atro_city

OK, I'll just add an edit to the description, but for you too: the suggestion isn't to force desegregation. It's to allow it. Someone else made a better suggestion: segregate by attributes specific to the sport. In boxing it's weight class, in basketball it could be height, in biking it could even be doped and non doped. Sex and gender need not be the very first thing to segregate by.

Finally, the option to compete together should still be the default, IMO. Some people probably would like to join a mixed team, but simply can't because it isn't allowed. For example if basketball were segregated by height, some shorter players would maybe like to play in the mixed team regardless (maybe they hit a skill ceiling in their league, maybe they don't like the idea of segregation, etc.).

Does that answer your question?

No, it doesn't answer if it'll be the same for all sports. As others have pointed out archery, shooting, curling, and other sports have men an women competing either separate or together and women can compete at the same level.

As for football, yes, there's a good chance there'll be stark differences, but as I pointed out in another comment, not every sport is about raw strength. And, competing against stronger opponents can also raise your ceiling. How far is of course yet to be seen because we don't have mixed leagues.

And again, the suggestion isn't "NO MORE SEGREGATION EVER" it's "should we let them compete against each other". That means there'll be a mixed and segregated league. Maybe even, as somebody else suggested, the segregations wouldn't always be immediately by sex or gender, but by attributes that make sense in that sport e.g weight, muscle mass, height, skill, and so on.

Yes, that's a sport where segregation makes sense. But the suggestion isn't to force desegregation, it's to to let all genders compete against each other.

They wouldn't be in the same weight class -_-

Because in real life I don't like people looking over my shoulder at everything I do and digital snooping is the same (or worse).

Ah, the typical "it's always worked this way". Well, there's no need to elaborate then. Why ever change? Everything is perfect as it is.

I think that by default sports should have a single league for everyone, unless data shows that some physical attribute has an undue impact on performance. Then leagues should be split by that attribute.

Yes, precisely what I mean. I wasn't suggesting that all sports be forced to be exclusively mixed, yet somehow that's what people understood the question as.

Would you have a link to that? It sounds like an interesting concept.

That is your assumption. You cannot know that across all sports. It would most certainly be true for sports limited or focused on physical strength, but beyond that, there's no way to know for certain.

If you've played any sport, you'll know that brute strength isn't the sole determining factor for success. Technique is very important too. Tactics cannot be ignored either. In football for example, just play "try to get the ball" in a square where one chases the ball. You might be the fastest player on the team but never catch the ball even against players who don't move.

Also, competing against stronger opponents is how people learn and "level up". You learn how to deal with different, faster, slower, more technical, stronger, even more intelligent opponents. Again, if you've ever played sports (or just games), you'll know what it feels like to think you're the best, then get decimated by an opponent, but in doing so realize what you were doing wrong - especially when competing against that opponent multiple times. Women and men might have a higher ceiling than they think, but unless they compete against each other continuously, they won't know.

Thank you for the response!

I definitely agree that role models are important and that starting early is the key in chess. I can't remember the names, but it was tested by a researcher on his own daughters: he trained them in chess very early on they all became grand masters. In fact, the list of known chess grandmasters has 42 women on it.

Women are mentally capable of playing chess at the highest level if given the opportunity to do so.

So yes, giving them a space to compete against each other can serve as a "safe" space, it doesn't mean that it should be the only place they compete, nor that they are incapable of holding their own against other genders.

The question isn't either "should all sports force no segratation", but "should all sports let everybody compete together".

I'd really love sources on that since I don't follow those sports. Are they mixed?

But in chess, there are a definitely female grand masters (whatever that means). Pool had the famous "black widow" player. Who even plays darts? I only know of one fat Brit who has dominated against other men. No idea if women even play.