The gender balance is missing at the ‘largest student event in Flanders’

That is a sensitive issue: the competition between the two student associations is intense. The 24-Hour Run is fun, with a healthy dose of competition. However, there are also some reservations to be made about that competitive approach.

You do not simply take part in the top teams. Test races are held weeks in advance. Only those who meet the qualifying standard are allowed to start in the top teams. There is nothing wrong with that in itself. Athletics competitions also have qualifying standards.

Strategy makes the difference. It is an open secret that the top teams in the 24-Hour Run make use of runners from other faculties or universities. Even "real" elite athletes are recruited to run a lap. An informal network also emerges, in which fast runners recruit other runners. Strategy also includes the marketing surrounding the event. In addition, technological innovation has made its entrance into the race. VTK and Apolloon provide carbon shoes for their runners.

Blood, sweat and tears

But the competitive shoe pinches. There are not even a handful of female students running in the top teams. That is not due to the gender balance at the university. KU Leuven, after all, has more female than male students. Perhaps women simply do not enjoy running as much and prefer watching their male fellow students shed blood, sweat and tears to race their team to victory?

The registrations for increasingly popular running events already contradict any possible lack of interest in running among women. In races up to 10 kilometres, on average just as many women as men take part. Or are women perhaps less competitive in sport? That argument can also be dismissed. The gender balance among athletes affiliated with Athletics Flanders is sound.

Women deliver top performances across all distances, although a little more attention for those performances certainly would not go amiss.

So where does it go wrong? It hardly needs saying that the times posted by female athletes are "slower" than those of their male counterparts. The qualifying standards for the top five teams are unattainable, or barely attainable, for women, despite the fact that competitive female runners are present within those student associations. Yet they do not get the opportunity to compete. A pity, isn't it?

The debate should not be reduced to the question of whether women run fast enough. The question is whether an event that positions itself as Leuven’s student celebration can justify excluding women from the competitive element.

The 24-Hour Run is an incredibly beautiful tradition. Let us keep it that way. Preserving traditions requires the courage to innovate without touching the core values. Drawing up regulations that allow female runners to take part in the competition would not be a bad thing and could create opportunities for a new dynamic.

Media attention

Inclusion can be rewarded when success is defined more broadly than performance alone. In that way, the 24-Hour Run could evolve with the times and strengthen the trend towards greater media attention for female sporting achievements.

That trend, too, has not been achieved without struggle. There is growing recognition and respect for women across various sporting disciplines, from football to cycling. These women are role models for many young girls. Visibility matters. The 24-Hour Run can contribute to that in its own way.

In this way, it remains not only a tradition that brings students together, but also an event that helps shape sporting culture. The ball is in the court of organiser LOKO. With all the expertise and commitment present within Leuven’s student associations, there is more than enough knowledge available to begin making up lost ground.