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Welcome to The Feist, everything you want to know in women's sports & performance 1x/wk from Feisty Media.

Help us get the word out and forward this to someone who loves women's sports. And, be sure to subscribe so your Tuesday mornings are always full of feist.

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$1.6 million

- The annual salary for the new USWNT soccer head coach, Emma Hayes—putting her on par with the salary for the men's team's head coach and making her the highest paid women's soccer coach in the world. Taking over a legendary team in a bit of disarray, the Chelsea FC coach will have her work cut out for her.

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This week's story in women's sports

Women race 6K, men race 10K at the NCAA Cross Country Championships

This past weekend, a record number of people showed up in Charlottesville to watch the NCAA Cross-Country Championships. They got what they came for: an exciting race.

Florida's Parker Valby—who was outkicked by NC State's Katelyn Tuohy last year—took the lead about three minutes into the 6K course and never gave up the front spot. Ultimately she won by over 10 seconds (18:55 for 6K)—which is a lot for this race.

“I just said to myself, ‘No looking back. Once you go for it, you go for it.'"

While Valby's a star (recently signing Nike's first NIL deal with a female runner) and took the win after running just ~30 miles/week (which is not a lot for that level), the bigger story was the team competition.

Two-time defending champs NC State seemed poised to lose this year—even with Tuohy. Undefeated NAU beat them handily earlier in the season and looked like they'd take the national title. NC State, on the other hand, had two athletes who were injured, were relying on first-time runners at the national champs, had their #2 pull out earlier this week. And then defending individual champ Tuohy got sick!

It was close throughout the race, but every one of their runners closed hard in the final kilometer and Tuohy rallied (even with being sick!) up to 5th place. The team ended up winning over NAU by just ONE POINT. 

Here's the video of when Tuohy found out.

This is what makes NCAA cross-country so exciting and so dramatic: every athlete, even athletes who won't go on to race professionally, matters. They're all in this together.

WATCH: 'Forever True' — the documentary about the Iowa State cross-country team that took a surprise second place at the 1985 national championship, before a plane crash on the way home killed many of the runners

(Photo: NCAA)

Now the question that everyone's asking—and the reason we're focusing on the topic this week: That race was amazing and the women's competition was incredibly exciting. So, why is the women race's still so much shorter than the men's? Give us more women's racing!

In DI & DII, the men run 10K. In DIII & NAIA, they run 8K. The women, instead, run 6K in all the divisions. Even based on time, the men's DI races are about 10 minutes longer than the women's.

Should women and men race the same distances at this point? And, if so, what distance? Is the men's distance automatically the "right" one? Not necessarily!

Of course, cross-country isn't the only sport where the women's events are often shorter than the men's. Women's cycling races are typically shorter, so are biathlon and skiing races, speedskating. Women race the heptathlon v. the men's decathlon (seven events v. ten). The list goes on and on.

A lot of this is absolutely 100% based in historical structural sexism. Women were originally not allowed to compete, and then were given "smaller" events due to concerns about their health and bodies. Women weren't even allowed to ski jump in the Olympics until 2014 because people were worried their ovaries would be damaged. And women didn't get to compete in the 1500m in swimming at the Olympics until...2021! 

And when it comes to NCAA cross-country, it wasn't actually until 2000 that the women even raced 6K instead of 5K—whereas the men have raced 10K since 1976 (and never shorter than 4 miles).

BUT.

That doesn't mean the men's distance or event is the right one. Why can't they do our distance instead? Or why can't we put more thought into a new different (but equal!) distance for everyone?

- Women's distances, events, locations have records and history and context now. Let the men lose their history instead! 

- Shorter races in cross-country have lent themselves to a greater range of track athletes being competitive—the 10K has meant fewer first-year men in the top 40, fewer mid-distance athletes in the front. In cycling, the women's races are faster and punchier because of the shorter distances.

- There also might be an argument for younger athletes (both men and women) not to make as big a jump from 5K in high school to 10K in college.

Of note: We're not talking about when there's an event the women simply aren't or weren't allowed to do, like the marathon, the Olympic ski jump, or the four-women bobsled. We're talking about when there are two equivalent events—yet the women's is somehow seen as lesser. Like, in this cross-country debate.

A few years ago, a campaign was started to equal up the race distances. Recommendations were made to study the move to 8K, but the NCAA hasn't acted. Now, an independent survey is being taken of college runners. What do they want?

WE VOTE 8K FOR EVERYONE! That's what Canada did in 2019.

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Tip of the week

People have long been obsessed with their "metabolism" and a 2021 study of energy expenditure across 6,400 people covering all ages continues to draw a lot of attention. It showed that metabolism picks up speed until about one year of age, stays constant from 20 to 60, and then starts a steady decline.

However, this misses the fact that about one-quarter of the people had metabolisms outside the average (though they showed a similar trajectory). And more importantly, it also misses all the other things that change with menopause and midlife, and all the other factors that relate to weight gain or loss. Don't overly stress about your metabolism! 

LEARN MORE: What Actually Happens to Your Metabolism During Menopause?

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The merch you need right now

How to be a part of the Feisty Women's Sports Fan Club? Easy.

Step 1: Rock the merch.
Step 2: Watch women's sports.

Dropping today: We’ve got comfy sweatshirts, statement hats, handy totes, and coffee mugs to show your support for your favorite female athletes. We’ve even got kid’s hoodies for the budding women’s sports fans.

For the holidays, orders outside of the U.S. need to be in by Nov. 28 and U.S. orders need to be in by Dec. 6. Plus, right now, 10% of the profit on all purchases made by Nov. 28 will be donated to Fast and Female, a group on on a mission to keep girls healthy and active in sports.

Just for our Feist readers: Use the code "watchwomenssports10" for 10% off everything in the Women’s Sport Fan Club Collection. 


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The highlight reel

  • 🚴‍♀️ Kaitlin Armstrong was found guilty in the murder of cyclist Mo Wilson. 
  • The youngest coach in DI sports, Erin Matson, led the University of North Carolina field hockey team to a national title in her first year. (Matson also won four national titles as a player—including last year.) How did she make that transition? Hard work, smart work, and a few awkward conversations.
  • 🏀🏀 College women's basketball is wild right now, with the top two-ranked teams pre-season both losing: LSU to Colorado and Iowa to Kansas State. Plus, LSU star Angel Reese has been absent without any explanation from controversial coach Kim Mulkey—and cue the behind-the-scenes drama.
  • 🏊‍♀️ 🚴‍♀️ 🏃‍♀️ This week, Ariana Dinu became the youngest person to complete an Iron-distance triathlon (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run)—and set a world record as the fastest youngest person to do so, finishing in 15 hours, 20 minutes. Because athletes have to be 18 years old to race an official Ironman race, Ariana set the record at a local non-branded Iron-distance event. She, previously, was the youngest female to complete the 102-mile Tour of Tucson bike ride.
  • 🥇 Kris Rugloski won the World's Toughest Mudder for the second year—a 24-hour obstacle race—by completing 18 laps (90 miles). Last year, the full-time nanny became the first woman to complete 100 miles in the 24 hours.
  • 🏌️‍♀️ Amy Yang won the LPGA Tour Championship this weekend—and took home a record payout of $2 million.
  • 🏌️‍♀️ The LPGA also announced an even bigger record-breaking tour for 2024, with over $116 million in prize money.
  • 🥎 Pro softball is coming to Kansas.
  • And it's draft/free agency/lottery time! The WNBA draft lottery will air on ESPN on Dec. 10. The NWSL expansion teams signed their first players and the free agency period opens this week (with some big names on the market!). And the new hockey league, the PWHL, held its first draft back in September.
  • The annual SportsPro Media analysis of the 50 most marketable athletes in the world included 23 female athletes this year—with Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe both in the top 5. 

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Feisty recommendations

What to watch: 'Torched' — the story of the Torch, Austin's first pro women's & non-binary ultimate frisbee team 

What to read: 'Good for a Girl' — Lauren Fleshman's book on running, female athletes, and how the industry was shaped for and by men has been short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year

What to listen to: 'We Have Only Recently Acknowledged That Female Athletes Need to Eat'

What made us cringe: LSU coach Kim Mulkey might have COVID but won't test and doesn't care if she gets you sick

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