As women start to shine in the Olympics, Lizzie Armitstead raises sexism in sport

As the women in Team GB prove their worth yet again with a gold medal (finally!) in the women's rowing pairs, Lizzie Armitstead, silver road race winner, has spoken out about the 'overwhelming sexism' in sport.

It's a valid point - the Tour de France is all about the men, who benefit from the vast sums of money sunk into teams like Team Sky - and look who actually rode to victory when Olympic crunch time came around.

The Times (£) reported on how Japanese women footballers and the Australian women's basketball team had to travel to London in economy seats while the men put their feet up in business class.

“It can get overwhelming and frustrating, the sexism I’ve experienced in my career,” said Armitstead.

“If you focus on it too much you get very disheartened.”

Emma Pooley has also voiced similar concerns about the visibility of women's cycling.

In the Guardian, she said: "A lot of women's teams you're lucky if they buy you a sandwich at the race… sponsors keep pulling out of races so they get cancelled… the calendar has been more than decimated.

"I get enough to live off, better than most women in the sport. The depressing thing is that there is so much money in cycling but it all stays in one bit of the sport, not much of it trickles down."

Armitstead even said that she wanted to bring up the subject with Pat McQuaid, UCI president, but "didn't want to come across as negative and moaning".

Well Lizzie, we think he might just sit up and take notice of you now.