The European Broadcasting Union and European Athletics have released a 23-page document outlining new broadcast guidelines to reduce the “sexualization” of women’s track and field events, focusing more on performance.
According to Runners World, the guidelines, titled “Raising the Bar,” call for broadcast crews to use the camera angle that focuses most on the athlete, avoiding tight shots from behind, lower cameras pointing upwards, and delicacy when playing clips in slow motion.
These guidelines will apply across several events, including track, jumps and throws. The first major event where broadcasting changes may be seen is at the European Athletics Championships on Aug. 10.
“The sexualization of women athletes through selective camera angles and editing choices continues to be a significant concern across many sports broadcasts,” said Glen Killane, executive director of EBU Sport. “These choices carry profound implications. They shape audience perception by diverting attention from the remarkable achievements and technical skills of women athletes, and risk perpetuating harmful stereotypes.”
The European Broadcasting Union included illustrations in the 23-page document, indicating appropriate and inappropriate camera angles. Along with reducing the sexualization of women’s sports, the guidelines also aim to reduce the distraction that cameras can cause in both men’s and women’s races.
Currently competing athletes advised the European Broadcasting Union as it created the recommendations, including British Olympic pole vaulter, Holly Bradshaw, and Serbian Olympic long jumper, Ivana Spanovic.
"How our sport is displayed during live broadcast can be incredibly powerful, yet sometimes harmful to the women competing and the women [and] girls watching," Bradshaw told the BBC.
The guidelines have been made available for broadcasters covering all of women’s track and field, not only the European meets, and are currently given as recommendations, not hard rules. For “Raising the Bar” to be implemented as a rule across all athletics federations and broadcasting networks, further action from World Athletics as a whole would be required.
