There are not many skiers who become household names, well, not in the UK anyway, but one of the few who has managed it is the American alpine skier, Lindsey Vonn. She may be better known in this country for being the girlfriend, now ex-girlfriend, of Tiger Woods in the aftermath of his scandal but she is a superstar in her own right. The 32 year-old has been Olympic champion, double world champion and multiple World Cup champion despite having had something of a nightmare with injuries throughout the course of her career. Vonn’s latest injury was a broken arm last November but it was announced at the turn of the year that she will be back competing this week in Austria.

Her comeback prompted her to do a sit-down interview with the renowned American television show, ’60 Minutes’ and during the course of the interview, she talked of her desire to compete against men. This is not the first time that the American has touted this idea – last year in a podcast with the legendary US footballer, Abby Wambach, Vonn expressed her desire to race against male skiers. “In my final season, I would like to race against the men in one race,” she said, before adding: “We’ve started the process of trying to figure out how it can be accomplished. It’s going to be a hard thing to get done with all the ski federations and everything involved, but that’s my goal.” Vonn plans to race for only three more years so if it is to happen at all, it has to happen soon.

The American is not by any means the first female athlete to express a desire to compete against men though; Billie Jean King’s ‘Battle of the Sexes’, when she played – and beat – Bobby Riggs in 1973 remains perhaps the most high-profile man v woman contest but there have been others. Golfers Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie have entered men’s tournaments with similar degrees of success; Sorenstam took the plunge first, entering the men’s event, Colonial, in 1993 but she missed the cut. A decade later, Wie entered 13 men’s tournaments, making the cut only once although she did have a few other close misses. Women competing against men is not uncommon in "cue sports", with Maureen McCarthy, Karen Corr and Allison Fisher all challenging in snooker, billiards and pool respectively although none made any notable success of their involvement in the men’s game.

However, despite the records showing that, in the main, women competing against men results in little success, the topic continues to crop up. Vonn has talked about her ability to get the better of many men when she trains alongside them and claims that one of her few remaining goals in the sport is to “beat some boys and then call it a day.” She admits that she is unlikely to beat all of them but insists she would like to test herself against the best in her sport before she hangs up her skis.

Vonn cannot be knocked for her ambition; she has not got to where she is without being confident in her own ability, but her target to compete against men, just like all of the other female athletes who have felt the need to take on their male counterparts, troubles me for one particular reason. The implicit message that they are sending out is that female athletes are not of value unless they can hold their own against men. It suggests that female athletes can only be granted true validity if they can compete against men and that female sport lacks legitimacy unless it is of the same standard as men's sport.

But why should female athletes have to take on men to prove they are worthy? In short, they shouldn’t. Women’s sport fights a constant battle against claims that it is inferior to men’s sport and that female athletes are less worthy of attention because they are not as fast or as strong or as powerful as their male counterparts. In almost all cases, this is true; they are not as physically able as the men but this should not mean that they are not as deserving of accolades. Serena Williams would almost certainly lose to Fernando Verdasco, the men’s world No.40, but there are surely few who would argue that the Spaniard is a greater tennis player than Williams.

Vonn has said that her ambition to take on the men is not only important for her but also for women’s sport. I find it impossible to agree with this. She is implying that her ability can only be truly tested were she to take on the men. By doing this, she is adding to the perception that women are weaker and, frankly, worse at sport. There are few sports, if any, in which women could consistently get the better of men in a straight match. Does this mean that they are inferior? No, it doesn’t. And unless this perception changes, women’s sport will never find itself on an equal footing.