First and foremost, it is very important to realize that the desire to take part in men’s sporting competitions must be backed up by physical capabilities of women to be able to win against men. Unfortunately, if we look at statistics we realize how big the gap between the two sexes is: “Michael Phelps is a full 26 seconds ahead of the women's world record holder in a 400m medley, the best female is more than 10% behind the best male - 12 minutes in a marathon (and 20 for most of the top women at the moment), more than 1 second in a 100m race, more than 1 meter in the long jump.” (1) Thus, the states purpose of sports, that of “let the best person win” is already being achieved, as, sadly, in a wide majority of cases men, due to their physical attributes, do perform better.  Promoting performance is not the only purpose of sports; another should be promoting gender equality. This measure, due to the wide physical gap between the two sexes, would simply perpetuate ideas that women are not equal. It doesn’t matter that there will be a few examples of women who managed to succeed, as these will be overshadowed by the significant majority of female athletes who won’t. A world in which gender equality is promoted, but where not every competition is being won by the best athlete is more desirable than one in which discrimination is perpetuated but you make sure that “the best one wins”.  (1) Sports Scientists, April 15, 2010