EBU introduces sweeping guidelines for coverage of women's athletics events

European Athletics and the EBU member has this week issued member broadcasters with new guidelines on how to appropriately cover women's athletics events. The aim is to prevent the sexualisation of the sport.

The "Raising The Bar" guidelines include details such as:

• angles filmed from behind or beneath athletes

• prolonged close up shots of body parts

• unnecessary [angles in] slo-mo replays

• encouragement of wide camera angles

• use of graphics to better explain the performance

With the rise of AI deepfakes and the ease with which they can be made, one of the key concerns is to prevent the ability for clips to be re-edited and used without context.

"The development of filming guidelines is a ​crucial step toward eliminating harmful portrayals of women ⁠in our sports while maintaining the highest level of ​storytelling and technical excellence", says Dobromir Karamarinov, president of European Athletics.

Many athletes too are in favour of the new guidelines, including Ivana Španović, 4-time Olympic long jump champion. "Our sport offers numerous opportunities to showcase technique and the beauty of movement, ⁠like ​displaying slow-motion shots that highlight technical ​precision, such as the take-off moment or the perfect stride", she adds.

These new guidelines will be given their first real tests during next week's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the European Athletics Championships which are due to be held in Birmingham next month.