Cross country is a sport run by thousands nationwide, ranking as the 6th most popular sport for high school girls and the 7th for high school boys. However, all over the country, women are often relegated to lesser race distances than men. This creates problems such as courses becoming more confusing and in the case of FCIAC runners, giving girls a potential disadvantage for their state level races.
For many dual meets in the FCIAC division, girls are put into a 4K race, while boys are almost always put into a 5K race. However, at the CIAC (state race), everybody runs a 5K, which can give the girls who usually run 4Ks a disadvantage. This can give them a lesser idea of how to pace their race due to them always running a shorter distance. When asked about the races, cross country runners Sofia Adelsberg and Ivy Yan both advocated for a change in the race distances, with Adelsberg stating that “equal suffering” was important, and Yan saying that it can be achieved by letting both boys and girls run the same distance no matter the course length.
This trend is also shown in collegiate level races elsewhere in the country, where men usually run 10Ks while women are only allowed to run 6Ks. This topic has become a strong center of debate within the running community in recent years, with many people even setting up petitions to either let women run the same distance or to average the race distances between the two genders. In 2021, a team known as Equal Distance was formed, which aims to bring attention to the disparity between the gendered race distances. They have done surveys asking college athletes on their opinions of the matter, and 96% of them stated that they believe that women could run more distance, and 86% said that they should either be able to compete in a 10K race or have both genders run an 8K.
Since the athletes themselves support the movement, this does raise the question as to why exactly race officials nationwide make women run lesser distances. While there’s no clear explanation for this, it likely stems from physiology and the idea that men are naturally faster than women. While this is true due to a variety of factors such as size, bone density, and a slightly higher aerobic capacity caused by men having larger hearts and lungs, it doesn’t excuse relegating women to lesser distances. The Equal Distance website itself states that in 2023, the cross country committee of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) was asked to reevaluate the distances and to ask the medical committee if there would be any medical issues if they let women run longer distances. They then proceeded to reject this request without asking the medical committee or the athletes for their opinions, which shows just how narrow-minded and deep rooted this problem is within sports.
From personal experience, this difference in the FCIACs and the collegiate level just doesn’t make sense. I’ve run four seasons of track, and the distances are always the same regardless of gender–with the one exception being the 100/110m hurdles, which is longer for men to compensate for a longer leg length. There’s no reason to automatically make girls run less distance than boys, as they’re entirely capable of running the same distance; we’re put into separate races for a reason, and removing a single kilometer for our division achieves nothing but making the race times slightly shorter.
In conclusion, the gender gap between race distances is a problem seen throughout the nation at all levels of racing. It seems that the only way to truly combat it is by spreading awareness, as seen with the aforementioned movement. Additionally, many coaches and course makers have been pushing for standardized lengths for both genders in recent years, which can lessen the intensity of the gap and give girls a chance to run a 5K prior to their state/county level competitions.
Check out the Equal Distance website for more information!
