Question by Ed999: Why are women’s cycling events shorter?
I’m thinking of World Championships and Olympic events. In athletics women race the standard distances the men do, so why is cycling different? Note: at one point in the 70s the great Beryl Burton held a women’s record that bettered the men’s record (12-hour time trial)!
Best answer:
Answer by mtrlbiker
It was not so long ago that women were considered too fragile for any endurance event. The first woman to run the Boston Marathon was only allowed to run because the organizers did not realize she was a woman because her name was one that is used by both sexes. This was not all that long ago. Jeannie Longo is still competing and winning, and she went to the Olympics the first time that women were allowed to participate. All this is to illustrate that female athletes, and cyclists in particular are still at the beginning of things and are gradually moving forward against the resistance of attitudes of the first half of the last century
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