Victoria Pendleton

My take on this depends on your definition of 'equality'. I can appreciate the many physical differences, but the reason women's sport lags behind in so many areas is because while boys have this thrust upon them at school, girls only tend to take up the less traditional sports later in their lives. At that point, the boys have many years of development behind them. It doesn't mean boys are necessarily better, more that they've had more of an opportunity to develop those skills over the years.

Can Pendleton ever beat Hoy? Can Radcliffe or Ndereba ever beat Tergat or Wanjiru? Probably not, but that's not the point...

It's not 'equality' to thrust women into sport at the same level, or in the case of some of the suggestions above, on the same playing field. Different sports have different merits - I know that I prefer watching women's tennis because it's based much more on brute power in the men's game (although some, like Federer, seem to be bucking that trend), whereas the women's game is more about skill.

In another area of my work, I get people trying to use positive action approaches, such as getting women into non-traditional roles, or people from a black background into management. These projects tend to miss the point entirely. You can't resolve 20-30 years' lack of opportunity with a positive action scheme that lasts a fraction of the time. The inequalities have to be addressed at the source. Instead of making girls play netball and boys football, you need to let people make their own choices. Maybe a female footballer will never be as powerful as a male, but if they've been playing since a young age, and have a considerable talent, there will be elements of their style that will set them apart in their own right.