Abstract
The nature of sports is characterized by a strong competitive component that generates inequalities among athletes at different levels, specifically in relation to gender, technology, and doping. These inequalities can be represented according to the Red Queen effect perspective, which has been previously hypothesized in other competitive environments (evolutionary biology and economics, for instance). The Red Queen effect considers each competitive environment to require a constant effort to maintain a position of competitive advantage in order reach the best result possible. Therefore, the aim of the current paper is to provide an innovative perspective for the understanding of competition in sports, identifying factors (i.e., physical appearance for gender equality, socioeconomic status of a sport team for technology, and antidoping rules for doping) influencing athletes’ possibilities to win a competition. Concerning gender differences, the disparity between genders reflects a lower coverage in sports news, and media are more likely to focus on female athletes’ physical appearance than their performance in sports. Therefore, women struggle more with increasing their visibility and in affirming their status as an athlete. On the other hand, the introduction of science and technological innovations in sports has generated economic interests in sport competitions, which reached superior performance levels compared to the past. Teams that cannot afford financial burdens of technological innovation risk being left out from sport competitions. Finally, doping creates a Red Queen environment since antidoping rules catch a small portion of athletes using performance enhancement drugs.
Highlights
The increase in sports economic value has worsened the position of female athletes, whose participation in sports is often hindered by cultural constraints, such as stereotypes and media representation of sports [17]
Inequalities in sports can be framed in a Red Queen Effect perspective, which usually arises in a competitive environment [24]
The current paper aims to identify these inequalities and to frame them in the Red Queen effect perspective
Summary
Developments in the health sector have contributed to the diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation processes of the athlete’s injuries, with shorter times for the athlete’s recovery and adaptation processes under different environmental conditions [10,11,12,13,14,15,16] These innovations increased the amount of economic rewards in terms of winning. The increase in sports economic value has worsened the position of female athletes, whose participation in sports is often hindered by cultural constraints, such as stereotypes and media representation of sports [17] The competitive environments, such as the one described in biological evolution hypothesized by Van Valen [18] or the business environment [19], are usually framed in the Red Queen perspective, which points out the role of a continuous improvement to survive within that environment. Queen effect has been associated with sports only concerning the doping phenomenon [20], but no studies were found about gender equality and technological disparities
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