Beth Tweddle, Eugenie Bouchard and all women in sport deserve better

This week, tennis player Eugenie Bouchard became the first Canadian to reach a Grand Slam semi-final in 30 years. So, naturally, the courtside reporter conducting the post-match interview congratulated her on some of her finest achievements:  “You’re getting a lot of fans here … a lot of them are male”. Let’s not make the mistake of thinking that the pinnacle of a woman’s aspiration should be international success in her field – it’s attracting the male gaze that really matters. (To be fair, we should all have learned this important fact already, thanks to John Inverdale, who took the opportunity to broadcast his unfavourable opinion of Marion Bartoli’s looks during the very match in which she achieved the Wimbledon title last year.)But wait, there was more. With so many important questions to ask (How had it felt to achieve such a high-profile victory? How had Bouchard’s training regime prepared her for the tough match in soaring temperatures?), the interviewer naturally had to use her time wisely. So she asked this of the world-class player: “if you could pick anyone in the world of sport, of movies, I'm sorry they asked me to say this, who would you date?"And, predictably, the headlines followed. Not: “Tennis star breaks Canadian records”, or “Athlete at top of her game”, or, hell, even just “Bouchard reaches Grand Slam semi-final”. But: “Eugenie Bouchard picks Justin Bieber as dating material”, “Canadian tennis glamour girl … says she’d date Justin Bieber”, and, my personal favourite, “Eugenie Bouchard the Belieber reaches Melbourne semifinals”.So widespread is the utter lack of respect for sporting women that it could be argued that Bouchard’s treatment, at the pinnacle of her sporting career so far, wasn’t even the worst faced by a sportswoman this week alone. Because this was also the week that Sky Sports News ran a live Q&A session with world champion gymnast and Olympic medallist Beth Tweddle. Using the hashtag #Sportswomen, they encouraged followers to send in their questions for the elite athlete. But what followed was a string of mindless vitriol, misogynistic abuse and sheer, petty meanness.(theguardian.com)ANN.Az