Olympians complain of gender discrimination
FILE - In this July 11, 2012 file photo, Japan's Homare Sawa, second right, celebrates after scoring their side's goal with teammates, Saki Kumagai (4), Nahomi Kawasumi (9), and Yuki Ogimi, left, against Australia during their friendly women's soccer match in Tokyo. Japan's world champion women's football team has taken exception to flying economy while their male counterparts sat in business class on a flight to Europe for the Olympics. The women's team was assigned seats in premium economy for the 13-hour flight to Paris while the nation's under-23 men's team was up front on the same flight. "It should have been the other way around," 2011 FIFA Women's World Player of the Year Sawa, 33, told Japanese media Monday, July 16, after arriving in the French capital. "Even just in terms of age we are senior." The Japan Football Association said the men flew business class because they are professionals. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)
BRISBANE, Australia >> Men up front, women in the back.
Not so fast, Olympians.
Sports governing bodies from Japan and Australia are being skewered following complaints that male Olympic athletes flew business class to the London Games, while the women sat in the cheap seats.
Japan’s world champion women’s football team took exception to flying economy while their male counterparts sat in business en route to the games.
“It should have been the other way around,” Japanese soccer star Homare Sawa, the 2011 FIFA women’s world player of the year, said after arriving in Paris after the 13-hour flight, with just the short hop to London left. “Even just in terms of age we are senior.”
The Japan Football Association said the men’s under-23 Olympic team members flew in business class because they are professionals. The women, however, are likely be the bigger draw at the games. Only months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan last year, they brought a sliver of joy to their country by winning their first World Cup title.
The Australian women’s basketball team has also been more successful than the men, earning the silver medal at each of the last three Olympics.
On Friday, Basketball Australia said it would make sure the flight flap doesn’t happen again.
“(We will) review our Olympic travel policy with the goal of ensuring there is equity between travel arrangements for the men’s and women’s teams attending future Olympics,” the basketball governing body said in a statement.
This year’s Olympics will mark the first time that every competing country will field female athletes. It’s also the first time, after the inclusion of women’s boxing, that every sport at the Olympics will have both male and female competitors.
Gender equality, however, has taken a beating in some circles.
“The simple fact is when a policy results in gender inequality, it’s very clearly not the right policy,” Basketball Australia acting chief executive Scott Derwin said.
Not all the Australian women were stuck in coach. WNBA player Lauren Jackson was in first class because she is an “ambassador” with the airline involved, and Liz Cambage, another WNBA player, paid to upgrade herself to business class.
