Two Oxford Vs Cambridge Boat Races Took Place Last Week – Yet Only One Dominated The Headlines

There are a lot of good things going for women in sport in 2019. We have two Women’s World Cups to look forward to over the summer in netball and football. Adidas announced equal performance bonuses for the Women’s World Cup winners. Just last month Barclays became the biggest ever women’s sports sponsorship deal, worth a cool £10 million. So far, so good, right? Well, over the weekend was another big deal for women in sport – the annual Boat Race that takes place between long-standing rivals Oxford and Cambridge. It’s only been four years since the decision was made to stage the women’s Boat Race on the same day as the men’s and over the same course – meaning 2015 marked the year that the women’s Boat Race was televised.

Sunday was the third straight win for the Cambridge women’s team but one story dominated the headlines - James Cracknell and the men’s team. There’s no denying Cracknell is some sort of phenomenon. At 46 years old, he’s the oldest man to row in the annual Boat Race. He is a double gold medal Olympian - Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 - and has rowed across the Atlantic in 49 days. His adrenaline-junkie/adventurous lifestyle has come at a cost though. He sustained a severe head injury nine years ago from a crash in Arizona when attempting to cycle, swim and row across the US within 18 days. Flash forward nine years, he has since recovered and is doing a masters in human evolution at Cambridge. When he’s not in class, he’s rowing with the ‘light blues.’ Fab fodder for the media.

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But why aren’t we hearing more about the women’s team? On Monday morning, national newspapers and tabloids were matched in their image of Cracknell, either grinning or looking exhausted (understandably enough). You’d swear there wasn’t a women’s Boat Race just an hour beforehand.

‘This coverage reflects systemic differences in how society treats men's versus women's sport, Abigail Parker, president of Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club (CUWBC) tells Grazia. ‘Male athletes are idealized and celebrated prominently, while women's sport lacks wide viewership outside of those involved or connected to participants.’

This has a knock-on effect - Parker tells me that, without the appropriate coverage, this makes it harder to get funding. “The services we provide our athletes don't come cheap. Both teams rely heavily on donations from alumni and supporters to make our program possible. Having more awareness of what we are doing, including media coverage of both our months of training and race results, makes it easier to garner support from various sources.”

Team captain Larkin Sayre admits that she felt a little bit sad for her team following the coverage of the race, believing that there is more to her crew than was shown. “Ida is a Danish rower and she came fourth in the world championships. She’s only 23 and got a silver medal in the world cup. Then there’s Lily who won the World Rowing Under-23 Championships and got a bronze medal for the US,” she tells me.

The thing is, the women work just as hard as the men. Sayre explains that both teams train 12 times a week. That’s twice a day midweek (in the morning and evening) as well as the weekends. Like their male counterparts, they too are juggling an intense academic lifestyle with their passion for sport.

Yet in May last year, Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club refused to take part in an international regatta in Split when they realised the men’s team would be housed in a five-star hotel while the women would be put up in a hostel. According to a Sunday Times report, the female rowers were also expected to pay for their own flights to the regatta, while the organisers of the event arranged the men's travel.

At the time, Club president Daphne Martschenko, said in a statement: 'It's advertised as a celebration of Cambridge and Oxford. The men and women are presented as teams that are on equal footing. And yet there is the disparity in terms of accommodation that’s quite stark.'

Anna Kessel, co-founder of Women in Football and Women’s Sports Editor at The Telegraph (the only newspaper to dedicate an article to the women’s team) agrees. “I think it’s completely unequal. Why would you have standalone pieces on the men’s race and not the women’s. It was a great race,” she says. “There’s room for women’s achievement, there’s room for talking about more than their life as an athlete and getting a divorce.”

“We’re at a point now where the women can now race on the Thames, they have the TV coverage, even the photos of the finale are photos of men and women together. That’s the main photo you saw at the end, a bit like what Manchester city are doing with their men and women’s team in football. It kind of feels in some ways like sport is moving ahead but media are not quite keeping up, they’re a bit out of touch.”

While Sayre is quick to point out that they don’t do it for the media attention, she does want them to be treated equally. Larkin likes to say that there are subtle differences between the two clubs, but is hard pressed for details. However, when asked about their previous coach, Robert Baker, who worked with CUWBC for six years and helped them transition to the ‘big leagues’ in 2015 (playing a big part in the women’s three-year winning streak) she says has mixed feelings on the matter. “There was a part of me that was a bit sad that moving over from the women to the men’s squad is a promotion, rather than an equal step,” says Larkin