Is Equal Pay at X Games Deserved?

Big news from the X Games! Starting in 2009, men and women will get equal prize purses. That means when the Winter X Games start Jan. 22 in Aspen, Colo. (through Jan. 25), winners will all get the same prize money -- roughly $30,000 for a gold medal.

Prize money is up as well. Last year, the total Winter X Games purse was $1 million, which is the highest purse for any action sports event.

Big Cheers to ESPN, which owns the event, and to its head honcho John Skipper. Double cheers to the women's groups whose ongoing efforts to meet with Skipper and other ESPN officials has paid off for all women athletes. With the Burton Global Open Series already offering equal prizes to all athletes, the comps that offer lower awards to women will be righteously scorned.

But a big question must be asked, and as hard as it is, I'm going to ask it.

Are women athletes WORTH the same amount of money that the men get?Women's Summer X Games skateboarder Elissa Steamer says no, because the men do harder tricks. Gretchen Bleiler and Shaun White were the gold medalists in the halfpipe at last year's Winter X Games. Was Bleiler's two 720s and crippler 540 worth the same prize money as White's two 10s, two 9s, a McTwist and an absolutely amazing 12?

Those are important questions to answer, because it's all about respect. If women are judged against guys, they won't be respected, because women can't do what guys can do. If equal prize money is seen to be awarded only because women have complained about inequality, then women athletes won't be respected because it will look like they only got equal prize money for complaining.

But if equal prize money is regarded as fair pay for ALL athletes who take risks and go as big as they can, half of whom are handicapped by not having as much testosterone as the other half, then it becomes an entirely different thing. Athletes like Bleiler or Hannah Teter, who do get out of the pipe, will be pioneers for the kick-ass girls who will follow them, going ever bigger and badder.

Because higher prizes for men say to the women, "You're not as good and we don't expect you to be." But equal money is a message that the ladies have to step it up. And they will. Some female snowboarding genius will follow today's pioneers, upping the amplitude and twists, and the women's side of the sport will evolve, just as women's skateboarding is evolving now that it's a staple at the Summer X Games, just as men's halfpipe evolved because of snowboarding genius Shaun White, just as women's surfing evolved when the girls got off their beach-side towels and joined their boyfriends in the water.

Will women champions ever ride at the same level as men? No. That's a physical fact. Maybe "good for a girl" is an epithet women will have to accept. But being paid equally for their best efforts, for being the best in their field? Yes, because that's only fair. And you guys who bitch about it will have a lot more right to do so when you can ride as good as Gretchen.