Wimbledon has finally agreed to equal pay. The NY Times reports:

- After years of holding out against equal prize money, Wimbledon bowed to public pressure Thursday and agreed to pay women players as much as the men at the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament.

The U.S. Open and Australian Open have paid equal prize money for years. The French Open paid the men’s and women’s champions the same for the first time last year, although the overall prize fund remained bigger for the men.

My views are pretty much uniform on the equal pay issue which I had expressed in a detailed post about a year back:

I scoff at the idea (of equal pay). The issue is not about women’s rights. The issue is not about equality. The issue is about market worth. If women’s tennis is more sellable, I would not grudge it even paying more than men’s tennis does. I do not like that the other 3 Grand Slams have succumbed to the pressure tactics in one way or another, at one point or the other other.

Women’s tennis and men’s tennis are different sports. So if one has more spectators than the other, one gets more revenue and distributes more to the players.

Equality in pay is not the right answer. If the women attract more money, pay them more; if they attract less money, pay them less. I don’t see why equal pay should ever even come into the equation in the given scenario.

While the 100 metre world record battle is being followed, there is another less glamarous event where the world record is being broken and reclaimed - women’s hammer throwing.

CNN Reports:

Russia’s Tatiana Lysenko reclaimed the world record in the hammer throwing 77.41 meters at the Znamensky memorial international athletics meeting in Russia on Saturday…

Lysenko had previously held the record of 77.06m which she set in Moscow last July. Romania’s Mihaela Melinte previously dominated bettering the mark three times between 1998 and 2005.

The rivalry between Lysenko and Khanafeyeva is expected to continue during the European championships in Gothenburg, Sweden from August 6-13.

Hammer throwing as a sport has a fascinating history. Hammerthrow.com traces it:

Legends trace it to the Tailteann games held in Tara, Ireland, about 2000 D.C., and tell of the Celtic hero Cuchulainn who gripped a chariot wheel by its axle, whirled it around his head, and threw it father than did any other mortal. Wheel hurling was later replaced by throwing a boulder attached to the end of a wooden handle. Among the ancient Teutonic tribes forms on hammer throwing were practiced at religious festivals honoring the God Thor.

In school, each person used to enter into 4-5 events for the intra-school event. So I did put my name in for hammer throwing a few times as well. In case you are wondering, I never won an arm wrestling match - let alone a hammer throwing contest.

Maybe I should just stick to watching the world cup!

Michelle Wie is achieving what few women have managed - competing in a man dominated professional sport. CNN reports:

Sixteen-year-old Michelle Wie on Friday became the first women to make the cut in a major men’s tour event for 61 years at Incheon, South Korea.

Wie fired four birdies on her way to a three-under 69 in the second round of the Asian Tour’s SK Telecom Open to put at her at five under.

The last woman to make the final two rounds of a senior men’s event was Babe Zaharias at the 1945 Los Angeles Open.

Babe Zaharias did it in another era. That no one managed it till now in golf, since then, is testimonial to the increasing standards in golf, and gives some understanding to what Wie is achieving. Analysts and golf writers say that we might only start understanding what Tiger Woods achieved in golf, the barriers he broke and what he meant to golf only after many years of the Woods retirement.

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Chinese woman footballer Sun Wen first made her debut appearance for the national team at the age of 17. She played 13 years for the China. During the period, she was part of the team which won the Olympic Silver medal in the 1996 Atlanta games, took part in 4 the inaugural four women’s FIFA World Cups, won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball for the 1999 World Cup (where China finished runners up) and shared the FIFA Player of the century award with American Michelle Akers.

What is Wen doing now? At 33, Wen is washing her own kits. China Youth Daily reported it initially and an English report on it can be found in Malaysian The Star:

Sun Wen and her teammates are accommodated in rooms no more than six square metres with dirty sheets on tiny beds, malfunctioning television sets and air-conditioning and a leaking toilet, according to a report in the China Youth Daily.

“I buy a plastic basin to do my laundry wherever I go,” the 33-year-old Sun Wen told the newspaper. “I’m afraid I’ll have to bring my own bedclothes next time.”

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