When 16-year old Gabby Douglas dazzled London with her breath-taking gymnastics performance at the London 2012 Olympics, her hair was the last thing on the mind of the judges, the crowd or her competitors.
However, somewhere in cyber space the focus turned away from her achievement and focused solely on her mane. Thankfully, there were enough sensible people on Twitter that day to put the haters in their place.
It’s baffling to think that at the same age that many Americans get their driver’s license, Gabby has achieved one of the highest international honours – yet a small subsection of society felt it was necessary to detract from her achievement.
Unfortunately, it seems that whenever a female athlete excels in her field she may be subjected to scepticism and disparaging remarks.
Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen performed so phenomenally in the 400M individual medley that she swam the final leg of the event faster than Ryan Lochte did over the same distance. In place of the praise that a man might receive for such an achievement she received accusations of doping.
And who can forget Caster Semenya? Her reward for smashing the 800m at the 2009 World Championships was international scrutiny of her gender.
Although great strides have been made in levelling the playing field for women, it still feels as though a successful female athlete has to endure criticism before enjoying the praise that should accompany phenomenal achievement.
Ironically enough, the people who are quick to fire criticism, are likely to have won the ‘least likely to succeed’ award in high school.
Hopefully, all of the women who have achieved sporting success thus far continue withstand the criticism and continue on to greater success.
