Media in Martina's firing line

By Liam Del Carme

The media have to clean up their act in coverage of women's sport.

Some of sport's most celebrated female achievers concurred in Monaco this week that women deserve an equitable share of the media pie, while the focus of the coverage female athletes currently enjoy was also questioned at the Laureus World Sports Awards.

Dawn Fraser, who won four Olympic gold medals in three successive Games, was first to launch into the media for their lack of bending over for the female gender.

"In Australia we have a very hard time getting any women's sport on to the back pages of the papers. I know two female sportswriters but they

report on male sport," Fraser said.

Former Romanian gymnastics superstar Nadia Comeneci, who won five Olympic golds and achieved the perfect 10 at the 1976 Games, spoke of her similar frustration.

"In Romania, not that I have anything against it, the first page of every newspaper features soccer, then the rest get what's left over," the elegant, petite 40-year-old said.

The way women athletes are photographed also came into sharp focus. Nine-time Paralympic gold medallist Tanni Grey-Thompson revealed the findings of the British-based Women's Sports Foundation.

"They did some work on the portrayal of women. It was really interesting, especially how photographers took certain pictures of long jumpers in all kinds of sexy positions. They would not take the same pictures of men in the same way," she said.

While on the subject, it was difficult not to pop the question on the media's obsession with tennis starlet Anna Kournikova.

"Who are the media?" came Martina Navratilova's withering retort in reference to a male-dominated

domain. "I've read articles where they write Anna is getting too much publicity. They write an article about the fact that she's getting too much publicity. Enough said about her.

"People just make a big deal about looks, more so with women, but if a male athlete is extraordinarily good-looking he gets it too. Patrick Rafter had to deal with that. He is gorgeous, but that doesn't make him a better tennis player."

Navratilova was equally dismissive of criticism levelled at Sweden's world No 1 Annika Sorenstam, who this week broke the women's 58-year-old hiatus from the PGA Tour.

Navratilova was surprised to learn that Fiji's Vijay Singh, Sorenstam's most vociferous critic, had withdrawn from the tournament.

"I don't know what they are critical about. It's called the PGA Tour, it's not the men's PGA Tour. Presumably it's open to everyone.

"It's nice to see Annika giving it a go because I think she'll beat some of the men and they'll be very embarrassed.

"I think someone like Serena Williams can beat some men players who are making a decent living on the ATP tour."

- Liam Del Carme travelled to Monaco courtesy of the Laureus World Sports Awards