17 June 2020

Paralympian Dame Sarah Storey says coronavirus could be an opportunity to make sport more equal

Paralympian Dame Sarah Storey has said the coronavirus pandemic may be an opportunity for sport to become more equal.

The pandemic has seen many female leagues being cancelled as the men’s are played to a finish - the Premier League being a prime example after the Women’s Super League was abandoned.

Storey told The Telegraph: “I think we’re at a fork in the road. We could go down the route whereby we back men’s sport because we think ‘it costs more therefore it must be more important; it’s had more money in the past therefore it must be worth saving first’.

“Well actually, you could go down another route where you think about how you could save both sides of the sport. 

"I think by taking a more holistic approach and looking more broadly you give more opportunity to the whole spectrum.”

And the 14-time Paralympic champion has said she expected the sporting world to be a more equal place than it is in 2020.

“I believe we could use the horrific situation with Covid to change sport for the better and bridge a gap we’d hoped to bridge in the last 30 years.  

“We’ve not made as much headway as I would have expected. If you’d said to me as a 14 year old [at the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona] ‘Where would you expect women’s sport to be in 2020?’ I would have probably imagined a much more equal world.”

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