Victoria Pendleton

I feel rather sad about this (especially the gold medallist who's now building the velodrome for 2012), and also kind of outraged on their behalf, as I am on behalf of the women I know who play / have played on the England football and rugby teams, and never made enough money out of it to give up their day jobs. Ridiculous when you think how much male footballers are paid.

It's not going to change in a hurry--most people have very superficial perceptions of gender roles and stereotype people. Put very crudely, men are supposed to be strong, but not beautiful, and women are supposed to be beautiful, but not strong. So you get very highly-paid male athletes, because they conform to the stereotype of being strong, and less highly-paid male models--and vice versa for women.

If people looked beyond their perception of gender more, they'd realise that it's a pretty superficial thing, and there are competitive women who make great athletes, and completely un-athletic men, all of whom have a lot to contribute to society.

But, as I said, it's not going to change very quickly, this. :(