Virginia De Martin has been representing the FIS Cross-Country athletes view in the Cross-Country Committee and the FIS Council, together with her fellow representant, Martti Jyhlä.
Over one month has passed since the decision on introducing equal distances for women and men was announced. Time to get back together with Virginia to find out more on what experiences she made before and after the decision was taken, in her role as the athletes representative.
Interview
In preparation for the discussions at the Cross-Country Committee about implementing equal distances, athletes had the chance to share their views on the topic via the annual athletes survey, which is conducted by the athletes representatives. When asked whether they wanted to race equal distances (regardless of what distance), the majority of athletes (67% of male athletes and 88% of female athletes) chose not to be wanting to race equal distances.
FIS Cross-Country: Virginia, what stands behind these statements from the athletes survey?
Virginia De Martin: For us as athletes representatives, these numbers were really quite surprising. Even if the blank numbers in the past athletes survey had always shown the majority to vote against racing equal distances, we still noticed a strong trend towards accepting to race equal distances. I see several possible reasons behind the numbers from the survey.
First, some athletes interpreted the questions on ‘racing equal distances’ in a way assuming that all races for women will be adapted to the current race distances of men. The survey indeed did not contain the final proposal of what exact distances were to race for women – as this discussion only happened during the FIS Spring meetings one month after the survey was sent out. Therefore it might have been difficult to imagine how such a change could be implemented.
Another reason, especially for women, might have been the fear that longer distances might “kill the show” because of larger distances between the racers.
Some athletes also respond with a certain sluggishness towards major changes, which can of course also have had an impact on the responses. It usually takes time before big changes are accepted, even though the athletes are willing to help developing the sport.
