than human, but in the sprint races, being light can be an advantage, so women do very well. Usually dog powered sports are equal, but dog assisted, such as canicross and bikejore are segregated, especially at the highest level, as the athleticism of the human is just as important as that of the dog.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 735 ✭✭✭Moo Moo Land


    Hide and Seek.

    The Irish are good at that as Hickey showed.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,846 ✭✭✭fred funk }{


    fryup wrote: »
    golf :confused: thats debatable

    apart from teeing off it'd be quite even i think

    Not even close. They tried it a few years ago with a top lady golfer in a men's competition. She failed miserably and the idea was shelved.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 3,871 ✭✭✭Kat1170


    I did often wonder how Cora Staunton would have fared in a mens football match.

    She had unbelievable skill level and was fairly hardy as well (although obviously not near the mens level).

    So long as she could take a dive and feign injury, she'd be grand.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 475 ✭✭jimmy blevins


    Hide and Seek.

    The Irish are good at that as Hickey showed.

    But he got caught, can we claim lord lucan.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,744 ✭✭✭diomed


    Angling.
    I'm fishing :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,992 ✭✭✭bmwguy


    maudgonner wrote: »
    Cora is an unbelievable athlete. And she's still playing BTW :) I believe she did play with boys when she first started, there was no girls team in her club.

    Fun fact: the teacher who first pushed her to get involved in GAA is Aoibhinn Ní Shuilleabháin's dad.

    Yes she is but she wouldn't compete in men's GAA that's just not possible, not to take anything away from her. Just literally a different ball game, ladies GAA is non contact officially. Girls can compete up to puberty but not after that. That's why the sports are segregated.

    But to answer the question, certain gymnastics events. Smaller, lighter body types do better. Possibly diving too, so the more artistic and agility basedcevents rather than strength/speed type.

    However, I must say I enjoyed the ladies events in the Olympics every bit as much as the men's even if they weren't traveling as fast, moving more weight etc.

    Female athletes are hot.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 715 ✭✭✭Cianmcliam


    Sure didn't some nobody man beat the Williams sisters a few years back

    After playing golf and having two beers apparently!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,158 ✭✭✭DJIMI TRARORE


    Hide and Seek.


    Women wouldn't stay quiet long nuf to play this


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,277 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    Lads have none of yas seen the Always Ultra ads!!??


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,250 ✭✭✭✭mfceiling


    Not table tennis.

    I played at a fairly decent standard when I was younger (couple of provincial medals). I played the number 1 NI girl at the time and I beat her - I remember her crying after it.

    Very few sports where a woman could compete equally with a man.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,930 ✭✭✭Jimoslimos


    800m...oh wait!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,063 ✭✭✭wexandproud


    They do a shorter circuit than the men. It's 20Km for the men and 15Km for the women in the individual event. In the sprint it's 10Km/7.5Km and in the pursuit it's 12.5Km/10Km.

    All the events have a shorter distance for women basically. Even in the mixed relay they do a shorter distance.
    its only right that they do shorter distances , give them a chance to get home to get the dinner ready and do other proper women's stuff


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,612 ✭✭✭✭meeeeh


    Synchronized swimming?

    Rhythmic gymnastics?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,184 ✭✭✭✭Galwayguy35


    Jimoslimos wrote: »
    800m...oh wait!

    Was reading an article about this recently, fair block of a woman she is.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,455 ✭✭✭maudgonner


    bmwguy wrote: »
    Yes she is but she wouldn't compete in men's GAA that's just not possible, not to take anything away from her. Just literally a different ball game, ladies GAA is non contact officially. Girls can compete up to puberty but not after that. That's why the sports are segregated.

    I never suggested otherwise?
    Female athletes are hot.

    Is that you John Inverdale?


  • Posts: 5,557 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    All the top snooker tournaments are open to both genders,but afaik,there are no professional female players in the world,if there is,they never make it to the final stages of any competition.


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 7,666 Mod ✭✭✭✭cdeb


    Ficheall wrote: »
    Chess?

    Theoretically.
    Former world champion runner-up Nigel Short wouldn't agree.

    Women can play on the same circuit as men in snooker. Reanne Evans, who had won 61 consecutive women's events, was the first woman in 20 years to do so there a few years back. She lost every one of her 18 matches and didn't keep her place on the tour the following year.

    Worth noting Australia's women's football team, World Cup quarter-finalists last year, lost 7-0 to Newcastle Jets' U-16s earlier this year. Apparently they were missing their overseas players - maybe half their team - but still, that's the kind of gap you're talking about in some sports.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,930 ✭✭✭Jimoslimos


    cdeb wrote: »
    Women can play on the same circuit as men in snooker. Reanne Evans, who had won 61 consecutive women's events, was the first woman in 20 years to do so there a few years back. She lost every one of her 18 matches and didn't keep her place on the tour the following year.
    There isn't the critical mass of female snooker players for one to make the breakthrough. Increased participation is needed.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,111 ✭✭✭Christy42


    Not even close. They tried it a few years ago with a top lady golfer in a men's competition. She failed miserably and the idea was shelved.

    I thought they still could if they wanted to? I.e. there is an open competition and a women's competition but none where the force you to be a man? Could be wrong on that. Similarly with snooker.

    I would be curious as to what would happen in athletics if a woman signed up for the male event. Would they stop her? Would there be a good reason to?

    Aside from equestrian sports I can't think of any where women have hit the level of the elite men (well technically roller derby but that is a different story altogether).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,750 ✭✭✭iDave


    Danica Patrick did fairly well in Indycar. Not sure how she's faired since switching to NASCAR.


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 7,666 Mod ✭✭✭✭cdeb


    Jimoslimos wrote: »
    There isn't the critical mass of female snooker players for one to make the breakthrough. Increased participation is needed.

    That's a factor in a lot of sports, for sure, not just snooker.

    But I don't think it follows still that even if the numbers were there, the success would follow.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,710 ✭✭✭Balmed Out


    I think people underestimate the need for strength in synchronised swimming and diving. No Olympic mens synchronised swimming either, sexist pigs.


Advertisement
Advertisement