England won the cricket World Cup for the fourth time. Huzzah! England reached the semi-finals of the European football championship. Huzzah again! Or you can, as some have preferred, say well, it’s not really England, is it? It’s England women — and that’s not the same thing at all.
Ten points for observation, eh? I remember when I first noticed.
But there’s less power, less speed and it’s altogether less thrilling a spectacle than the men’s versions, they say. Anya Shrubsole, the demon fast bowler who secured the win for England by taking six wickets in the final, only bowls at 70 mph; she’d be cannon fodder in a men’s game. And the soi–disant Lionesses would be mauled to bits by a fourth division football club…
On the other hand, Shrubsole isn’t going to bowl in a men’s Test match and women’s footballers are not going to take on men’s professional teams. That’s on account of the fact that men and women are different. So then the argument shifts: television claims that men’s and women’s sports are the same in intensity and power, and they’re not.
Which serves you right for listening to television’s claims. This week Sky Sports News said that a forthcoming boxing match between a world champion and a novice is the sporting event of the year, if not the decade; grown-up sports outlets didn’t even mention it. Point of information: you can watch the event on Sky Sports Box Office for £20. Every televised sporting event is the most exciting thing in the history of the universe — until next week, of course. We should have learned how to deal with that.
But women are physically inferior and sport is about physical prowess. Which brings us to Alison Streeter, who has swum the Channel on 43 occasions, more than any one else in history; the nearest is Kevin Murphy with 34.
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