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AllFlying |
Profile:
Kira Llewellyn
 Australia
looks set to have another world champion from the curling waves of Maroochydore
in Queensland, yet few people know her name, or even what she does.
Twenty-two
year old Kira Llewellyn holds an unbeatable lead in the Women's world bodyboarding
tour. When the sun sets on the last tour event for 2005 in Venezuela, she will
be crowned World champion. Kira is a nine times National champion, and has been
involved in her sport for over ten years. She is a monument to women in sport
and a fierce competitor in a sport that is dominated by men in Australia.
Bodyboarding for both men and women has only come of age in the last 25 years
and the men lead the race in terms of recognition and prize money. Alike the stand-up
surfing road, woman have it twice as tough when it comes to being recognised for
their hard work and achievements.
Women are bodyboarding in some 40 countries.
Only in three of these, though, is it recognized as a national sport. In Australia,
men out number the women by 20:1, a sad statistic when in Japan, female bodyboarders
surpass men by 5:1.
Bodyboarding enthusiast and Kira Llewellyn fan from Tasmania,
Amanda Dahl , thinks it unbelievable that Australia has a World champion in their
midst and few media outlets have any interest. "Kira is an amazing competitor
and works so hard; she deserves the same recognition as any other female World
champion. It's not fair that a tennis player, for example, gets a half page article
for breaking into the world top ten and we have the best in the world right here
under our noses and nobody outside the sport seems to care," Amanda says.
Llewellyn, who surfs for a living, would be paid somewhere between $1000
and $5000 US for winning legs of the world tour. The $20,000 US prize for the
Sintra Pro in Portugal (which Llewellyn won this year) is the year's highest accolade.
Interestingly, Uri Valadao, who took out the men's event at the same tournament,
collected $40,000 US.
The Australian Pro Tour for women only started a few
years ago with most girls funding their own participation and travel expenses
to events all over the country. Only four girls in Australia are paid to bodyboard
professionally, Mandy Zieren, Lilly Pollard, Emma Roby and of course Kira Llewellyn.
 Whilst
Amanda believes that women should be entitled to the same prize money as men,
she concedes that female bodyboarding is still finding its feet in Australia and
many other countries around the world. "Attitudes are starting to change here
in Australia, Kira has some great sponsorship deals with surf shops and clothing
and equipment companies. I think as the domestic touring series for girls gets
better and more people are aware of it, more opportunities will arise for chicks
trying to enter the sport at a professional level."
"The men have it a bit
better, they have their video series' and magazines which do a great job in promoting
the sport and gets people from all over the country involved It probably helps
that Australia has thirteen men in the world top twenty-five this year but us
girls are never going to reach that point unless we are recognised for what we
do. Imagine the effect a publicized World champion could have on young girls entering
the sport or cruising around on their boogie boards at the beach in summer - they
would have someone to look up to and try to emulate," Amanda says.
Women in bodyboarding have an uphill battle ahead. Firstly the sport needs to
be acknowledged as distinctly separate from stand-up surfing and women need an
avenue through which to make themselves known.
Hopefully when Llewllyn is
deservedly crowned World champion later this year Australia will take notice of
the women dedicating their lives to their passion for surfing - and not just the
girls receiving world titles, but the ones making the world top fifty or one hundred,
the ones striving just to make Australian tour cut-off points and the girls out
there in the water day after day practicing to be that little bit better. Women
in surfing are under-rated, it's time the media looked outside the popularity
zone at sports where passion and effort are just as prominent as they are in athletics
or swimming. By
Leah Bound
MONEY
MATTERS In Australia
and all over the world, women in sport constantly battle funding problems and
issues of equality when it comes to match payments and prize money.
- Members of the Australian
netball team work full-time or part-time jobs as Netball Australia does not pay
them. Netball is the most popular sport amongst young girls in the country.
- Australian hockey players
are not paid at all. The Hockeyroos are multiple world and Olympic champions.
- In
1995, the Australian female soccer team funded its own overseas trips and only
in the last six years have the girls been paid to play and their travel expenses
covered.
- The
US and Australian Tennis Opens are the only two grand slams with equal prize money
for men and women. The French Open had confirmed prize money equality for 2006
leaving Wimbledon the only event to still pay men more.
Even
in the most popular of sports in Australia, women are still being paid considerably
less. Financial equality in sport appears to have a long way to go. Nov
2005
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