Carrera de la Mujer running race in Madrid slammed for giving sexist prizes to athletes
Race organizers had to apologize after being shot after giving female winners sexist prizes including kitchen appliances and low-fat foods
- The annual race is a fundraiser for charity
- Raise money for cancer research
- The organizers begged for prizes
Organizers of the 19th annual Carrera de la Mujer race in Madrid have come under fire for offering ‘sexist’ prizes to female runners.
Race winners were offered kitchen appliances and low-fat food products, sparking criticism from politicians and social media users around the world.
The controversy began after the race, involving more than 30,000 runners, took place on Mother’s Day, with Serbia’s Ivana Zagorac taking first place in a time of 24 minutes and 7 seconds.
However, it was the prizes given to the winners that sparked outrage, with the race’s sponsors gifting a Thermomix stand mixer to the first-place winner and lean food items to other runners.
Spain’s Equality Ministry was quick to criticize the gifts, describing them as “sexist.”
The race is a charity campaign for the Spanish Association against Cancer and other organizations that support women
The winner received a Thermomix food processor similar to the one in the photo, while the runners-up received low-fat food items
Spain’s Secretary of State for Equality, Rodriguez Pam, tweeted her disapproval of the awards, saying: “If you win: housewife and if not, at least you lose weight.”
Politician Alejandra Jacinto also chimed in on the controversy.
Machist [male chauvinism] is that gifts to women are related to housework,” she said.
‘Government policy must prevent women from primarily performing these tasks.’
Despite the outcry, race organizers initially defended the gifts, claiming they were intended to promote healthy eating habits among female athletes.
However, they later issued a statement apologizing for the offended fact and stated that they had not considered the potential sexist implications of the awards.
“We accept the criticism, we apologize if anyone is offended and we promise to take the necessary steps to avoid this controversy in the future,” the statement said.
The annual race attracts more than 30,000 participants each year and is a major event on the Spanish calendar
Participants can run through quaint Spanish streets while raising money for cancer research at the same time
The race is a charity event to raise money for the Spanish Cancer Society and other organizations that support women.
The organizers emphasized that they have always been “absolutely aware of the struggle for the eradication of any sexist stereotype” and that they “carry out an almost daily self-censorship exercise to avoid negative comments.”
“We regret that a trial in which 32,000 women took part, which has been ‘promoting healthy lifestyles and sport among women for 19 years, fighting cancer and claiming the role of women in sport and in society in general’, is being implicated in this controversy we do not share,” the statement read.
Despite this, the incident has once again highlighted the issue of sexism in sport in Spain, with the Madrid Open tennis tournament also coming under fire for similar incidents of misogyny.
Both men’s and women’s players celebrated their birthdays during the tournament, but men’s star Carlos Alcaraz was presented with a multi-layer gold cake, while women’s player Aryna Sabalenka was presented with a much more modest single-layer cake.