In the world of sports, there used to exist clear compartments: women sports and men sports. The problems with these compartments were many. One of them being that gender isn’t, in fact, binary. It divided into two groups of people that did not and could not themselves divide into two. 
Another problem with such ‘clean’ compartmentalization of sports into male and female was that it assumed that every female with an inclination toward sports would naturally want to play the ones pre-chosen for them and vice versa.
It came as no surprise when eventually, more athletes began to challenge these flawed assumptions. As sports became more accommodating and less restrictive, the barriers in sports and society previously set by gender slowly began to collapse.
Sports, in general, used to be associated with men more than it was with females. While most sports are open to any gender, some used to be heavily stereotyped as either male or female sports so much that any break from that norm was guaranteed to send shock waves.
And this is what happened. Sports have been an important tool in clearly establishing that a person can do anything they’re able to do, regardless of gender. Some of the sports that have done a great job at this are: 
Wrestling
This one can even almost be expected. The fighting game! Touted for its depictions of violence, a quality that for some reason societies long decided to associate strictly with men, the sport used to be almost exclusively a men's sport.
Wrestling is a sport like any other sport, and to gain the skills to play and be safe, one needs to train. One can train to gain and maintain their fitness by joining a local gym or with assistance from sites such as 4legsfitness.com, which specializes in helping people choose and maintain their fitness routines.
A set of rules controls the fights in wrestling, but they’re still characterized by high degrees of force, energy, strategy, and tactic. These attributes were not easily associated with women.
When wrestling began to open up to women, it undoubtedly helped challenge and correct what society believed a woman to be. Would a woman cease to be a woman the minute she became strong enough to knock out an opponent? Was a man only a man if he was the one defending the woman?
These are the questions that still hang in the air during every professional women’s wrestling match—questioning if society is ready for women that no longer fit neatly in designated boxes.
Rugby
Rugby is a high-speed and high-energy sport. You probably already know this because the movies have never failed to show the buff rugby boys looking very serious on the field. For good measure, they might add mud on their t-shirts or randomly set one of the boys in an almost flight across the field, landing roughly on his side. Now, you have an image of exactly the opposite of what society would expect of a woman.
The idea of a woman looking and embodying this very same scene’s energy is unsettling for many. This is why the introduction of women’s rugby was nothing short of ground-breaking. Every match in which women’s teams play against each other is a strong statement. Women are not soft or strong across the board, just as men are not. They may or may not be competitive. None of which is decided by their gender.
Every rugby tournament may as well be a big announcement that women have arrived in sport, and they are to be taken seriously. And by having a tournament of their own, it can be said that indeed women are starting to be taken seriously in sports.
Netball
Another sport that’s spitting straight in the face of gender norms is netball. For many years, if not since its conception, netball had been viewed as primarily a girl's sport. The sport was perceived as paced and soft enough for girls.
If netball had remained inaccessible to males, then it would have been equal to accenting these stereotypes. Personalities are hardly shaped by gender, and more still, sport is not a measurement of personality. So regardless of gender and personality, you can play any sport as long as you’re able and want to.
Male participation in netball has been increasing. Countries like New Zealand already have associations that represent male netball players. England is another country doing well in this regard, although recognition by the national netball association is yet to come. Even so, the breaking of the boundary that once existed around the sport is a thing to be celebrated.
Football
Football is one of the sports that started accommodating women pretty early. It’s a relatively popular sport that started out as another male-dominated sport. It wasn’t uncommon for a girl who wanted to play the sport to find herself playing in a team full of boys due to a lack of fellow female players.
Now, not only are women playing the sport, they also have their own world cup championship. It’s a great thing seeing people of all genders begin to be recognized and represented internationally in the sport.
Conclusion
One of the best ways to challenge gender barriers is through sport. Sports are generally such a heavily followed activity. Almost all media platforms report sports-related news at some point. This makes it an excellent avenue to use in collapsing the preconceived ideas that society has believed for so long—ideas that have both harmed and derailed members of either sex.
Sports, in general, are a push against what society believes a man or a woman is supposed to do. Still, some sports, because they’ve been traditionally viewed as belonging exclusively to a certain gender, are best positioned to challenge the veracity of how such conclusions had been reached in the first place.
There are still some challenges with sexism in sport, but things have improved. Nowadays, all sports are open to almost everyone, and they’re doing quite a good job of showing the world that the people are indeed more nuanced than some might have previously believed.
