Lanni Marchant on advocacy, gender and double standards in sports

Lanni Marchant, the Canadian record holder in the women’s half-marathon and marathon, appeared on CBC’s Metro Morning on Monday. Speaking with host Matt Galloway, Marchant discusses advocacy, gender and double standards in sports.

In late October, Marchant, 32, was invited to speak in front of Canada’s MPs at a Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (CHPC) meeting in Ottawa to comment on Canadian women and girls in sport. The Olympian’s appearance at 1 Wellington St. in Ottawa came before she ran a Canadian course record at the New York City Marathon where she finished seventh.

Lanni Marchant speaks on women’s issues with Canada’s MPs

“I thought I had done an okay job,” she says describing her appearance to Galloway and the CBC. “My words actually didn’t matter,” she continues. “The one statement that I made during an hour-long discussion, I’d said ‘Don’t comment on my body, comment on my performance.'”

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“I was told I was not allowed to say that,” she says describing some of the responses she received. Marchant cites the photos she has done for magazine covers and her racing attire as the reasons why some chose to push back and challenge her statements. Metro Morning’s Dec. 12 airing can be found below. Marchant’s interview begins at 24:25 and spans approximately seven minutes.

CBC segment

CBC video of the interview

“When I’m running a marathon, there’s nothing sexy about it,” she says. “It’s hard work. I’ve put in just as much work as my male counterparts, and if you’re not going to comment on them and [whether] you think they look sexy or hot, don’t comment on me that way.”

Thanks story Lanni Marchant, great person, woman, athlete. Talks women issues to Canada’s MPs https://t.co/DzmcXZxs1q

— Penalosa_G (@Penalosa_G) December 12, 2016

Marchant then discusses “the double standard” referencing a past sports magazine cover featuring a topless Adam van Koeverden, an Olympian in the kayak. She then describes the development of the below photo.

"Don't comment on my appearance, comment on my performance." @LJM5252 on sport, gender and sexism: https://t.co/r4A3PSvTOu pic.twitter.com/B026XUc2YC

— Metro Morning (@metromorning) December 12, 2016

“I’d tried the verbal approach, and pointed out that I’m doing this for my nieces, your daughters, your sisters and the women in your family; on the field of play, what we do what matters, not how we look doing it,” she says of her end goal of taking a stance. “My words were falling on deaf ears.”

She suggests taking gender out of it [the conversation] and comment on the performances. “We’re athletes first,” she says. Marchant, who is also a lawyer, now resides in Toronto and explains why she made the move to Ontario’s capital from her previous home in Tennessee.