Podcast- Rachel Miller

Cross-country skiing has unequal race distances between men and women. Women want equality in race lengths. Some suggest adjusting race times, while others propose equal distances. Adjusting race times would make women's races longer. Equal distances would require changing all current races. The best solution is to change women's races to match men's. However, some women prefer the current distances. To address this, offer a variety of race lengths for both genders. Cross-country skiing is growing in popularity, so adding more races is reasonable. World Cup races have already made the change, but college races and the Olympics have yet to follow. Hopefully, women will have more opportunities for longer races in the future. Hi, I'm Rachel Miller, and today I'll be talking about the unequal race distances between male and female athletes in cross-country skiing, and how to best implement equality into the current race system. Cross-country skiing originated as a method of transportation across snowy terrain, and is estimated to have started nearly five millennia ago in Scandinavia. The first recorded competition was in Norway in 1843, and it made its Olympic debut in 1924 for men and in 1952 for women. In the 1952 Olympics, the cross-country skiing events included the men's 18-kilometer race, the men's 50K, the men's 4-by-10-kilometer relay, and the women's 10-kilometer race. Although the women had fewer events and raced far less kilometers, this isn't all that shocking considering there were fewer women in the sport, and in the 1950s, many believed that women's reproductive health could be greatly impacted by athletics. However, it's far more surprising that women have yet to compete the same race lengths in Olympic cross-country skiing as their male counterparts. In recent years, there has been an increasing push from women in the sport to change this racing tradition. And as more women are supporting equal or more similar race distances, a new question arises – what lengths should races be? There are several possible responses to this question, some addressing race time and others are concerned with race distances. It is common knowledge that on average, professional male skiers will race faster than professional female skiers, so equal course lengths will typically mean that women are on the course longer than men. Due to this concern, some believe that course lengths should be adjusted so races for men and women take about the same amount of time. This proposal would not result in the same length of races for men and women, however, it would provide a very similar race experience for all racers. Currently, the longest race for men is 50 kilometers, and it takes about a half an hour longer than the longest race for women, the 30-kilometer race. Adjusting the women's races to be about the same amount of time as the men would mean lengthening the race, but not the full 20-kilometer difference between the races currently. However, making races take a relatively equal amount of time would adjust all women's races to be slightly longer to distances that have not been previously raced. Not only would this change training for women at every distance, but this would also cause race venues to adjust their courses to add several kilometers to the women's race, which can have a ranging amount of difficulty depending on the course. Others believe that distances between men and women should be equal, however, this also has challenges associated with implementing it. Should all women's races be switched to the men's length? Should men race shorter distances with the women? Should race lengths be some middle ground length between the current men's and women's races? Averaging the men's and women's race lengths has some benefits, such as having a set race distance for all racers, and making the change between current and new race distances less drastic. However, this proposal has some of the same issues as adjusting the distances to have an equal time. This would change the distances of all the current races for both men and women instead of just women's races, and could cause difficulties with adjusting the courses. So for the sake of making implementation easier, choosing either the current men's distances or women's distances would be best, and the men are not eager to shorten races. Race lengths have become somewhat of a tradition. For example, shortening the 3,200 meter race and track to a 2,800 would not be widely accepted by athletes, because it has been a standard distance for so long. In this same way, shortening the men's races to the women's distances would be seen as limiting the athletes, and when collegiate male athletes were asked about potentially racing shorter distances, their answers were no, unless the World Cup distances were also reduced. This means the most plausible solution is to change the women's races to match the length of the men's races. This would not require creating a new race distance, and would give women the opportunity to race longer races. However, this poses a problem for women who prefer to keep the current distances. Kami Thompson-Graves, coach for Dartmouth College's cross-country ski team, member of the NCAA Rules Committee, and member of the International Ski Federation, has spoken out against changing race lengths. I don't feel the need for women to do men's distances. Why don't we just do women's distances? Why can't we just be different? I'm a big believer in being proud to be a woman, and not a little man, she says. Norwegian skier Therese Johog states that women could go 20 kilometers like the men. However, the 15K is great for her. To address the concerns of these women, I believe the best course of action would be to provide athletes with greater flexibility, and offer a few shorter races, as well as opening the opportunity to race long races. For example, women could race the men's distances, such as a 10K, 20K, and 50K. However, adding a 5K and 30K for both men and women would allow all skiers to have opportunities to race a wide variety of lengths, as well as only using current race distances, so courses would not need to be adjusted for different lengths. Cross-country skiing has increased tremendously in the past few years, and in Minnesota, where cross-country skiing is most popular, sales of the annual Great Minnesota Ski Pass has grown 131% from 2018 to 2022, and with this increased interest, it wouldn't be unreasonable to add more races of different lengths at various levels of racing. World Cup races have changed the women's race lengths to match the men's as of this year. However, we are yet to see a shift in the college races in the Olympics. Hopefully, in the next few years, women will be given opportunities to race longer distances at these levels, and we will see a wider variety of races for both genders.