First published: 02/08/2024
By Rachel Carrell
Here's my radical proposal for a new Olympics.
Brace yourself, it's weird.
Everyone's tying themselves into knots over whether it's right that Imane Khelif was able to defeat Angela Carini in the women's boxing on Thursday. Khelif has a uterus, was born and raised a women, but has XY chromosomes and has previously been disqualified from the 2023 championships.
I think there's a different root problem here, which goes to the heart of the way the Olympics is designed: It's built around men's abilities.
Strength, speed.
That's great! We should celebrate those things.
But women's bodies are different and have different strengths.
We have superpowers like conceiving and giving birth. We have a lower centre of gravity. We have more body fat.
We can never be the fastest runners, or the strongest boxers.
We can only ever compete with each other - and then we get tied into knots about who's allowed to play with us.
If you close your eyes and try hard enough, you could imagine a completely different Olympics.
One with events that are based around women's natural strengths.
These events could be open to men too. A true equal playing field.
You could have events based around
- Flexibility
- Agility
- Balance
- Long periods of endurance
You could have events like: Acrobats. Contortion. Hiding. Ice baths. (What else?)
Don't believe this is possible? Here's an example of something NOT in the Olympics that very easily could be: ultra-distance running.
Women are amazing at ultra-distance running, and absolutely compete with men on an equal playing field.
In 2019, British ultra-runner Jasmin Paris won a 268-mile race in 83 hours, 12 minutes, smashing the course record by 12 hours. AND SHE STOPPED TO EXPRESS BREAST MILK along the way!
Just like the workplace needs an overhaul to allow working parents to thrive on an equal footing, the Olympics needs an overhaul to allow women to thrive on an equal footing.
What do you think - just crazy enough it might work?
Rachel Carrell, CEO of Koru Kids, is a Rhodes Scholar and former McKinsey consultant, sharing daily insights on parenting and work-life balance as a mother of three.
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