... like this as long as sport is divided into female and male divisions. It's the price that has to be paid by the (usually) physically weaker sex for them to be able to compete at all. If you want it to end then the answer is obvious - abolish the division and force athletes to compete simply as people. Of course then there would be far fewer opportunities for women but perhaps that's what you want?

I read an interview only this morning with Claire Taylor, a star of the England women's cricket team, current world champions. She's an Oxford maths graduate who gave up a lucrative career to pursue her sporting ambitions - hardly a Neanderthal. She even used to play in a men's team to a reasonable level but would almost certainly have difficulty gaining a place on the national, or even a county team.

To suggest that athletes are some lower form of intellectual life is somewhat prejudiced. For example, Roger Bannister, the first man to beat 4 minutes for a mile, went on to become a respected hospital consultant and several of the young men who helped him to achieve his feat also had very successful careers in business (Chris Brasher) and politics (Chris Chattaway). There are others; it's just one of the things that sticks in my mind.

After all isn't mens sana in corpore sano an old Roman saying with some justification?

Incidentally I'm neither a sporting nor intellectual giant but I've enjoyed physical activity at a modest level for many years with very few trophies to my name.

Robi