30-11-2016
In a potentially controversial decision, the ISSF Athletes Committee has recommended mixed-gender team events for the Olympic Games. The committee, headed by Abhinav Bindra, has sought to replace the double-trap men's event with a mixed-gender trap event, convert the 50m prone men's event into a mixed-gender air rifle event and the 50m pistol men's event into a mixed-gender air pistol event.
The move has been welcomed by female shooters in India, though there is some disquiet over the 50m pistol event -- one in which Indians are gaining strength -- being scrapped.
The decision follows the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) objective of international sport federations working towards a 50% female representation at the Games. Currently, shooting has nine men's and six women's events at the Olympics.
In his statement announcing the recommendations, Bindra said that they were buoyed by the success of the 10m air mixed team events at the Youth Olympics. "The guiding principle was to look at [the] situation in a holistic manner which would be beneficial in [the] long term for the shooting sport in order for us to maintain our presence in the Olympic movement," he said.
In November 2015, the committee had recommended to the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) that the 50m rifle prone men, 50m pistol men and double-trap men's events be converted into mixed-gender events. Before arriving at a final decision, the Athletes Committee reviewed its stance taking into account factors such as current participation, youth participation and accessibility. This decision was then released by the ISSF Ad Hoc Committee.
It is subject to a formal ratification at the ISSF governing council and executive committee meeting, to be held in New Delhi in February 2017.
National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) chief Raninder Singh told ESPN that the idea is to test out the mixed-gender team events at the World Cup to be held in Delhi two days after the ISSF meeting. "Since the format and rules of the mixed-gender event are still not clear, we will have to wait it out," he said. "If things work according to plan, we can hopefully test the events out at the World Cup."
While mixed-gender events in contact sports such as wrestling, boxing or football are understandably ruled out, gender segregation in a skill-based sport like shooting, which has little to do with physical strength or stamina, is harder to justify. Both sexes competed together at international competitions for decades in the past. At the 1976 Montreal Games, US's Margaret Murdock, a 33-year-old nurse, tied for gold in the small-bore rifle event against male teammate Lanny Bassham. Though Bassham was awarded gold for having scored three 100s to Murdock's two, at the medal ceremony he pulled his female teammate up to the first-place platform. Murdock was also the first woman to win an Olympic shooting medal. The rifle events were split into men's and women's events in 1984.
Female shooters in India called it a 'long overdue' measure. "Though there's still ambiguity over the rules of the new event, I'm both excited and intrigued to see how it pans out," Indian pistol shooter Heena Sidhu told ESPN. "As a female shooter I have always wondered why men have more number of events than we do. Not only at the Olympics, an equality in terms of participation needs to be brought about in continental meets and world championships as well."
Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl
Source - http://www.espn.in/shooting/story/_/id/18163112/bindra-led-panel-okays-mixed-gender-events-shooting
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