With the sort of killer timing that made her both World and Olympic champion, Nicole Cooke bowed out of professional cycling with a well-timed attack on the industry cheat who is about to try and relaunch himself on TV. But while her comments on Lance Armstrong and drugs are to be welcomed, I hope that her brave and brutal portrayal of sexism in cycling will have an even bigger impact.
In a retirement speech, the 29-year-old talks about what she hopes will be the “legacy” of her career. “At the age of 12 one is unaware of the problems ahead. One expects there to be an infrastructure for both boys and girls to develop and demonstrate their talents; to nurture them. One does not expect that nothing is available if you are a girl or that worse still, girls will be specifically excluded, not allowed to compete. “
Having had many bitter experiences as well as successful ones, Cooke offers a glimpse of what girls and women have to endure to perform at the top levels of sports in this country. Her colleagues Victoria Pendleton and Emma Pooley have also pointed out the injustice but Cooke is prepared to name names and demand action too.
Like nearly all women’s sports in the UK, cycling suffers from a chicken-and-egg situation: a relative lack of prestige results in a lack of media coverage, sponsorship or support. The Commission on the Future of Women’s sport revealed that 0.5% of sponsorship in this country went to elite women’s sports in an 18-month period of 2010-11 compared with 61% for men.
But what Cooke has done is provide inside knowledge of how these overall figures hide deeper injustices in the way women are treated. Among the shocking things she discusses is that the sport’s governing body, the UCI Road Commission, has stated that a minimum wage is required for all male professionals, but not women. How on earth are they allowed to get away with such blatant discrimination?
What’s more, Cooke’s comments come just as the bad behaviour of Armstrong and his chums looks set to make things even worse for those left cycling. “Every scandal on the men’s side has caused sponsors to leave on the women’s side,” she said. “And with such thin budgets, the losses have a greater relative impact on what survives.” So with no female Team Sky our homegrown talent will, like Cooke, have to go abroad for training.
Cycling has enjoyed great success since last summer’s Olympics. It is a sport with one of the lowest barriers to entry and, as such, could form one of the best ways to tackle the appalling fact that only 12% of teenage girls do enough physical activity to benefit their health.
Her medal-winning days may be over, but Cooke deserves another one for turning the spotlight on the injustice and inequality in a way that should make a difference to us all.
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