READY FOR RIO 2016!
Is the ICF Open to Change? Article by Keith Lyons. http://keithlyons.me/open-to-change/
His exhortation for the ICF to be much more pro-active in change:
“I do think we have an important window of conscience available to us in canoeing. We should mind the gender gap as a moral imperative. ‘Mind’ in the sense of thinking deeply and ‘mind’ in terms of being concerned about decisions and their consequences.”
The ICF said “No changes for Rio 2016”. No changes after being in the IOC’s “Bottom 5” – with Wrestling – in February 2013. The IOC Olympic Program review will begin after the Rio Olympic Games.
This is what they will see from Olympic Canoeing:
- 16 events/330 athletes quota (cap).
- 5 events for women, 11 for men.
- 5 Canoe events, 11 Kayak events.
- 0 women’s canoe events – a streak going strong for 89 years.
- Twice as many male athletes as female athletes.
- Twice as many Gold medals for men than for women.
- Women race 1/2 the distance of the men.
Where are the women in Olympic Canoeing?
Where is the Canoeing in Olympic Canoeing? Where is the Canoe in the International Canoe Federation?
This is the picture the ICF wants to give to the IOC Program Review team.
The ICF slogan is “Always Moving Forward”. How is “No Change for Rio 2016” always moving forward?
Does the ICF actually have a goal to eliminate men’s canoeing from the Olympics? By eliminating men’s canoe, the sport becomes gender equal with only the kayak discipline.
Adding women’s canoe would weaken their justification for the elimination of the canoe discipline entirely.
Their position is shameful and disgraceful.
Their actions suggest that Canoeing is not a priority – even though that is the name of the Sport and Canoe the name of the organization. Canoe has been the step-child to Kayak from the beginning. Though in 1924, the exhibition events were 3 Kayak, 3 Canoe – all men. Canada won the Canoe events and the Washington Canoe Club in Washington DC (USA) won all of the Kayak events. In 1936, however, when Canoe/Kayak became official, 6 Kayak events were on the program and 3 Canoe events – all men. Women’s K1 was added in 1948 and the program has evolved from there.
Canoe has always had fewer events and has never had C4. Why? There is K4 for men and women. C4 is beautiful to watch and so great for development, but there is no incentive to develop.
Of great concern was in 2009 the ICF chose to eliminate a men’s Sprint C2 event in favor of the women’s K1 200. Why didn’t they remove a men’s sprint kayak event to accommodate this? Who voted on this? We are not convinced that was a democratic process vote.
This leaves 9 Sprint Kayak events to 3 Sprint Canoe events.
Our goal is balance between the genders and disciplines.
There are many national federations that would like to see Canoeing go away – and yes, most of the gender inequities would disappear automatically. But there are plenty who are engaged in Canoe and we would expect them to block any movement in that direction.
The IOC will conduct a Discipline Review after Rio 2016. They will see 0 women’s canoe events in Sprint and Slalom and they will see the ICF once again submitting above-quota proposals to add events, instead of the quota-neutral requests they invited.
This could put the entire discipline in jeopardy to be eliminated – and the ICF can just blame the IOC – not themselves. We must come together as a community of paddlers to preserve our great, heritage sport. It is one of the most pure sports remaining on the Olympic program. CITIUS ALTIUS FORTIUS.
Societies thrive when women have an equal place and equal access/opportunity.
So, too, in Sport.