Mixed-sex sports

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A mixed-gender badminton match 2018-10-12 Badminton Mixed International Team Final match 2 at 2018 Summer Youth Olympics by Sandro Halank-004.jpg
A mixed-gender badminton match
An unofficial mixed doubles match of beach volleyball. Beach volleyball-Huntington Beach-California 3.jpg
An unofficial mixed doubles match of beach volleyball.

Mixed-sex sports (also known as coed sports) are individual and team sports whose participants are not of a single sex. In organised sports settings, rules usually dictate an equal number of people of each sex in a team (for example teams of one man and one woman). Usually, the main purpose of these rules are to account for physiological sex differences. Mixed-sex sports in informal settings are typically groups of neighbours, friends or family playing without regard to the sex of the participants. Mixed-sex play is also common in children's sports as before puberty and adolescence, sport-relevant sex differences affect performance far less.

Contents

There are multiple dynamics to mixed-sex sports. Where sex differences in human physiology do not play a significant role in a person's proficiency in a sport, then men and women may compete in a single open class, as in equestrian sports. When sex is a major factor in a competitor's performance, sports will typically split men and women into separate divisions, but there may be mixed-sex team variants, such as mixed doubles. In artistic judged sports, these physical differences play a key role in performances, as demonstrated in pair figure skating and acrobatic gymnastics.

Mixed-sex sport events may be organised to achieve certain social aims, such as boosting female participation in sport, as a form of exercise, or to improve social harmony between the sexes. [1]

Direct competition

It is uncommon in most organised sports to find individuals of different genders competing head-to-head at elite levels, principally due to physiological differences between the (adult) sexes. In sports where these differences are less linked to performance, it is standard practice for men and women to compete in mixed-sex fields. These open-class sports prove accommodating to intersex athletes, who challenge sex-defined rules of both single-sex events and mixed-sex teams with distinct male and female composition.

Equestrian at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Team dressage, 7 of 9 medalists are women 2012 Olympics - Team Dressage Final.jpg
Equestrian at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Team dressage, 7 of 9 medalists are women

In equestrian sports, male and female riders compete against each other in eventing, dressage and show jumping disciplines. Female jockeys compete alongside male ones in horse racing, though they constitute a minority of jockeys overall. Beyond the human athletes, male and female horses are found in racing, with a roughly 60/40 split at the top level between colts and fillies. [2]

In snooker, the professional tour is open to men and women, with for instance four female players competing on the main tour in 2023/24 (Reanne Evans, Mink Nutcharut, Rebecca Kenna and Baipat Siripaporn). [3] In addition, the separate women-only tour encourages female participation in the sport. [4]

In croquet, three women have won the British Association Croquet Open Championship: Lily Gower in 1905, Dorothy Steel in 1925, 1933, 1935 and 1936, and Hope Rotherham in 1960. In 2018, two international Golf Croquet championships open to both sexes were won by women: Rachel Gee of England beat Pierre Beaudry to win the European Golf Croquet championship, and Hanan Rashad of Egypt beat Yasser Fathy (also from Egypt) to win the World over-50s championship.

The mixed division is a staple of Ultimate (without being the standard)—it is the only division showcased at both the 2013 and 2017 World Games. Seven-player mixed teams (4 men plus 3 women, or 4 women plus 3 men) directly compete. While most often players mark opponents of the same gender, match-ups between people of different gender are not uncommon to see. Open divisions are common in Ultimate, where sex/gender is not explicitly relevant in team composition—although at highest competitive levels male players predominate these divisions. Accordingly, although women's divisions are also common, men's are not (only appearing in settings without open divisions).

In sport shooting, the physical demands are lower relative to other sports, though fatigue and grip may be different between sexes. Research is conflicting about the influence of sex in the performance of shooters. [5] In 1966 the International Shooting Sport Federation published its open events as mixed. From 1968 to 1980, men and women competed together in Olympic shooting. [6]

In the NCAA, the main governing body of college/university sports in the US, the only sport in which men and women compete against one another directly is rifle shooting. While male and female riders compete against one another in international equestrian sports, NCAA-recognized competition is open only to women, currently as part of the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program. The NCAA awards a combined men's and women's team championship in two sports—fencing and skiing—but all individual bouts or races involve members of the same sex, and teams field separate men's and women's squads.

In dog sled racing, male and female mushers are in direct competition. About 1/3rd of mushers in the Iditarod are female, and finishers in the top ten are proportionately split by gender. [7]

In most forms of motorsport, men and women are allowed to compete in direct competition. There are some series which are female only in an effort to promote women in motorsport, most notably W Series and Formula Women. However, these series have caught criticism for segregating female drivers as opposed to supporting them in their own campaigns.

Mixed doubles or pairs

A mixed-sex pair, participating in FINA World Championships of synchronised swimming, waves to the crowd before diving into water. Mixed duet free final (33).jpg
A mixed-sex pair, participating in FINA World Championships of synchronised swimming, waves to the crowd before diving into water.
A mixed-sex pair doing Figure skating. Lillehammer 2016 - Figure Skating Pairs Short Program - Justine Brasseur and Mathieu Ostiguy 3.jpg
A mixed-sex pair doing Figure skating.

A common form of mixed-sex event is for pairs of one male and one female.

Sports based on dancing usually have male/female pairings, such as ice dancing, pair figure skating, ballroom dancing and synchronised swimming duets. In these sports/events, the male and female participants physically work together (often to music) to jointly produce an artistic athletic performance. Similarly, taekwondo poomsae, which is performance-based, also has a mixed pair event.

Mixed doubles are events where two mixed-sex pairs directly compete (that is, all four competitors are in open play as two teams). This is particularly found in racket sports (which rarely have larger teams), including tennis, table tennis, badminton, squash and racquetball.

Pairs may also compete in turn-based games: one format (out of many) alternates the woman and man of each pair just as the competing sides alternate, so each round has four turns of individual action. Well-suited to strategy-based sports (such as mixed doubles curling, mixed golf, mixed bowling, mixed team darts) where players can beneficially undertake mental planning or assessment while waiting for their turn. [8] Separate male and female performances may also be scored then added to produce mixed team results in such sports as diving. Synchronised diving is also found in mixed-sex format. In professional wrestling, mixed tag team matches do not explicitly alternate in a turn-based manner but each wrestler only faces their opponent of the same sex (switching occurs at players' discretion). [9] [10] Intergender wrestling between a man and a woman also occurs but is scripted like other professional wrestling.

Mixed relay

In non-vehicular racing sports the physiological differences between the sexes often preclude head-to-head competition between people of different sexes at the elite level. Mixed-sex events are often held though with a relay race format.

In running, a 4 × 400 m mixed relay race was introduced at the 2017 IAAF World Relays, and added to the 2019 World Athletics Championships (details) and 2020 Summer Olympics (details). In addition, a 2 × 2 × 400 m and shuttle hurdles mixed relay races were introduced at the 2019 IAAF World Relays. The Match Europe v USA in 2019 had a mixed 200+200+400+800 m sprint medley relay.

In cross country running, a 4 × 2 km mixed relay race was added at the 2017 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

In swimming, mixed relay races were introduced at the 2014 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) (4 × 50 m freestyle and medley), the 2015 World Aquatics Championships (4 × 100 m freestyle and medley), and the 2020 Summer Olympics (4 × 100 m medley). In open water swimming, mixed-gendered relays were introduced at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships (4 × 1250 m).

In triathlon, the ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championships mixed relay race has been held since 2009. Also, the triathlon at the Youth Olympic Games has a mixed relay race since 2010, and the event was introduced at the 2020 Summer Olympics (details). As in standard triathlons, each triathlon competitor must do a segment of swimming, cycling and running.

In biathlon, a mixed relay race was first held at the Biathlon World Championships 2005 in Khanty-Mansiysk (4 × 6 km), and it was added to the 2014 Winter Olympics (4 × 6 km / 7.5 km).

In road cycling, the 2019 UCI Road World Championships introduced a team time trial mixed relay where first three men and then three women ride together as a national team. [11] Distances vary in road cycling. The 2019 race was 2 × 14 km.

In mountain biking, the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships has a mixed team relay race since 1999.

Mixed team sports

In adventure racing teams of 4 must include at least 1 member of the opposite sex. Archery also incorporates mixed-team competition (which can also be seen at the Olympic level).

In a number of countries, club underwater hockey is mixed-sex with any ratio of sex allowed. However, national teams usually compete in single sex teams.

Mixed team ball sports

Mixed-sex forms of ball sports involve set numbers of each sex per team, sometimes defining the roles in the team by sex/gender (examples include korfball, Baseball5, coed softball, quadball, dodgeball, touch/tag rugby, American flag rugby,Flag football, wheelchair handball, and wheelchair rugby, wheelchair rugby league, and Netball).

Olympics

Ancient

Sports were almost never mixed in any way in ancient Greece. [12] Women were forbidden from competing in or viewing the ancient Olympic games. [note 1] They competed at the separate Heraean games, from which men were excluded. [15] Although taking place in the same stadium as the Olympic games and also every four years, it was an unrelated festival (of Hera) with fewer sport events, none of which exactly matched Olympic counterparts. Olympic winners were honoured in the Sanctuary of Zeus; Heraean winners at the Temple of Hera (where since 1936 the modern movement has lit and kept the Olympic Flame). [16]

Modern

Andy Murray and Laura Robson competing in the tennis mixed doubles event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Andy Murray and Laura Robson -Wimbledon, London 2012 Olympics-3Aug2012-c.jpg
Andy Murray and Laura Robson competing in the tennis mixed doubles event at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Mixed-sex sport has a long history at the modern Olympic Games, dating back to the 1900 Summer Olympics (the first in which women participated). Two women competed against men in equestrian events, [17] the croquet competition was mixed-sex, [18] and Hélène de Pourtalès was the sole female sailor, achieving the Olympics' first mixed-sex team champion as part of the gold medal-winning Swiss team. [19] The sole time Olympic motorboating was held (1908), Sophia Gorham took part in a mixed British team. [20]

Mixed doubles tennis was first contested in 1900 but fell off the programme after 1924 before being reintroduced in 2012. [21] Mixed doubles badminton was introduced in 1996. [22]

Pair figure skating was present at the summer games in 1908 and 1920 before continuing as a founding event at the first Winter Olympic Games. [23] Ice dancing expanded the mixed figure skating programme in 1976. [24]

Sailing at the Summer Olympics was mostly mixed-sex up to 1988 but grew increasingly divided, with no mixed sailing events being held in 2012. [25] Similarly, shooting at the Summer Olympics continued on a mixed basis in several events from 1968 to 1992, before competitors were restricted by sex. [26]

There was an increased focus on mixed-sex competition at the start of the 21st century, with new introductions including mixed biathlon relay, team figure skating, and luge mixed team relay in 2014, then Nacra 17 in 2016, and mixed doubles curling and mixed team alpine skiing in 2018. Mixed team shooting events and table tennis mixed doubles are set for inauguration at the 2020 Summer Olympics. [27] [28] Mixed-sex relay events are also slated for the 2020 athletics and swimming programmes. These changes resulted from an International Olympic Committee initiative to increase women's participation towards parity with men's – the recasting of men's events as mixed-sex ones was a part of this initiative. [29]

Baseball5 will be played at the 2026 Summer Youth Olympics, and will be the first Olympic team sport involving mixed-sex teams. [30]

Transgender inclusion

In the 2020s, in response to anti-transgender sentiment in sports, several international and national sports federations prohibited transgender athletes from competing in the female category and created a separate "open" category to allow for transgender, non-binary or cisgender male athletes to participate, including the British Triathlon Federation, [31] International Swimming Federation (FINA) [32] and British Cycling. [33] This has created de facto mixed-sex sports competitions.

Such open categories have been criticized by transgender athletes and LGBT rights activists as transphobic. In addition, few athletes have signed up for open-category competitions, such as that for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships. [34]

See also

Notes

  1. Penalty was being thrown from the cliffs of Mount Typaion. [13] [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Relay race</span> Team sport in athletics, swimming, etc

A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating. In the Olympic Games, there are several types of relay races that are part of track and field. Relay race, also called Relay, is a track-and-field sport consisting of a set number of stages (legs), usually four, each leg run by different members of a team. The runner finishing one leg is usually required to pass the next runner a stick-like object known as a "baton" while both are running in a marked exchange zone. In most relays, team members cover equal distances: Olympic events for both men and women are the 400-metre and 1,600-metre relays. Some non-Olympic relays are held at distances of 800 m, 3,200 m, and 6,000 m. In the less frequently run medley relays, however, the athletes cover different distances in a prescribed order—as in a sprint medley of 200, 200, 400, 800 metres or a distance medley of 1,200, 400, 800, 1,600 metres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Triathlon</span> International triathlon governing body

World Triathlon, previously known as the International Triathlon Union (ITU), is the international governing body for the multi-sport disciplines of triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon and other nonstandard variations. It is recognised as the international federation for the sport of triathlon and its derivatives by the International Olympic Committee, and it organises Olympic triathlon events on behalf of the IOC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mixed doubles</span>

Mixed doubles or mixed pairs is a form of mixed-sex sports that consists of teams of one man and one woman. This variation of competition is prominent in curling and racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis, and badminton, as well as gymnastics, figure skating, and card games such as contract bridge.

Netball has never been played at the Summer Olympics, but its federation has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), since 1995 after a twenty-year period of lobbying. The netball community sees netball's absence at the Olympic Games as a hindrance to the global growth of the game, depriving it of media attention and funding. The IOC requires a high geographical scope for inclusion in the Olympics, but netball is mostly played in Commonwealth countries. When the IOC recognized netball's federation, it opened up sources of funds that the global netball community had not been able to access before, including the (IOC), national Olympic committees and sports organisations, and state and federal governments.

The World Triathlon Mixed Relay Championships, is an annual team triathlon competition organized by World Triathlon. The competition is completed in teams of four, two men and two women, with each member doing a super-sprint distance triathlon.

The World Triathlon Championship Series is World Triathlon's annual series of triathlon events used to crown an annual world champion since 2008. There are multiple rounds of competitions culminating in a Grand Final race. Athletes compete head-to-head for points in these races that will determine the overall World Triathlon champion. The elite championship races are held, with one exception, over two distances, the standard or 'Olympic' distance and the sprint distance. The ITU world champion between 1989 and 2008 had been decided in a single annual championship race.

The participation of transgender people in competitive sports, a traditionally sex-segregated institution, is a controversial issue, particularly the inclusion of transgender women and girls in women's sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canada at the 2018 Commonwealth Games</span> Sporting event delegation

Canada competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia from 4 April – 15 April 2018. It was Canada's 21st appearance at the Commonwealth Games, having competed at every Games since their inception in 1930.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Participation of women in the Olympics</span>

The rate of participation of women in the Olympic Games has been increasing since their first participation in 1900. Some sports are uniquely for women, others are contested by both sexes, while some older sports remain for men only. Studies of media coverage of the Olympics consistently show differences in the ways in which women and men are described and the ways in which their performances are discussed. The representation of women on the International Olympic Committee has run well behind the rate of female participation, and it continues to miss its target of a 20% minimum presence of women on their committee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">China at the 2018 Winter Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

China competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, from 9 to 25 February 2018. China competed in 12 sports, participating in bobsleigh, skeleton, and ski jumping for the first time. China won 9 medals in total.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

Great Britain, or in full Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the team of the British Olympic Association (BOA), which represents the United Kingdom, competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Czech Republic at the 2022 Winter Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

The Czech Republic competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Yee</span> British professional triathlete (born 1998)

Alexander Amos Yee is a British professional triathlete and distance runner. He won the silver medal in the Men's Triathlon at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the gold medal in the Triathlon Mixed Relay at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Saturday 31 July 2021. He is also the 2022 Commonwealth Games triathlon champion in both the men's and mixed team events. He is a double World Championship medalist over the World Triathlon Championship Series, with silver in 2022, and bronze in 2021

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italy at the 2022 Winter Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

Italy competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022. With Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo being the host of the 2026 Winter Olympics, an Italian segment was performed at the closing ceremony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germany at the 2024 Summer Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

Germany is scheduled to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris from 26 July to 11 August 2024. It will be the nation's ninth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympic Games after its reunification in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triathlon at the 2024 Summer Olympics</span>

The triathlon competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are scheduled to run from 30 July to 5 August at Pont d'Iéna, featuring a total of 110 athletes who will compete in each of the men's and women's events. After a successful debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics, the mixed relay competition will remain in the triathlon program for the second time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukraine at the 2023 European Games</span> Sporting event delegation

Ukraine competed at the 2023 European Games, in Kraków and Małopolska, Poland, from 21 June to 2 July 2023. Ukraine entered 266 athletes in 27 sports. Ukrainian athletes did not qualify to compete in beach handball, padel and rugby sevens.

The triathlon mixed at the 2023 European Games, in Kraków, was held on 1 July 2023. A total of 16 teams of four athletes each, two men and two women running in the male - female - male - female format will compete over the super-sprint relay distance. This will be the first appearance of triathlon mixed relay in the European Games program. Both the reigning Olympic and World Champions at mixed relay, Great Britain and France, are set to start : both have already qualified for the event in Paris 2024.

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