After Atalanta

Here I go again, back to that slippery slope of sport: cheerleading. Is it sport? Is it--well not sport I guess? And yet again I refuse to fully take up the question here. But I do know that cheerleaders in World Team Tennis are wrong--just wrong. I had never seen cheerleaders at WTT events before--but I haven't watched a lot of WTT so it's possible I have just missed them--though they seem pretty hard to miss. Today's airing of the contest between the Houston Wranglers and the Newport Beach Breakers on OLN (anyone know why OLN is changing its name to Versus? Versus what?) included shots of Houston's cheerleaders. I thought the whole point of WTT was that the fans become cheerleaders of sorts--ringing cowbells, yelling, bopping to music between points, etc. WTT philosophy espouses fan involvement where the fan can eschew the usual decorum associated with professional tennis and just let loose--similar to fan behavior at other professional events Do we really need the ch...

Yes even sport merchandise catalogs warrant scrutiny on this blog. Not that I am seeking out these moments--they just find me. Such was the case this afternoon when I went to check my mail and found in the box a catalog that the former owner of my house receives. It's a biking catalog I had never heard of, Bike Nashbar. It contains everything for cycling--road and mountain--and had some pretty good deals, especially on shoes--not that I need another pair. Anyway as I was flipping through it casually I noticed that in the clothing and shoe sections all the women's merchandise had a little bitty corner of the page. So, for example where there were at least 10 options for men's shoes there were only 3 for women. Also of note, only the women's gear was labeled. So if it wasn't in the little women's box, we had to assume it was men's gear. This was very interesting to me as I thought about cyclists. Cycling is a male-dominated sport (see for example the Tour de F...

MFHP and I left the Gay Games this past Thursday. On our way out of town though we caught water polo--fascinating though very complicated to understand all the rules. And because basketball was right across the hall we went there too. There were several games going on including what seemed to be the feature match in the center of the gymnasium with young guys in intense competition. But on the other side of the gym I caught what I initially thought was a practice. But when I walked closer I saw that it was a three-on-three contest and all the participants were women over 60. And they were good and it was just as intense a contest as the young guys on center court. And MFHP and I started to cry thinking about the opportunities these women didn't have growing up as pre-Title IX athletes. I had thought I would have cried earlier in the Games--people warned us it would happen. But it hadn't and we thought we would leave without shedding a joyful tear. But these women did it for us....

Tonight is my last from the Gay Games. My favorite hockey player (MFHP) lost this evening and will not be playing in the medal rounds that begin tomorrow. That means we are heading back east tomorrow. But we had fun today anyway. After a productive trip to IKEA, we went to Navy Pier to watch volleyball. Initially we headed to North Beach to watch beach volleyball which was scheduled from 10-5 with today being the last day of play. But when we drove by at 2 it looked like people were clearing out. So we asked some lesbians (from whom there were many to choose) and they said it was all over. Bummer. So we went south to the pier and caught some team volleyball. And we ended up seeing an amazing match between a Chicago team and a Mexican team--who we qucikly adopted as our favorite. Upon initial observation of the players, I thought it would be a fun yet casual match; i.e. not especially skilled, though I never doubted the intensity or desire of the competitors. What I am trying to say not...

The heat has finally broken here in Chicago. There was a big storm last night and this morning around 10 when we went outside we were pleasantly surprised NOT to feel the air cling to us. This made our outing to women's soccer in Oak Park much more enjoyable. There was a nice breeze and sitting in the stands was not in the least bit miserable. Oh--the game was pretty good too. We went to support the Thunder Kittens from Madison and they beat a San Francisco team 5-1. Hopefully the Mad City Blades can score a win tonight too at the hockey venue. Yesterday was good too--besides the insane heat. We checked out flag football which was fascinating. Because the Gay Games accepts gays and straights (a fact all the articles in the Tribune mentions repeatedly) it was initially difficult to tell whether the teams were just here to compete in an event and may have had a few gay members (a la the rowing competition). But continued observation reveals that most of the members--if not all--are i...

So I am in Chicago at the Gay Games supporting my favorite hockey player but also doing some pre-dissertation research. We went to the opening ceremonies last night. They were good--very long and a lot of unnecessary interpretative dance (i.e. the GG were trying to be a little too much like the Olympics) and it was incredibly hot and humid. But it was cool to see a giant rainbow flag made by lights being held by queer athletes on the same field where "manly men" play football, grrr. Today we drove over an hour from where we are staying to Crystal Lake to see the rowing. Rowing only took place today and it was a very controversial event because the people of Crystal Lake were not too hot on a gaggle of queers invading their fair town. So we felt we should go to support the athletes and make our presence known. We have only ever been to one other regatta but we liked it so we were looking forward to it. Alas it was disappointing. First of all the event was supposed to start at ...

go to Amelie Mauresmo for a spectacular win at Wimbledon and to Annika Sorenstam for her US Open playoff win against Pat Hurst in Newport a few weeks ago. I have been packing and moving and unpacking and painting during some of the best events of the summer. But I did catch some of Mauresmo's win over a pouty Henin-Hardenne. It was a sweet victory especially given Henin-Hardenne's withdrawal in the championship match of the Australian Open. I thought Sorenstam's was equally spectacualr given that on the final day of play (which was 36 holes) there were at least 5 contenders going into the final three holes. Sorenstam missed a putt that should have gone in that would have given her the championship. But she came in strong the next day. Upcoming this summer is the US Open series. To watch for: 1. Will Serena Williams be back (that's the plan) and how well will she do after her "mental break"? 2. Will Venus Williams (who made it to the finals of the mixed at Wimb...