Sports (Male) Personality

Dear Sportspeople of the female gender,

The first thing I noticed about this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year award nominees was that none of 'your kind' had made the list. 'Huh', I thought to myself and then I began to wonder who should have been nominated instead of all these men.

After a second I realised Jess Ennis should have been, but her silver medal at the World Championships was probably a bit of a disappointment to these fine people who nominate the shortlist. Afterall, she got gold in 2009 and could only manage third in the public vote. Last year, when she won the European Championships with a personal best, again she was third. So yes, second in the world is a bit of a disappointment and let's face it Jess, you're not going to make any improvement on your third places with that. But wait now. Wasn't Andy Murray also second in the Australian Open? Well still, he won Wimbledon so that's probably ok then. Oh no, wait, I just remembered that he went out in the semi-finals...again.

Then there's Rebecca Adlington. She's always winning things. And yup, in 2011, there she was winning a world title, casual as you like. Although, I say that, it was anything but casual. Adlington was 0.65s behind Friis (in first place) at the bell, she turned it round in the last 100m to win by 0.69s. And let's not forget, this was the 800m; the rest of the competitors came in 5-15s later, just to highlight further the fight she had on her hands. I should make mention of her silver medal in the 400m too.

But again, though in this award, you women shouldn't expect too much. In 2008, when Adlington won two, two gold medals at the Olympics, she came third. Nevermind Adlington's medals were the first Olympic golds any British woman had won in the pool since 1960 - before Gary Lineker was even born. She was third to some fine sportspeople though. Chris Hoy won. Well three golds is more than two golds. Fair enough.

Lewis Hamilton was second that year, and oh my, how those Formula One drivers have had to wait to be recognised. Not since 1896 has a Formula One driver won SPOTY. Sorry, I meant 1996. There were no cars in 1896, silly. In fact, Formula 1 personalities have only won SPOTY six times. Out of a whopping 57 times it's been awarded. Why, that's less than half the number of times a woman across all sports have won it (12.5 awards to women, Jane Torvill having the 0.5 award when she won with Christopher Dean.) So poor old Formula One. Although, comparing the winners of the Driver's Championships with the placings of the SPOTY, it does seem to guarantee that you'll at least place. Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, and James Hunt all placed while Damon Hill (twice), Nigel Mansell (twice), Jackie Stewart, and Stirling Moss won it. See women if you were to get a bit more involved in Formula 1, then you'd be sorted and there'd be none of this complaining nonsense.

A few people have mentioned that Chrissie Wellington should have been nominated. Truthfully? I've never heard of her before. Which is remarkable because apparently she has won four Ironman Triathalon World Championships, you know the one where you swim forever, cycle forever and then do a marathon? Yeah, that. She's won that four times! Quite the achievement, eh?! Why have I not heard of her before? Still Chrissie, take heart. Look at poor Phil 'The Power' Taylor. He had to win the PDC World Championship (you know the one half the darts players play in?) 13 times before he got second place last year at SPOTY. Ah now, Chrissie, let's not go down the line of saying darts isn't a real sport. It's throwing. And walking. And darts players are well known for needing emergency rehydration...at the bar.

I do have a vague memory of Kath Grainger winning something this year too. Although I can't quite remember what it was exactly. Sorry, I was busy in the roof space during the highlights of the rowing World Championships and couldn't make it out. But can you blame me? Men's sport is built up to be event television. Women's sport is...well, something to put on the red button. Look at how the Football World Cup was shown this year. Yes, this year, not 2010. Sorry, did I not say the Women's World Cup? I should have been more specific. Anyway, there it was on the red button - until the English team made it to the quarterfinals. Now, come on, don't be silly, it wasn't quite as simple as just getting to the quarterfinals to get on regular television. Oh no, what's women's sports mainstream coverage without a bit of last minute letters from politicians to campaign beforehand? Apparently, the reason why it couldn't be scheduled to be on BBC2 before was because of those pesky male golfers and their British Open were on BBC1. Oh you're right, the BBC does have two mainstream terrestial channels, but who wants sport on both of them? Especially so soon after Wimbledon and all its simultaneous BBC1, BBC2 and red button coverage.

Sadly, the team got beaten on penalties. Imagine if they'd won; they might have been in with a shout of the Team of the Year at the awards. I say might, because it seems women's teams have only ever one once, the 1969 4x400m relay team. And they had to share it. Well, it was a Ryder Cup Year. Reading the Wikipedia entry for the Ryder Cup that year though, you'd wonder why. It was marred by unsports...person like behaviour from both sides. And it was tied so the USA actually retained the Cup. So that's why I say the footballers might have won. It seems that men's teams can win Team of the Year, by not even winning their competition outright, and can be unsporting in doing so.

The important thing here, British Sportswomen, is not to panic. It's not like there's any different treatment for international sportswomen, for they have only managed to win Overseas Personality of the Year six times, out of 51 times it's been awarded. That said, I'm pretty sure that wasn't the equality you were after.

But see, the really difficult thing, girls, is that's it's the Sports Personality of the Year; you need to capture, not only the public's imagination, but as we're learning, also the sports editors and journalists from papers around the country. If only you had some interesting stories which they could tell and then we could read in order to capture our imagination. Like Darren Clarke, he's nominated this year. He'd never won a major before, but aged 42 he did! Of course, many of us remember the terrible tragedy of him losing his wife to cancer in 2006. Yet, he helped Europe to a famous victory in the Ryder Cup just a few weeks later. An awful story like that can't be compared with another, of course. But if all things were equal, SPOTY recognition would surely be coming Sarah Stevenson's way. She won a gold medal in the Taekwondo World Championships in May while both her parents were in the last grips of terminal cancer. Sadly, she lost both of them within months of each other. Wow. Talk about mental strength. I hope you can win gold next year at the Olympics Sarah, when no doubt you'll get lots more coverage. 

Gary Lineker said on The One Show when the ten nominees for SPOTY were announced, "Perhaps not been a strong year in women's sport for British women...let's hope that'll change next year with the Olympics." But you see sportwomen, I beg to differ with Sir Gary. I’d change his words to "Perhaps not been a strong year in women's sport coverage for British women...that will change next year with the Olympics." We know that on previous Olympics years it has changed. Maybe not enough to win the award, but enough to be recognised. Thank goodness they don't have separate medals tables, one for the men and one for the women, eh?

So keep doing what you’re doing. Keep being brilliant, keep winning, keep fighting. Some time, somehow, the press and the media will actually give you widespread coverage in non-Olympic years.

Yours,

Tina

______________________

Dear BBC,

I love you. You know I do. But maybe Gary shouldn’t have been so quick to blame the newspapers for the nominations. Perhaps look to the coverage you provide of women in sport yourself. Yes, I'm thinking of the red button here. It's good, but it's not great.

And maybe, as a separate issue, you could expand the list of who is asked to nominate to be more, I don't know, inclusive. Just a thought.

Warm regards,

Tina

______________________

Dear Daily Post, Daily Star Sunday, Evening Standard, The Independent, Irish News, Metro, Nuts, The People and Western Mail and Zoo

You suck. Sorry to be blunt. But if you're in the business of sports reporting and can't see how female sports performances and achievements are worthy of reporting and how they've captured the public's imagination, then it needs to be said, out loud and to your face. So again I say: You suck.

Please do better in future. Assuming you're asked again of course.

Thanks in advance,

Tina

______________________

Dear Alex Chick,

Footballers were again snubbed? Get in line.

You remind me of a great CJ quote in The West Wing:

Sam: Where'd you get the bathrobe?
Carol: The gym.
Sam: There are bathrobes at the gym?
CJ: In the women's locker room.
Sam: But not the men's.
CJ: Yeah.
Sam: Now, that's outrageous. There's a thousand men working here and 50 women.
CJ: Yeah, and it's the *bathrobes* that's outrageous.


Oh, wait. Did you mean women footballers were snubbed in the year of a decent performance at the World Cup? Yeah, that is ridiculous.

Yours in blogging,

Tina


______________________


Here's a great article with some stats about coverage, sponsorship and number female sports journalists. Even if you don't read it, this is worth knowing: women's sports coverage makes up just 5% of all sports media. In a good year.

Compare and contrast Children in Need with Comic Relief

A few years ago I wrote a blog about how I didn't really like Children in Need. I watched it last night. I know, I know, I've changed. But so have they; they've changed it since I wrote that. They've dropped a lot of the local element from it. Instead of cross overs to the regions with what I (accurately) described in 2005, you get a (relentless) ticker across the bottom of the screen telling you of local schools and community groups' fundraising efforts with the odd pre-recorded film specific to NI.

As I watched last night I began to think though the ways in which Children in Need and Comic Relief differ, now that the BBC regions have been reigned in. While there's a lot of similarities between the two, there's no doubt that Comic Relief is much more edgy, both in terms of the appeal films and the content of the entertainment. This edginess definitely gives it a cooler feel. Is that related to how much each night typically raises? Up until last night's record £26 million, Children in Need never really broke the £20 million on the night barrier. Comic Relief typically raises £50-60 million on the night. This year it was £74 million.

Another big difference is Comic Relief focus on Africa as well as the UK. Maybe the totals raised means we're still shocked at the starvation, illness and poverty that exists in the world today? I hope so.

Given these changes, I set to and created a handy guide to the differences and similarities between the two charities (including the Comic Relief spin-off, Sport Relief). I did it in the style of a wordle, with the larger the type meaning the more importance/greater emphasis/association it has on/with the night. The colours mean nowt, but they do make it pretty.

Of course, when you're talking differences then there's perhaps none bigger than the Wogan factor. Last night he seemed to have a dose of the Brucies. You know, not quite knowing where he was, scripted jokes, not knowing how to read the autocue, talking over Tess, that kind of thing. Still, you can't imagine it without him. Although we said that about the Eurovision too and Graham Norton is so fantastic on it I barely miss Wogan.

If you do miss the more cringy aspects of Children in Need, given their new output, please enjoy these videos from yesteryear.

(Please be warned the song will be stuck in your head all the flipping live long day, like it's stuck in mine.)

Not dissimilar to Gareth Malone's choir last night. Although they sang Avril Lavigne (or Avrille Le Vine if you're Terry - see here at 2:40.45. I thought Fearne did very well not to show laughter in her face.)

I don't even know how to explain this next one. It's from the opening of the 1992 show. It nearly hurts to watch it.

Contemporary dance

I know what you're thinking, when did I get so cultured. But hang tight. This post will again confirm that I'm horribly mainstream.

You see, I've learnt last summer that contemporary dance doesn't have be 'dancing' in a morphsuit/floaty pastel dress to clanging atonal music. Oh no. There's a subdivision I have named Mainstream Contemporary Dance. It's for dancing numpties like me.

I was watching Dancing With the Stars on Saturday morning. See, right there, mainstream. Anyway Christina Perri was on it (again with the mainstream, although I'll come back to this later). Anyway the American version of Strictly seems to have some sort of 'Sob Story Slot' (this might not be the actual name of it) and so there was a girl who'd had a brain tumour on dancing to Christina Perri's song 'Arms'. Now with all the airplay (remember, mainstream) of Jar of Hearts I hadn't heard this. It's lovely and the dance was beautiful. More ballet perhaps than contemporary dance (although in my limited understanding of contemporary dance that seems to be ok), but beautiful all the same.




Skip to 3.00 for the dance, although her story with the brain tumour is worth it for context.

Anyway that reminded me of reading Christina Perri's story and how her Jar of Hearts song was featured on the American So You Think You Can Dance last summer when she was trying to make it. She was working as a waitress, the song was used and bam, two weeks later she had a recording deal. I came across this reading another blog I dip in and out of and it had me in a loop of watching dances from the American SYTYCD (which is infinitely better than ours by the way). So in this small way, I was ahead of the curve on Christina Perri. Not mainstream. Ha!

Then on Sunday night's Strictly, who was appearing? Only Christina Perri. She sang Jar of Hearts (see aforementioned airplay) and they had Kristina and Robin dance to it in that Stricly come-on-half-way-through-the-song way. I don't really know what 'style' of dance they did, essentially they just did a lot of tricks and what not. It reminded me of the free dance the finalists do, although Christina's dress is Rumba-y. But then she's in bare feet which is the contemporary signal to me, so it's confusing to a dance novice like myself. I will say this though, those candles must have been a bally nightmare to light and keep lit. And it now seems to be important for men to dance to Christina Perri songs with their shirts unbuttoned.




You don't have to watch it, it wasn't my favourite and it's not that important to the post, but seeing as I mentioned it I thought I might as well make it easy for you.

Anyway, this is all pointing to my two favourite contemporary dances from my tour through them last summer which I thought I'd share (annoyingly, I can't embed them here, but you've stuck with this post this long, you may as well click on through).

First off, the Jar of Hearts one that discovered Christina Perri. I'm going to sound like a real contemporary dance numptyhead here, but I thought the interpretation of the lyrics was so much better than the Strictly one. You can watch it here.

This is my favourite one though. Just beautiful. And then Cat Deeley starts to speak. It's to Collide, which interestingly is song that featured on my August 2006 playlist...the same time as I was watching Travis Wall (who choreographed this routine - he's standing at the end) competing in SYTYCD. Yeah, fair enough, only interesting to me.

Much like this post. Unless you too are a fan of mainstream contemporary dance.

Dreaming big

Tonight, Karen Marathon* has her very first photography exhibit. It's based around her iPhone photographs, or iPhoneography, if you will. [You can see some of her work on her new website.]

I would like to take some credit for encouraging her along this photography route. Here's the proof. Not long after I wrote that we both started a GCSE in Photography. Although I didn't finish it, Karen did and will soon have a degree in Creative Imaging. Yeah, ok there's a limit to how much credit I can actually take.

Even walking down the street is like seeing inside her photography brain. She sees a class photo in something I (and let's face it, probably you) would walk right past.

Like this chair in a front yard in Studentland. I think you can see I walked past it.

Or these closed curtains. I know, really, closed curtains. But there was a great photo in that.

Yesterday I went with her to help set up the studio where the exhibit will be. It was so great to be there, it was another landmark in the journey. Karen got a lovely gift and card from someone she has inspired to follow her own adventure in photography. I nearly cried. Karen, for the record, held it together like a pro, like a pros tend to do.

Anyway, not to go all Martin Luther King on you, Karen has a dream and she's steadily working towards it.

I like it when people dream big. I like it even more when they start achieving those dreams. It's exciting!

*Tonight Karen Marathon will become Karen Photographer in my contacts. It seems only right.