By David Kirton
YANQING, China (Reuters) – As the women’s bobsleigh teams prepare to push to their limits in the Olympic competition starting on Friday, come competitors believe they are also pushing against a different kind of limitation – one placed on their weight.
A two-person bobsleigh must weigh a minimum of 170 kilos in both the men’s or women’s competition, according to rules from the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF), the sport’s governing body.
The men must weigh less than 390 kilos combined with their bobsleigh and the women and their bobsleigh must be below 330 kilos, leaving little room for athletes with bigger builds.
The IBSF reduced the weight limits for the two-woman event from 2015, in a bid to reduce the amount of bulking-up women needed to do.
“The IBSF saw an increased number of female athletes starting to participate in bobsleigh over the last years which follows an initiative by the IBSF development program,” the IBSF said in a statement to Reuters.
“This program for example also supported the women’s monobob program in the past two years.”
For relatively lighter competitors like Australia’s Breeana Walker and Kiara Reddingius, the weight limits are in the right place.
“We’re a bit smaller than some of the girls, we actually have to put a bit of weight on, so for us it’s not a problem,” said Reddingius on Thursday.
“I’m a smaller-size pilot, there’s a lot of smaller-sized pilots, we struggle to make those upper kilos,” said Walker.
“You have to keep eating and maintain your training and that can be really hard. It works both ways – it’s hard to put on weight but also hard to take off weight,” Walker added.
Other athletes said the reduction had caused problems.
“I really do think there is a major issue when you lower the weight limit in a sport that thrives off of strong powerful women who tend to be naturally bigger,” said Canada’s Cynthia Appiah.
Like many in the sport, Appiah came from an athletics background, where she specialised in the hammer throw and shot put.
“You open a can of worms, almost a Pandora’s box of problems. And we’ve heard so many times over the last few years about body image issues, dietary issues, or just eating disorders, especially in women’s sport.
“We’ve had to adapt. Thankfully we haven’t lost many competitors, but I can’t say how many more women could have considered bobsleigh that now can’t.”
RULES RELAXATION
American Elana Meyers Taylor has written a proposal on behalf of the U.S. team calling for a relaxation of the rules, which will go to the U.S. federation and the IBSF.
“I am one of the heavier girls too, I mean not these days, running after a toddler kind of takes the weight off of you. But I definitely think we’re excluding women,” said the four-times Olympic medallist.
“It’s not all about weight, but you need to make room for bigger girls because right now there’s nowhere for them to go.”
Canadian brakewoman Sara Villani agreed.
“I know a lot of the top pushers really struggle with the max weight and it’s unfortunate because it excludes a lot of women are big, strong and powerful from the sport,” she said.
Men are allocated 28 sled spots in the Olympic four-man bobsleigh event and 30 spots in the two-man, while women are allotted 20 spots in the monobob and 20 in the two-person bobsleigh.
The inclusion of the women-only monobob event at the Beijing Olympics was a step in the right direction for women, said Meyers Taylor who finished second in the monobob on Monday.
“We always want to increase the participation numbers, the same amount of spots as men, but I know they’re restricted by the IOC, the total number that they give us.”
“I think the next step really is petitioning the IOC to try to increase the number.”
(Reporting by David Kirton, editing by Ed Osmond)
