Whilst the women squash players have endured lower monetary prize for winning professional tournaments previously, the prize for the Asturias Squash Championship came as a complete surprise.
Elisabet Sadó was one of the winners in the competion held on May 11 2019. She has competed at a professional level for more than 15 years in the sport and has held the number 1 spot in the world and has been Spain’s champion seven times. Yet she was completely taken by surprise by the awarding of the prize for this competition.
The prize consisted of two boxes of hair removal wax, an electric hard skin remover for the feet, and a vibrator as well as the trophy.
I felt surprise and indignation
Elisabet Sadó
The women have experienced discrimination before, with lower prizes monies, lower salaries (which means they are unable to dedicate themselves full-time) than their male counterparts.
The winners presented a complaint to the Squash Federation of the Principlaity of Asturias citing “sexist and misplaced gifts”.
the tournament was organised by Club Squash Oviedo, which has issued a statement admitting that the prizes were “inappropriate and should never have been given”.
The club offers it’s full apology to the players and the rest the women involved in the sport and has declared the events unacceptable. Two directors of the club and a director of the federation have submitted their resignation in protest.
The former champion Sadó said: “I would like this to serve so that it never happens again and to take into account that sport is not even remotely as equal as people believe.”
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