By John Considine
Last Friday, Ireland picked up a gold medal in the European Athletics Championships. It was in the mixed 4x400m relay. A relatively rare event – even if a gold medal in a blue ribbon event was to follow two days later.
Yesterday, there was another rare event in a different mixed competition. Linn Grant won the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed Golf tournament. She had become the first woman to win on the European Tour by winning the same event two years earlier. While male and female competitors play off different tees, Grant’s victory is a significant one (although likely to be obscured by the collapse of the competitor who leading going into day four.) In Golfonomics, Stephen Shmanske suggested that women would probably earn more by competing directly against men – something he pointed out was not prohibited.
Yet, when it comes to mixed events, it is dressage that provides the most fruitful ground for comparisons and hypothesis testing. Men and women compete on an equal footing and the competition is judges by both men and women. This combination provided Anna Sandberg with the data to examine the in-group biases in judging of performances. In a 2018 paper in the Economic Journal, Sandberg found no evidence of in-group bias on sex grounds. However, there was in-group bias when it came to the nationality of the judging panel.
The growth of mixed competitions is likely to aid further research.
Yesterday, there was another rare event in a different mixed competition. Linn Grant won the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed Golf tournament. She had become the first woman to win on the European Tour by winning the same event two years earlier. While male and female competitors play off different tees, Grant’s victory is a significant one (although likely to be obscured by the collapse of the competitor who leading going into day four.) In Golfonomics, Stephen Shmanske suggested that women would probably earn more by competing directly against men – something he pointed out was not prohibited.
Yet, when it comes to mixed events, it is dressage that provides the most fruitful ground for comparisons and hypothesis testing. Men and women compete on an equal footing and the competition is judges by both men and women. This combination provided Anna Sandberg with the data to examine the in-group biases in judging of performances. In a 2018 paper in the Economic Journal, Sandberg found no evidence of in-group bias on sex grounds. However, there was in-group bias when it came to the nationality of the judging panel.
The growth of mixed competitions is likely to aid further research.
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