2021 NCAA Equal Distance Proposal by Nathan Alsobrook, Bowdoin College
Presented on June 16th, 2021, to the NCAA Ski Committee:
We propose that all NCAA Championship Nordic ski competitions be held with equal race distances for women and men. We have 4 reasons for proposing this change:
1. Separate race distances are outdated and unnecessary - if we were starting Nordic ski racing from scratch (at the NCAA level or any other level), we would not have separate distances for men and women. Women have repeatedly proven that they can compete successfully in the same distances as men. Both in other sports (swimming, track, triathlon) and in Nordic skiing (Visma Ski Classics), women and men race equal distances at the highest level of the sport.
2. When men and women compete in the same distances, there is significant overlap between the respective fields – the race experience is much more similar than with our current separate race distances (see Appendix A).
3. Equalizing race distances incentivizes us to offer all athletes a wider range of race distances based on age-appropriate development rather than gender (see Appendix B).
4. Most importantly, equalizing race distances sends a powerful message of gender equality, to the ski community as a whole and particularly to young women and girls.
Recent events have shown that any athletic organization offering a separate program for men and women in 2021 should have a compelling reason for doing so. There is no compelling reason to require men and women to race separate race distances. Equal distances are going to happen eventually, just like women competing in marathons, women competing in ski jumping, or women competing in sports at all. Let’s put ourselves on the right side of history and make this change now.
Appendix A:
Graphs made by Lily Koffman.
Appendix B:
Equalizing distances opens up many potential championship formats. A pairing of one individual start race (eg, 5k, 10k, 15k) with one head-to-head race (eg, sprint, mass start 15 or 20k) would preserve the current basic structure while allowing us to revitalize the menu of races. Here are a few examples of potential formats:
Year 1 - 5k & 20k mass; Year 2 - 10k & 15k mass
Year 1 - Sprint & 10k; Year 2 - 5k & 15k
Year 1 - Sprint & 20k; Year 2 - 10k & 15k
Here is the response from the NCAA Ski Committee rep Mark Bedics:
Copying the Nordic coaches who were on the call in case they feel I am not characterizing the conversation correctly. Ultimately the committee was in favor of the proposal in concept, but were not ready to mandate this for the 2022 championship. They felt the best course of action would be to encourage every region to do it for at least one competition this winter (if not more) as the committee doesn’t have the ability to mandate this for the regular season. The main concern at this point is to make sure the student-athletes are on board with the change. By doing it in the regular season, it would enable them to have a valid understanding of what it would mean for training, race day, etc. and therefore form an educated opinion of what they would like to do moving forward.
Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks. Mark.