Thursday 10 January 2019

Give our Women a Chance - Open Letter to Cycling Australia

Dear Cycling Australia,

It is great that the Women’s Tour Down under is again providing prize money equal to the Men’s race. Congratulations Cycling Australia and Tour Down Under.

I think I am correct in saying the TDU pioneered equal prize money along with the Tour of Britain.

We do however, fall well behind the Women’s Tour of Britain when it comes to mainstream media coverage and in particular, TV exposure during the first 3 stages.

Australia should be proud of our Women road cyclist. In addition to World number 3, we boost the likes of Chloe Hosking, Sarah Roy, Tiffany Cromwell, Shannon Malseed, Rachel Neylen and Brodie Chapman to name a few.

They all represent inspirational examples of social responsibility, courtesy, appreciation. Health, fitness, resilience and dedication.

They are an excellent basis upon which to promote this great event and promote Womens sport.

Cycling is a highly, even brutally competitive sport and the level of competition grows each year.

Continued growth depends on attracting and retaining both participants and competitors.

Never has the competition to attract Women sportspeople been more fierce. Genuine, high profile opportunities now present in Cricket, Soccer, AFLW and other football codes, all of which have mass media coverage.

It is no coincidence women participation numbers in these sports have sky rocketed.

I imagine many young women and girls were captivated last weekend by the achievement of Sarah Gigante. Equally representative of cycling was how she conducted herself after being awarded National Champion honours.

It is such a pity these same young women and girls will be denied easy access to stages 1 to 3 of our greatest race and the chance to further embrace our great sport.

It is time to invest the funds needed to provide TV coverage of the Women’s Tour equivalent to the Men’s event.

I would even venture to say the return on such an investment would far exceed that of equal prize money.

See you in Adelaide.

Yours sincerely

 

Colin Morley

CA Member 145095

Cyclist and Cycling follower

 

No comments: