Adam Peaty revelled in the opportunity, Jonny Brownlee said it had made his first Olympic gold medal even more special, and Andy Murray is a keen advocate. If three of Great Britain’s finest athletes think mixed events should be part of sport’s future, we should probably listen.
Mixed-gender competitions are on the rise at the Olympic Games and the talk in Tokyo is not of gimmicks or wokery, but of thrilling competition, progress and possibilities.
Brownlee talked about how uplifting it was to put a gold medal around his neck as part of a cause greater than his own aspirations; not just himself but a team. And a team that represented more than half the population.
Anna Hopkin, the British swimmer, described the excitement of trying to stay ahead of Caeleb Dressel, the United States swimming phenomenon, as he tried to catch female opponents in the inaugural 4x100m Olympic mixed relay. “I beat him!” she claimed with a smile after the Team GB quartet won.
And then there is the point that Peaty made. “It’s a fun event and that’s what sport needs,” he said. “It needs to be fun.” That word is probably used far too infrequently around elite competitions.
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The mixed relay tapped into something Peaty does not experience in the 100m breaststroke, and he loved it. “I had to chase down Lydia Jacoby [the US swimmer],” he said. “That’s the beauty of it. I don’t usually get behind and have to chase. It has an entertainment factor and that’s why we watch sport, right? It’s great to watch but also to be part of. And it’s great in terms of equality.”
Murray was gripped too. “How good are mixed events in sport?” he asked, already sure of his answer. “So many sports miss a trick not supporting and promoting them.” He was including his own.
The Olympics have brought the issue to the fore. The Games are about finding out the best across an array of disciplines, but “the greatest sporting show on earth” needs to be about more. How about helping to right some of the wrongs of so many decades of neglect of women’s sport by putting both sexes on the same footing? Breaking down some deeply entrenched perceptions?
And, as Murray argues, how about giving the public more of what they seem to enjoy? It was fascinating to hear about his experience of playing in the mixed doubles with Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2019.
“Usually the response when I bump into people after Wimbledon is ‘great job’ if I’ve done well or ‘bad luck’ if I haven’t,” he said. “With the mixed, even though we didn’t do so well, for months I had people saying, ‘It was amazing seeing you on court together, so much fun. We loved it, can you do it again?’ I found that really interesting. I never had that reaction. Not just public but friends and family. It probably translates to a different fanbase and engages the regular fans in a different way.
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“I get that from the Olympics. With the triathlon, I don’t know much about it but I felt more inclined to watch the mixed race. I found it really interesting, different. And what’s great at the Olympics is that you have the best racing against the best.
“Mixed doubles, it is quite rare that happens. When it did with Serena against [Roger] Federer in the Hopman Cup, it was huge. It went around the world, such a positive story for tennis. The next year it had gone off the calendar. How stupid when it engaged so many people.
“Sport should do a way better job to get men and women on the same court or pitch when it can make such good competition, engages fans, the players like it and it does change the image.”
The IOC has recognised the argument with nine more mixed events added in Tokyo than at Rio 2016, to take the total to 18. Additions have included mixed team archery, pistol and rifle competitions, and table tennis. Some have worked better than others.
The new sprint triathlon was a winner, and not only because Team GB triumphed. The race was less predictable. “We saw a great reaction after the individual races but it was off the charts from the relay,” Mike Cavendish, director of performance at British Triathlon, said.
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He thinks the IOC will consider introducing more mixed events. “Especially for those sports that haven’t been great in gender balance,” Cavendish said. “But we have to be careful it’s not just used for that. There have to be women’s standalone events.
“I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to encourage it. I really enjoy it when you can choose where you put the men and women. It adds to the jeopardy.”
It has not been a success everywhere. In athletics, the mixed 4x400m relay felt a let-down except, perhaps, to the surprise winners, Poland. Too many big names were missing from the stronger nations.
But at an Olympics with almost 50 per cent gender balance, there will be more — not less — mixed sport because, as Murray says, it taps into something different and more inclusive. Murray is so convinced that there are more opportunities that he ran an online poll: “Who else would love to see a mixed golfing event Ryder/Solheim Cup style?”
As he explains: “Golf hasn’t got a great image in terms of its inclusivity, certainly towards women. I could only see positive things from an event like that. I would love to watch it. I’d be surprised if it’s something the tours haven’t discussed.”
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When I proposed something similar a few years ago, readers of The Times seemed unimpressed — threatened even, when it came to many men. But Murray’s idea had 83 per cent approval on Twitter this week.
Maybe it needs him to champion it. Or maybe there is a growing recognition that — men, women, mixed — it should be possible to have the best of all worlds.
