Will Sporting Success Level The Playing Field For Women In Sport? – Sport

The summer of 2022 has been an incredible season for women’s sport. In the UK, England women’s football team won the UEFA Women’s Euro and there has been a brilliant run of British winners at the Commonwealth Games, including gold medals for Eilish McColgan in the 10,000 metres, Pauline Wilson and 72-year-old Rosemary Lenton in the Para grass bowls and Katarina Johnson- Thompson in the heptathlon to name a few.

Further afield, Le Tour de France Femmes made its debut, with 144 women cycling 1,029 kilometers from the Champs Elysees to La Super Planche des Belles-Filles. Le Tour de France Femmes has replaced La Course with Le Tour de France. La Course was a much shorter women’s event, held over a day or two, which drew criticism from women cyclists who wanted a multi-stage event like the men’s Tour.

Le Tour de France Femme brings the women’s event closer to the men’s event, which is now a multi-stage event held over eight days. In the past, La Course has struggled to garner the same level of funding and public support as the men’s event, with critics often citing a public interest gap between female professional athletes and their male equivalents. Le Tour de France is one of the most-watched sporting events in the world, with around 3.8 million people watching the cyclists every day (and around 3 billion viewers worldwide watching parts of the race), but Le Tour de France Femmes did It didn’t fall far short in its debut year, drawing a television audience of 3 million viewers to watch the women’s start and 5.1 million to see them cross the finish line at Belles-Filles. In July, more than 87,000 packed Old Trafford and 17.4 million viewers tuned in to BBC One to see the Lionesses bring home the UEFA Women’s European Cup.

Throughout 2022, the women’s sport has consistently shattered attendance records and attracted huge crowds that have left spectators with a tangible buzz.

Despite this success and the steps taken by some tournaments to award equal prize money (Wimbledon is one of the most famous), there is often a significant difference in the prize money offered to men and women. Le Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard won €500,000 for his first place; Annemiek van Vleuten won €50,000 for the same performance at the Le Tour de France Femmes.

With rising viewership and support for women’s sport, there is a real opportunity for athletes, teams and leagues to capitalize on their sport and for sponsors to invest in them so the revenue generated can help women’s sport continue to thrive. Barclays has been investing in women’s football for over 20 years and support for the sport has grown exponentially in that time. Last year Barclays extended its sponsorship of the FA Women’s Super League until 2025, which is almost certain to draw more crowds than ever this summer given the sport’s phenomenal popularity. Adidas is also ahead of the curve and has agreed to pay the women they sponsor the same performance bonuses as the men for the World Cup. The noise surrounding women’s sport, and women’s team sport in particular, is growing louder and time will tell if the money follows women’s sporting success and if that investment reaches grassroots sport and increases participation. This summer of sporting success is coming to an end, but for the women’s sports audience, to quote Gabby Logan, it has only just begun.

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