{"id":29821,"date":"2021-02-05T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T09:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsgazette.co.uk\/?p=29821"},"modified":"2021-02-04T21:54:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T21:54:01","slug":"covid-excuse-ignore-womens-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsgazette.co.uk\/covid-excuse-ignore-womens-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID Is Not An Excuse To Ignore Women’s Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the year\u2019s final digit ticked over from 0 to 1, while the Australian government were moving heaven and earth to allow their men\u2019s cricket team to complete the series against India, <\/span>the women\u2019s series was quietly postponed<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Football\u2019s FA Cup and rugby\u2019s Six Nations have seen comparable inequalities imposed upon them: the men\u2019s tournaments expensively and skilfully COVID-proofed, the women\u2019s postponed<\/a> or cancelled outright.<\/p>\n

The protocols that have enabled elite sport to continue through the pandemic have not been perfect, but that they have worked at all is due to a huge sustained investment of time, brainpower and money.
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\n<\/span>But it is becoming increasingly apparent that the <\/span>scope of this investment has been too narrow<\/span><\/a> – so narrow, in fact, that it has largely omitted an entire sex.<\/span>
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\n<\/span>It was true before the pandemic that women\u2019s sport could only grow if treated not as an afterthought, or as a \u2018nice-to-have\u2019, but something valuable and saleable – like, for example, sport.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it seems that COVID has allowed governing bodies an excuse to slip back into old, tired ways of thinking, while covering them up with nicely-presented platitudes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a>