The gender-neutral sports competitions for schoolchildren in Helsinki caused a stir when the boys took home almost all the medals. HS talked to three experts who wanted many kinds of reforms in school sports.
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Elementary school children children’s gender-neutral sports competitions have raised the question of whether it makes sense to make girls and boys compete against each other.
The discussion started when the athletics competitions for 3rd to 6th grade schoolchildren were organized in Helsinki in September, where girls and boys competed in joint series.
The competitions were organized by the city of Helsinki, which justified the joint series by the fact that even children who do not feel they are girls or boys could participate in the event.
The sports were, for example, running, long jump and shot put. The three best athletes in each age category were awarded.
In the competitions, the boys grabbed the biggest medal haul, as only 16 out of 60 medals remained for the girls. What was the point of this?
Top sports Institute Kihu’s leading expert in sports pedagogy Minna Blomqvist says that until the beginning of puberty, girls and boys have no differences in physical development.
Girls and boys do equally well when testing motor skills until they are 9–10 years old, says Blomqvist.
Bigger differences in children’s physique begin to emerge with puberty. Girls usually start puberty a couple of years before boys, around 11–13 years old. During that time, height accumulates and weight increases. Fat mass grows in girls and muscle mass in boys.
Differences in skill in different sports are encountered even before puberty.
“For example, in throwing there are differences at a very early stage,” says Blomqvist.
He suspects it’s because boys are often throwing rocks and balls while girls are doing something else.
“If girls practiced throwing as much, there wouldn’t be such a huge difference in skills between the sexes,” says Blomqvist.
Gender neutral Blomqvist doesn’t immediately knock out sports competitions. However, he would like competitions to include sports that take into account the special skills of both sexes:
“Girls usually have good balance and agility, boys maybe more strength and speed.”
“Sports should be done in the school world so that everyone has enough enthusiasm or at least the enthusiasm for sports is ignited. The most important goal is that the children get to know different sports as versatile as possible,” says Blomqvist.
Also junior and docent of exercise physiology for young people Eero Haapala The University of Jyväskylä says that children under the age of ten do not necessarily have differences in, for example, muscle strength and maximum oxygen uptake capacity.
Despite this, boys can have more power and speed.
“A large part of the differences arise in what was offered to boys and girls as children. Have the boys done more running and jumping? Boys can be interested in snuggling up, and girls can be interested in different things,” says Haapala.
According to Haapala, the dispersion in boys is also greater than in girls, for example in height, weight and brain structure. While girls are on average a more balanced group in different skills, according to Haapala, boys can be very skilled individuals in exercise, but also really weak movers.
Approaching adulthood, the differences grow. At that time, boys’ strength levels can be more than 50 percent higher than girls’.
Gender neutral Haapala does not have a strong opinion about sports competitions. But what he would like to see is that before the competitions, both girls and boys would have been given the same opportunities to develop.
“When different qualities have been supported in childhood, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to organize joint competitions.”
As an example of this, Haapala brings up skating. While the girls are offered figure skates and practice pirouettes, the boys are put in the rink after the puck.
Perhaps physical education could be common to both girls and boys during elementary school, Haapala thinks.
“In joint exercises, we could develop skills together and bring in different issues of equality and group dynamics.”
Health promotion reader Sami Kokko from the University of Jyväskylä, particularly considered the meaningfulness of competition and rewards in gender-neutral athletics competitions for schoolchildren.
According to Koko, the differences between individuals in physical skills can be huge even in children.
“If you want to organize competitions, could you think about a level match there, so that you get opponents of the same level”, Kokko ponders.
Instead of girls’ and boys’ sets, this could mean, for example, different skill sets. According to Koko, in addition to physical development, a big importance in children’s skills is general physical activity and background.
“If there is a fifth-grader participating in the race who has practiced a sport since he was four, then he is a mile ahead of the others. What is the idea of the competition then?”
bonfire does not consider performance sports in school physical education to be in line with the current curriculum at all.
The purpose of school sports is to support and develop well-being and health, both physically, psychologically and socially. In school physical education, the skills and development of individuals should be taken into account.
In gender-neutral athletics competitions for schoolchildren in Helsinki, the three best in each age group were awarded in different sports.
“The event seemed to emphasize competitiveness and rewarding the top three. If a child with less mobility participated in the race, he should also have been rewarded for participating,” says Kokko.
Junior and the movement of young people is flowing in a worrying direction, says Liitu 2022, a publication produced by the State Sports Council.
According to the study, both boys and girls exercise less than before, as only about a third of all children and young people aged 7–15 report meeting the exercise recommendation.
The gap between the physical activity of girls and boys is particularly worrying: boys achieved the recommended amount of physical activity in all age groups more often than girls.
According to the study, the decrease in movement in girls starts earlier than in boys.
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