j-team wrote:
All events mixed would results in an even more lopsided (in favour of men) gender bias than already exists.
It's all very well to quote 2 instances where women have equaled or beaten men but you obviously haven't looked at the events that are directly comparable (3P, Air Rifle, Air Pistol Trap & Skeet) Men's average score to make final vs women's e.g. Rio WC currently in progress, 6th place in women's trap would only be 33rd in men's trap. Air rifle is much closer (in fact almost the same) but in air pistol the 8th woman would be 25th in men's.
I would suggest giving a minimum 33% quota to one sex if you are really concerned BECAUSE................
If you look at the finals record in pistol and rifle you will notice that in general, women are better than men. 20 shots are pretty good comparison. Zublasing would have beaten Louginets, Sidhu would have beaten Jin, and Yi would have beaten Yan.
The potential Olympic event 10M RT Mix can be directly compared. In 2010 WCH 10RTMIX: 385, 384, 383, 382(10x), 382(8x), 382(5x), 380, 380(5x). 10RT20MIX: 390, 386, 382(9x), 374, 372, 371, 369, 368 (9x). So a potential final would be 5 men and 3 women. Xueyan Li would beat all the men.
The only Olympic program that can be used to compare men and women as close as possible is prone 50m. The only difference is that mens free rifle has an extra 1.5kg for maximum weight limit. In 2014WCH, FR60PR: 632.3, 627.7, 626.9(104.6), 626.9(103.5), 626.2, 625.7, 625.5, 625.3. STR60PR, it was 626.9, 625.4, 624.7(104.5), 624.5(103.8), 624.0(104.1), 623.7(103.0), 623.6(105.2), 623.6(103.0). Beate Gauss would have won a bronze. A potential mixed final of 7 men and 1 woman. If anything, that extra 1.5kg would give the men an advantage. 625.4 (3rd women) would ended up as 8th in men, 624.7 (3rd in women) would be 13th, 624.5 (4th in women) would be 17th, 624.0(5th in women) would be 22nd, 623.7 & 623.6(105.2)(6th & 7th in women) would be 28th, 623.6(103.0) (8th in women) would be 29th. In fact, to make the actual men's qualification you would need to score 618.5, so any of the top 34 women could have knocked the last man out. If we mixed them together, then for the 63 qualifying spot, it would have been 40 men and 23 women with a cut off of 620.1(103.9). Hardly lopsided! The cut off for women was 613.5 (102.1), and only the top 89 men would make that cut.
300 Prone will sadly never be in the Olympics. But it is also the other only remaining ISSF competition that can be indirectly compared. Again everything being equal except men has the extra 1.5kg maximum rifle weight.
In 2010WCH, 300FR60PR: 599(36x), 598, 598, 598, 598, 598, 597(36x), 597 (34x). 300R60PR finished: 599(37x), 597(37x), 597(29x), 597, 596, 596, 595 (34x), 595 (31x 100). If there were a "final", it would have been 6 men and 2 women. Again, men has that 1.5kg weight advantage. Bettina Bucher would have beaten all men. The cutoff for men was 592(28x 98) Debevec for 33 slots, so the top 16 women would make the cut. Mix them together for 33 slots with a cut off of 594 (35x) 24 men and 9 women. There is no cut off for women. Again hardly lopsided.
Here in the US, at least in NCAA rifle, most programs (23 out of 29) are mix, while the remaining 6 are women only. Women frequently out-shoot the men, while shooting a men's program. The current NCAA 3P champion is a woman, as did 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015. In 2014, women finished 3, 4, 5, 7, 8. Woman also won this year in in air rifle, as did 09, 12, 13, 15. 60 shots.
For pistol, the US collegiate free pistol champion is a woman, women finished 1 and 8; Standard pistol, finishing 1, 6 & 7; Air pistol, 1, 2 & 7. The overall runner up is a woman.
If we do not mix it up for the Olympics, then at least be honest and eliminate "women only" programs that were originally designed to discriminate, then have every program split into men and women competition on complete equal terms. Get rid of SP. Return AP60 back to AP40. Eliminate "STR" because nowadays nobody really uses it. Give women that extra 1.5kg and see what will happens. Extra ACCURATE heavy barrel to wipe men out of competition.
.......that it will be MEN who will need that quota someday!
I am not even going to point out the scary thought of Franziska Peer could capable of doing if she decides to go full time on rifle...since moonlighting on rifle has already seen her making it to finals.