Can monobob shake up the world of bobsleigh on its Olympic debut?

Can a one-person event make a sport more diverse?

Consider monobob, the accurately named bobsleigh event that will make its Olympic debut this year, six years after its first Youth Olympic Games competition. The name says it all – the driver does everything by herself.

And it is “herself” rather than “himself.” Women will be the only monobobists in Beijing.

A step forward for gender equity? Not quite. Yes, women now have two bobsleigh events – the monobob and two-woman bob – matching the men, who have the two-man and four-man disciplines. But when it comes to the number of athletes at the Games, a women’s race for one-person sleds doesn’t balance out a men’s four-man race. The total number of places available in the bobsleigh events in Beijing is 124 for men and 46 for women. Indeed, the competition for places in the women’s events is so intense that Lolo Jones, the former world champion hurdler, didn’t make the US team one year after winning the world championship.

While the monobob can’t deliver on gender diversity, it has the potential to add geographic diversity through a couple of unique rules.

The first is to do with the equipment. Monobobs aren’t owned by national federations, which cuts out the possibility of rich countries splashing money to gain a technological edge. Instead, athletes race in standardized sleds provided by the organizers. The sled assigned to top-ranked US driver Elana Meyers Taylor is initially identical to the one assigned to every other competitor. That rule only goes so far, though, as countries can fine-tune their sleds, and some countries will always have more resources than others.

The second rule could expand the sport’s geographic footprint. Sixteen countries will compete in the