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Separate marathons

By Rick Karcher, Michael McCann, Geoffrey Rapp, Greg Skidmore, and Howard Wasserman

Why don't they run the men's and women's Olympic marathons together? They run every other world-class marathon together. And this is the one sport (or event) in which space, rules, and logistics allow the separate competitions to be played simultaneously. And wouldn't it be a nice symbol for gender equity?

Update: Sunday, 7:30 a.m.

In response to Joshue'a comment that inertia trumps absent a compelling reason for combining them, let me rework my point to make it an assertion rather than a question: They should run both marathons together. The compelling reasons for doing so are that they run all other road races together anyway, the symbolic value of having men and women compete together is socially meaningful and furthers one element of the "Olympic spirit," and this is one sport where they can compete together--the fastest women run about 11 minutes behind the fastest men and the logistics allow it.

So I hereby propose this change for 2012.

Full post as published by Sports Law Blog on August 23, 2008 (boomark / email).