I enjoyed the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France as much as anyone but, as the dust settles, I get the feeling we may have got a teeny bit carried away with where this leaves women’s sport.

Superb as it was - on and off the pitch - with record viewing figures and plenty of new male and female fans in the stadia and watching in the pubs, I’m afraid I’m about to chuck a bucket of cold water.

When far fewer girls still do sport, with a fraction of the opportunities that boys have, half of women working in the sports industry say they’ve experienced sex discrimination, and well under 10% of all sports media is on women’s sport, making it 20 times less visible to the public, we need to take stock.

The star of the show in France was the purple-haired, golden-booted Megan Rapinoe, the “walking protest” whose actions and words were as powerful as any contemporary politician’s.

After her side swipe to Trump, with an unequivocal “no thanks” RSVP to the White House invitation (P.S. Piers Morgan, she did “try winning it first”), she then slated US drug laws, how LGBT people are treated, and finished off by filing a gender discrimination lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation.

But best of all was her goal celebration - a power pose if ever there was one - softened with a big, fat grin. Contrast that with most public poses by women, physically shrinking from attention and infused with an apologetic shrug for taking up space. Come the new football season, it wold be great to see young girls across Wales copying Megan’s wide armed stance when they score.

Rapinoe follows in a fine tradition of women fed up with being treated unequally when their performances were often better than their male counterparts.

Star US goalkeeper, Hope Solo (who we hope to welcome to Cardiff’s Homelessness World Cup), campaigned long and hard for equal pay, then stood for president of US Soccer.

I’ve got some history here too, having had a go at governing in sport and believe me, it’s not an easy ride.

However much you know, whatever your sporting pedigree, and whatever achievements are on your CV, there will be the keyboard warriors sitting at home in their Y-fronts, saying women shouldn’t talk about football. No wonder women suffer from imposter syndrome when the door is often closed or, at best, opened a crack for just a couple of us to squeeze.

It’s interesting how Rapinoe has divided opinion though, isn’t it?

Forget Trump and the Alt-Right - an outspoken lesbian with plenty to say was never going to go down well in those circles. But even the more sober commentators - disappointingly male and female - prickled at her confident remarks: “I deserve this.”

That, in itself, is fascinating as the USA is a country where no-one hides their light under a bushel. Modesty and self-effacing behaviour are not your typical Stars and Stripes themes. So, we can only assume that self-belief and confidence apply only to men.

All this has made me question the self-congratulatory tone from our sports industry leaders, which will no doubt be raised a few more decibels after the cricket and netball.

After so-called Super Sunday when Hamilton won the British Grand Prix, Djokovic and Federer thrilled Wimbledon’s Centre Court, and England and Wales won the Cricket World Cup at Lords, following unprecedented attention on women’s football and now the netball World Cup in Liverpool, how far are we from women’s voices being properly heard in sport and elsewhere?

After all, commentators still needed reminding that it wasn’t the first time England and Wales had won the Cricket World Cup-the women won it in 2017.

When Man City won the treble, manager Pep Guardiola corrected his interviewer, pointing out that Arsenal women had beaten them to this unique triumph. Then there was Andy Murray’s challenge to a journalist’s casual sexism.

One of my favourite columnists, Marina Hyde, has coined the description “the beta men who think they’re alpha” for those who now dominate our political class. Weak men think they’re strong whilst the real iron women just get on with it.

Look at Olympic and world champion Nicole Cooke. What made her the athlete she was was exactly why some in cycling and sport disliked her. Her intense focus on improvement and a steely determination to succeed, that disarmingly brutal honesty and a lack of concern about being liked. There’s no doubt Nicole is one of the very greatest athletes Wales has produced, but she’s paid the price for raising her voice, both in popularity and pounds.

Neither is this just the froth of social media. Since that all-conquering US World Cup performance, it’s been revealed that the team’s fitness advisors carefully adjusted diet, sleep and training to minimise the adverse performance impact of the players’ menstrual cycles.

When I was playing, I remember one of my international coaches innocently asking if periods were likely to cause any issues to the squad. Hell yes! Of 23 young women, the chances are that there would have been a range of experiences from excruciating and debilitating pain, to general fatigue and mood swings.

The personal is still very political and so it was good to see our own world champion cyclist Elinor Barker talk about her endometriosis and how the condition had affected her training and performances. This kind of honesty is what characterises female athletes, and quite frankly it’s great.

I could happily live without another insomia-curing, post-match conference where sportsmen say virtually nothing (thanks to agents and managers). And given we still await the first openly gay professional footballer in the top leagues (really? in 2019?!), it seems it’s only in the area of mental health where male players feel confident to tread.

I’d argue that, in the era of “marginal gains”, we haven’t even addressed the maximum ones for sportswomen.

Research shows that coaching and strength and conditioning in some sports still fail to properly differentiate between male and female athletes, with serious consequences.

Sportswomen pick up unnecessary injuries, recover less well and therefore, have shortened careers. It sounds harsh but what this means is that basically, women (and probably young girls embarking on their sporting careers) are being physically damaged by men’s dominance of sport.

Let that sink it for a moment.

And perhaps remind people of it next time they complain about drives to put more women on to the governing bodies that control sport.

As Serena Williams discovered when she was left with no seeding on her return to competition after a difficult pregnancy and the birth of her daughter, men’s control of sport means indirect control of women’s bodies too.

Both World Cup finalists were managed by women. So, what are the odds for a woman manager in the male football pyramid? Hold your cash, as they’re very long I’d say, despite the fact that Jill Ellis from the USA and Sarina Weigman from the Netherlands have football CVs that make Phil Neville’s look like a Sunday league manager’s.

But if I understand it right, women would struggle with dressing room culture. There would be ethical, safety, physical, emotional (delete as appropriate) reasons why it just wouldn’t work. Blah, blah, blah, if that’s really the best they can come up with, it might be better to just come out and say it’s because women still only have a tiny toe-hold in the game and many resent even that.

In the current climate, politics is never far from our minds. The Leavers spoke about sovereignty and taking back control from the EU. As we head towards the Halloween Brexit deadline and a Johnson premiership, the sovereignty of Parliament is back under debate.

Think back to 1999 when Parliament reluctantly “gave” away power to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - the begrudging “grace and favour” model of devolution that our First Minister wants to change.

Forgive the long preamble here, but there is a parallel with sport. If we regard any authority that women hold as grudgingly given to them by men, then it is essentially male power temporarily lent. And power devolved is power retained, to coin a phrase.

The women who seem to have got that and do politics differently, authentically and by their own rules are people like Angela Merkel in Germany. She’s never budged from her trouser suits, never pandered to media expectations and has still managed to secure four successive terms as Chancellor.

Or Carolyn Harris MP, who single-handedly got the Children’s Funeral Fund established, unapologetically emotional whilst fuelling her determination with her own personal tragedy.

Then there’s our own Assembly Presiding Officer, Elin Jones, who deserves a medal for the way in which she has quietly handled the most fractious, disruptive and crisis-ridden Assembly since devolution begun. Thank heavens for someone motivated, not by ego and personal aggrandisement, but more by what’s best for our young democracy. And, in the midst of all this, she’s even found time to champion serious constitutional change to help build a parliament worthy of the name.

So back to the woman who started me thinking about all this.

In Rapinoe’s words: “Yes, we play soccer. Yes, we’re female athletes. But we’re so much more than that.”

That’s right, and the penny has dropped for many women by now. So we salute you Megan, and we should keep our arms out-stretched in your confident, exuberant, thrilling goal celebration until things change.

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