Rippington in call for Games equality

The High Court in London has granted Royal Leamington Spa Canoe Club member Samantha Rippington permission to pursue a legal claim for a review of the decision to exclude women’s canoe racing events from the Olympic programme.

Rippington, who is one of three elite women’s canoeists who travel to Leamington to work with coach Tibor Herbent, wants the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) to examine the gender bias in the Olympic sports programme, which leaves out women’s canoeing events despite featuring a number of men’s events.

Rippington, a third-placed finisher in the 500m sprint in the International Pas de Calais, said: “All I am asking is that LOCOG answer two simple questions: Is it discriminatory for there to be five men’s Olympic canoe events but none for women? And should that situation continue?”

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She added: “Not being an Olympic sport means lower levels of funding, support and training opportunities than the men, which makes progression, both individually and in terms of the sport itself, very difficult.”

LOCOG claimed that it does not have to comply with section 149 of the Equality Act because it is a ‘private entity not carrying out governmental functions’; because it does not control the content of the Olympic sports programme; and because the assessment would ‘serve no purpose’, as it is not feasible at this stage to change the Olympic sports programme.

The claim highlights broader issues of gender bias within the Olympic sports programme.

Although at the 2009 IOC Executive Board meeting, women’s boxing and a women’s kayak event were included in the 2012 Olympic sports programme, concerns remain as highlighted by the comments of Tessa Jowell as Olympics Minister in 2009, when she said that it was “wrong” that men could compete in many more events than women, and that it was “high time” there was equal opportunity at the Olympics.

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