Cam's Corner: Gender irrelevant in sporting achievement

WHO deserves the top female gong at the Halbergs early next year, Lydia Ko or Valerie Adams?

Pfft ... who cares, I'm just stoked to see female sportspeople starting to earn some dollars.

For years now, female sportspeople have been the poor cousin to male sportspeople and Lydia Ko seems to be shedding some light on what appears to be a changing landscape.

Finally we're seeing women's sport becoming a viable career option, if the talent is there.

While it could be argued that sport as a career is dependent on the code played, it's still progress. And, in Ko's situation it seems to be paying megabucks.

Two weeks after making her professional debut teenage phenomenon Ko claimed her first tournament victory as a pro - winning the Swinging Skirts World Ladies Masters US$800,000 event in Taiwan - taking away US$150,000 ($181,000) for the victory, along with US$8000 she won in the tournament's skins event last week.

Beast shotputter Valerie Adams has all year been competing in Diamond Race series, which was essentially a cash buffer - albeit a snippet of Ko's winnings - for Adams who was all but guaranteed to win it.

Adams claimed the $48,000 prize as she produced one of her best in the final competition in Berlin which typified Adams' dominance.

Adding another sport to the mix of potential earners is rugby.

A rugby playing friend of mine recently held a party to celebrate that she had picked up a contract overseas to play, and was being paid to do so.

For her, it was a revelation. For me, it was hope. Hope that in years to come female sport might be considered equal to male, hope that one day our female sporting stars might be looked at in the same light as the All Blacks - or any rugby playing male in this country.

Other examples of female sportspeople excelling professionally in sport can be seen with Beef + Lamb New Zealand's crew - canoeist Lisa Carrington, BMXer Sarah Walker, and swimmer Sophie Pascoe.

Beef + Lamb can be thanked for the rise of female sportspeople's saleability, after previously having the Evers-Swindell sisters and Sarah Ulmer fronting their advertising campaigns.

And it's not just tokenism by Beef + Lamb. The trio have all cemented themselves as top athletes in their sports.

While Ko and Adams will no doubt prove to be the poster girls for female sport in this country, their "work" is starting a legacy and creating expectation for years to come.

Hopefully, one day, the question won't be "who deserves the top female gong at the Halbergs early next year?" and instead will be 'who deserves the top gong at the Halbergs?'