Matildas player Katrina Gorry: The truth about being a female athlete

IT seems much of the population is still more interested in the spicy details of female athletes’ sex lives. This is what it’s really like being a female athlete in Australia.

Brisbane Roar W-League player Katrina Gorry has been named the Australian Women's Player of the Year (2014). Photo: Claudia Baxter

AS FOOTBALLERS, men and women both play under the same Laws of the Game, but in reality the rules are very different.

Ever since I started to perform well and represent my state and then become a Matilda, I have experienced a broad spectrum of reactions to women’s sport, some positive and some not so much.

It’s not uncommon that rather than being asked about our recent results at international level, people would ask about “that calendar” or whether we are considering doing another one in the future.

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One specific instance I can recall that highlights the emphasis being on a female athlete’s appearance as opposed to their skill or sporting talent was in a W-League game which was played as a curtain raiser to a Hyundai A-League match a few years ago.

Without going into the finer details, one of the girls overheard someone who was there from a media agency say: “look how hot that chick is” to one of his male counterparts.

I can’t speak for everyone but I’m pretty certain that wouldn’t have happened during the A-League game even if the media person was a woman.

The last thing I want is to make brash generalisations but it seems there is the issue that continues to rear its head around much of the population still being interested more about the spicy details of sexy female athletes, not what they have achieved or the level they are performing in their chosen sport.

Obviously I can only write on this subject on my experiences in women’s football and not so much on other sports, but there is still evidence that stereotyping persists in women’s football today despite the fact it has made amazing progress at local and international level.

Despite our success, we do not always command the same level of respect as our male counterparts nor do we gain the audience that male sport does.

Author: Westfield Matildas midfielder and AFC Women’s Asian Player of the Year award winner Katrina Gorry. Photo: Claudia BaxterPhoto: Claudia Baxter

Unfortunately the remuneration of many female athletes, particularly in our sport, is not measured on skill level, so much as it is the audience we attract.

At the moment men earn extraordinary amounts through football due to broadcast and sponsorship agreements, while the majority of Australian female football players have to work full-time or study at the same time to make ends meet while at the same time continuing to train and play at the highest level.

We manage the expectations that we have placed on as us professional athletes such as eating healthy and training hard, with the commitments of our everyday lives.

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But this is not meant or intended to be a critique or debate about inequality between genders, instead it’s more a chance to acknowledge and hopefully bring a realisation to people of the fact that female athletes are treated differently and face challenges that male athletes don’t.

Despite these challenges, we have an Australian Women’s Football team that is currently ranked 10th in the world and are on their way to compete at their sixth FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada in June.

All we need is society to recognise us for our achievements on the field and not be purely focused on how we look or what we do off the pitch.