Andrew Dickens: Fairness has returned to high school level sport

It only took nearly twenty years to address, but high school rowing teams will no longer be able to have year 14 students in their crews.

These were young people in their 6th year of secondary school. 

They gave their crews an advantage because they’d had an extra year of training and development. 

It's been a bugbear of many schools wanting a level playing field.

Many of the year 14s were back at school finishing their academic work so they could take advantage of rowing scholarships, but the schools still included them in their rep crews.

Critics of that decision said the problem was not just the young adults themselves but also the others at school who missed out on a place because of the year 14s.

The first moves to police the practice involved age limits, but it still saw year 14 students with birthdays just after the cutoffs competing. 

They still brought the advantage of an extra year of training.

So now year 14s are gone. And that’s a good thing. 

It’s stopped the attitude of schools who believed in win at any cost. It’s returned fairness in sport.

And it showed those struggling with rules on trans gender athletes who have been through puberty that it’s possible to be fair if you’re clear minded and decisive.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now it only took nearly twenty years to address, but
high school rowing teams will no longer be able to
have year fourteen students and their crews. So these were
young people in their sixth year of secondary school, and
of course having those guys in they gave their crews
an advantage because it had an extra year of training
and development. They're old, they were bigger, and it's been

(00:21):
a bugbear of many schools wanting a level playing field,
and they've been finding this for twenty years. On. Many
of the year fourteens were back at school finishing their
academic work because their good rowers and they wanted to
take advantage of rowing Schottish overseas, but they needed to
up their academic marks, so they went back to school.
But their schools there still included them in their rep
crews because why not. Don't look a gift elephant in

(00:44):
the mouth. Critics of that decision said the problem was
not just the young adults themselves, the year fourteens, but
also all the others at the school who missed out
on a place in the boat because the year fourteens
were there. Now, the first move to police the practice
involved putting age limits on rowing crews, but it still
saw some year fourteen students with birthdays just after the

(01:06):
cutoff competing, But while they were technically the right age,
they still brought an advantage of an extra year's training.
So now finally the year fourteens are gone, and that's
a good thing. It stopped the attitude of schools who
believed and win at any cost. It's returned fairness in sport,

(01:27):
and it was good decision making because it showed that
those struggling with rules on say, transgender athletes who've been
through puberty, that it is actually possible to be fair
if you're clear minded and decisive. For more from Early
Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talks it
be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on

(01:49):
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