Australian world champion slalom canoeist Jessica Fox wants ''hard-working'' female athletes to get "substantially more support from the corporate world, but says they are at the mercy of an unfortunate Catch-22," according to the AAP. Fox, who became world champion in her C-1 event last month, lamented that "women are damned both ways in a world where big businesses and broadcasters are far more interested in lucrative revenue opportunities from male-dominated sports such as rugby league, the A-League and men's cricket." Fox: ''At the end of the day if we don't show female sports on TV, how are sponsors going to want to sponsor women? And if we don't support the women how do you expect us to get results? It's a bit of a Catch-22.'' It was after her "fairytale silver medal" win in the K-1 event that she attracted the attention of her current sponsor, car manufacturing company Kia. Fox: ''It's hard and I'm not the only one who's probably struggling, because you do feel like the sponsors want to be shown on TV or recognized as well. But girls don't get on TV that often. A lot of them are hard-working girls who are doing the sport because they love it. Some of them have to work, most of us are studying. We're doing the complete balancing act'' (AAP, 10/17).
