SA near the bottom in terms of gender equity at Commonwealth Games

Men still rule South African sport.

That much was obvious after the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast‚ where Team SA finished close to rock bottom in terms of gender equity among medalists.

Team SA improved to sixth on the medals table from seventh four years ago‚ but of the top 10 nations they had the lowest ratio of female medal-winners.

Women delivered 10 of SA’s 37 medals — or 27% — while six of the top-10 nations had more female medallists than men.

Men won 26 and one was delivered by the mixed lawn bowls pair.

Australia’s women won 53% of their 198 medals‚ Canada 62%‚ New Zealand 50% (they had three mixed medals)‚ Wales 53%‚ Nigeria 58% and Cyprus 57%.

The other three top-10 teams that had more medals from men still had better percentages than SA. For third-placed India it was 42% and second-placed England was on 40%.

Scotland‚ who ended eighth‚ was on 31%.

To find a nation with a worse ratio than SA‚ you have to go to Samoa‚ 17th with only five medals‚ with one from five‚ or 20%.

Then one had to go down to 24th spot where Pakistan‚ also with five medals‚ had no women contributing to their medal haul.

SA’s 10 female medals came from athletics (four)‚ lawn bowls (three)‚ swimming (two) and weightlifting (one).​