Curious about the bias against women in sports? It's a complicated blend of sexism, misogyny, and the need for "men to protect women."

In 1898, a Berlin doctor wrote that “violent movements of the body can cause a shift in the position & a loosening of the uterus as well as prolapse & bleeding, with resulting sterility, thus defeating a woman’s true purpose in life, i.e., the bringing forth of strong children.”

Katherine Switzer, the 1st woman to officially run the Boston Marathon in 1967, recalls in her memoir how her HS basketball coach (a woman) told her that women would never play the men’s version of basketball because the “excessive number of jump balls could displace the uterus.”

Katherine Switzer ran Boston and - spoiler alert! - her uterus did not fall out! But the myths that women are fragile and unfit for sport remained in place, even as women's participation increased & soon made up half of all runners.

In 2010, the president of the International Ski Federation said on ESPN’s OTL that the female uterus might burst during landing from a ski jump, reiterating a statement he made in a 2005 NPR interview that ski jumping is “not appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view.”

This persistent narrative of women being fragile, incapable, & unfit for participation or competition is one of the core beliefs that allows media & sponsors off the hook for poor reporting & lack of investment in women's sports.

The belief that "sports are not appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view" is intended to keep cis men in a position of dictating what is "right" for women's bodies. It's also at the core of trying to keep female athletes who are transgender out of sport.