We examine representation of Gender and Race on the covers of three running magazines as a sample of the North American Running media. We speak to Dr. Heather Hillsburg and Dr. Francine Darroch on their findings (14.8 percent of Runners World print Covers feature Black Indigenous and People Of Color- or BIPOC, 14.75 % of Canadian Running covers feature BIPOC,  and for Women’s Running covers we saw an average 31% BIPOC over 10 years, but noticed a recent average of 40% after a sustained increase from 2013 onward), why representation matters and how these trends contribute to racism in the running world and why we need to show and hear the stories of more BIPOC and elevate more BIPOC voices in this space.
(see shownotes  for full recap)

Catch up:

0-5: Alysia Ro and Molly catch up on lives

Alysia’s book is launching more officially Feel Good Fitness (link)

Molly’s back in Rhode Island

Ro’s still gestating

Link to tank tops (currently tees only but hope to arrive soon) and &mother

Guest intros: Dr. Francine Darroch, sociologist at Carleton U in Ontario, focusing on health equity and Dr. Heather Hillsburg ,author of Urban Captivity Narratives: Women’s Writing after 9/11  and works for government in British Columbia

8:14-our thoughts on why we wanted to do the study

Shoutout to Womens Running for making a sustained push to increase diversity on covers after 2013

12: only 14.8 percent of Runners World Covers feature BIPOC, our past guests Marielle Hall and Alison Desir have mentioned this lack of seeing self in this media

14: Is lack of diversity strategy intentional? Is it about the bottom line?

15:30- our personal conversation started on how from the athlete perspective, we have been told we don’t have the “look” for covers

What is required- ex Alysia is a change maker in sports industry, activist, multiple time medalist and more but that doesn’t check the right boxes

19- why getting a cover is a boon for a professional runner

“Allows for upward chain of marketability”

22- Runnersworld leaves out most of the track athletes

Alysia wish mass participation included shorter events 

The interview:

23-28-we explain why we partnered with these sociologists to examine representation on running media (via 3 different magazine covers over 10 years)

29-Francine lays down her results and shouts out the research team: Heather Hillsburg (phD in gender studies), Amy Schneeburg (epidemiologist), Candace Roberts (masters student), Jenna Seyidoglu (undergraduate honors thesis student)

Examined 284 covers, focus on race and gender, between 2009 and 2019

(Runners World (122), Canadian Running(75), and Women’s Running (88))

BIPOC are underrepresented

RW-14.8%

WR- 31%

CR-14.7%

(slides and report are on website www.keeping-track.com aka show notes)

Changes over time: Womens running saw meaningful and sustained improvement in representation 2013 onward (hit 40%)

36- Heather speaks on role of media on cons

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