“We perceive male athletes based on how good they are at their sports and there seems to be other things that come into female athletes, and it's not purely just on how good they are. It's how they look or what they wear and all those sorts of things. In male sports, very rarely does that come into account. Whereas, it seems okay to comment on other areas of a female’s life, whether it's sexuality, what they choose to wear, their body type, and all those sorts of things. It's completely irrelevant. You just want to be judged on your sport, that's the space that we're operating in. And it needs to be fair,” says the 32-year-old.
Her comments are backed by science. According to an experimental study conducted by Sam Gregory, who was working with Sportlogiq — a company that could animate an entire match with players represented by sticks — the way a sports match is packaged and broadcasted to the audience has a significant impact in the way the audience perceives the sport and the athletes.