After Atalanta

It's been a busy few days here in Cleveland at the Women Rock conference . Hopefully I will write more later. Maybe on the plane tomorrow on the way home. This is just a briefing. It's been two days of great panels and plenary sessions and, like at most conferences, there are just too many good things going on at once. Today's highlight, though, was seeing and hearing Billie Jean King at a luncheon. (The talk was actually aired on public radio so you may be able to listen to it as a podcast.) Christine Brennan did the interview part of the program and she was basically throwing BJK some short lobs (to use a tennis metaphor) that she was able to just put away. This was fine. Unfortunately Brennan lost a lot of my respect when she finished the talk by trying to address an audience member's concern about the growing number of students and student-athletes who have no idea what Title IX is. Brennan tried to spin it as a good thing because it is a sign of progress. In other ...

This weekend there will be some good discussions about homophobia in sport. Down in Atlanta, in conjunction with the men's Final Four, Human Rights Campaign and It Takes a Team (part of the Women's Sports Foundation) are sponsoring a panel of current and former athletes who are gay or transgender, including the recently out John Amaechi. The majority of the panel are gay men. HRC's Mark Shields said "This is an important discussion to be had in terms of both male and female athletes at all levels of sports. Unfortunately, due to scheduling issues with other events around the country, several leading female athletes were not able to participate in our panel this weekend in Atlanta." Yes, the rest of us, including Pat Griffin, director of It Takes a Team, will be in Cleveland this weekend (starting today actually) for the " Girls and Women Rock: Celebrating 35 Years of Sport and Title IX" conference. Homophobia will certainly be discussed here, among othe...

Rene Portland is gone. Homophobia is not. John Smallwood's column on the Portland resignation in The Philadelphia Daily News is titled "Portland case revives unease over lesbians in sport." But the unease was always there. I worry now that with Portland gone there will be the collective sigh of relief: "phew, now that's over." The only thing that leaves with Portland is the blatant, public homophobia. Mechelle Voepel is right when she notes that the Portland saga is over. But negative recruiting still continues and often the tactics used are homophobic--sometimes subtle, and sometimes more obvious. Smallwood reports hearing negative references to lesbianism wherever he goes. And the presence of lesbianism is frequently trotted out as an excuse for why women's sports are less popular. And let's not forget that racism still permeates all sport--not just women's sport. Harris's lawsuit contained allegations of racism (and sexism) but the majori...

I think maybe I am glad she doesn't play on my team anymore. Though she was largely responsible for making Martina Navratilova into the amazing player she was (and still is of course) and you just cannot completely condemn a person who has that kind of impact. And she also has pics on her website of her and Martina and other gay icons like Rosie O'Donnell and Billie Jean King. But last night, when she was commenting on the UNC game, she made several remarks that just made me stop and wonder why the born-again Lieberman even thinks women should be playing such a rough and tumble game as basketball. First, her co-commentator, was discussing UNC's Ivory Latta and her relative quickness this season after summer knee surgery. He spoke with Latta prior to the game and reported that Latta's weight was only 3 pounds more than what it was last season. In other words, it's not extra poundage slowing her down this year. Lieberman said, "You never ask a lady about her weig...

Rene Portland has resigned ! I am a little bit in shock but not so much that I cannot do the schadenfreude dance. [............] OK. I am back. I think many of us knew that Portland would leave in the not too distant future, but I imagined it would be in a few years when her contract ran out; when she could announce her "retirement" and everyone would save face. Her resignation may not be part of the settlement--though there seem to be some discussion about the level of voluntarily-ness --but Jennifer Harris's lawsuit had to have been a factor. After all the publicity, including that about Penn State's passive stance towards Portland's public no-lesbian policy, it had to have been hard to keep her as the face of the Lions women's basketball team. One has to think that the administration did a little bit of nudging. Like the details of the settlement, I am sure all the details of Portland's resignation will never be known. So just let your imagination run w...

I am, admittedly, biased, but I think the women's NCAA basketball tournment has been far more exciting than the men's tourney thus far this year. This op-ed , written before either tournament began, complains about the lack of coverage for women's sports--particularly women's basketball and places the blame largely on the shoulders of the NCAA. I am not sure if blame rests entirely there. The NCAA really is not in the business of promotion; technically they are about governance. It's media outlets that decide what to publish and televise and thus promote. Regardless of who is the biggest culprit in the lack of promotion of women's sports, this year's women's tournament has been outstanding. My bracket--and lots of other people's I am sure--is pretty much shot with upsets of teams like #2 seed Maryland, Stanford, and the early exit of Ohio State. But it's exciting to watch these teams from "lesser" conferences make a run at the title. Th...

I do have some thoughts on the Pokey Chatman resignation and allegation(s), but they are not quite done yet. But I want to comment on some of the things said in this article about the situation at LSU. First, Donnita Drain, head coach at Langston University, when asked if the situation was bad for women's basketball said it was and explained that it makes everyone (and I assume she means female head coaches) suspect. She notes that if you are not married then you are assumed to be gay. Interesting, she was not asked if Chatman's resignation hurt the status of women head coaches--she was asked if it hurt the game. Her response seems to indicate how the situation has brought to the surface long-held assumptions about sports and lesbians that become somewhat buried--especially at this time of the year when we hear about parity and the increasing depth of women's basketball. Perhaps if women's sports created a culture where individuals did not have to hide the fact that the...

I am perusing the USTA supplement that comes with my TENNIS magazine very month. It reports on the latest class of Hall of Fame inductees and offers this headline: Sampras Leads Hall of Fame Inductees This irks for a few reasons that stem from what "leads" really means in this context. Remember, Pete Sampras and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario are both being inducted under the recent player category. Frequently the recent player inductee is the headliner--except maybe for the year when Bud Collins got inducted as a contributor (no offense to Hana Mandlikova. I suppose Sampras may "lead" because he has more Grand Slam singles titles than Sanchez-Vicario. But they are actually tied for overall Grand Slam titles with 14 because Sanchez-Vicario has numerous doubles and mixed doubles titles. Yes, in tennis we tend to privilege singles titles for some strange reason, as if it takes more fortitude to win a singles title. I think winning a doubles title is quite difficult because ...

This article from CSTV is a rah-rah story about women's athletics at Ohio University. It provides fairly thorough coverage of the successes of various women's sports this year and attributes much of this success to the type of coaches Ohio U brings in, including two newcomers, and the close knit community the coaches of women's sports have established. I am all for coverage of women's sports and even more so for positive articles about successful programs, but you cannot help but see the giant elephant loping around this story. Hard to talk about the success of the Ohio U program without talking about the recent cuts the athletic department made, eliminating four sports, including women's lacrosse. While the cuts made barely a dent in the deficit the athletic department is running, it has to be said that, as unfortunate as cutting teams is, getting a budget under control and trying to comply with Title IX probably can only help women's programs. Given the backla...

...but in a good way. Somehow I missed this news at the end of last week: the French Open--or Roland Garros as it is officially known--has decided to award equal prize money in all rounds this year. Perhaps this did not make as much news because most people already thought Roland Garros awarded equal prize money. When Wimbledon made its announcement earlier this year about equal prize money most of the media outlets, blogs, etc. reported that it was the last Grand Slam to do so. But at RG equal prize money was only awarded to the winners of the event. The French Federation said equal prize money across the board was the intent when it started with equal winners' checks last year. But I have to think that this two-step process perhaps was meant to be more of a multi-step plan making prize money equal gradually starting with the winners and then working down the draw. But the decision by the All-England Lawn and Tennis Club probably effected a change of plans across the Channel. But...

So often I seem to be complaining about offensive and/or exploitative commercials. But tonight I saw a good one. During the finals of the men's Hockey East tournament, One Hockey ran the best ad for youth hockey. It starts in a classroom where a boy is methodically wetting a piece of paper, and slyly pulling a deconstructed pen out of his sleeve. He quickly turns and executes his spitball in the direction of a seemingly unsuspecting girl. But she is able to block his shot with her notebook which she whips up in front of her face at the last second much to the shooter's amazement. Why is the girl so quick? Because she's a hockey goalie, of course. And in the next scene we see her don her helmet and play with other kids (gender unknown). Made me smile which was a good thing given that my alma mater, UNH, lost the championship.

I have read a few articles recently that say how great women's sports are, if only more people would show up at games and contests so women's sports could get the recognition they deserve. And whose fault is it that there are so many empty seats in the crowd? Mine apparently. Two of the articles were by male columnists and both cite women as the reason why crowds are thin at women's events. (OK not my fault specifically, as I do indeed go to women's events--heck I plan whole vacations around women's sporting events. Of course this generalization is part of the problem with the male columnists.) A Fairfield College columnist bemoaned the lack of attention the women's sports at her school receive from the community despite their overall success in recent years. She though starts to get at the reality of the situation--not the lack of female fans--the pervasive, antiquated stereotypes of women's sports: We've all heard the common argument, that women's ...

...in DI women's ice hockey. Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson, whose team has won three national championships since 2000, noted recently that the growth of the women's intercollegiate game is a sign of increased parity. Unfortunately for her #9-ranked team, this means no trip to the national tournament this year. Despite a rough end to their season, the Gophers probably deserved to make it into the 8-team tournament. (Part of the problem with women's ice hockey is its very small tournament; it only recently expanded to 8 teams.) It's true that the Gophers were ranked out of the top 8 at the end of the season but they play a much tougher conference than Boston College, who wound up 7 in the polls at season's end but lost in the first round of the Hockey East tournament (which, in my mind, should have dropped them to 8). BC went on last weekend, in the first round of the tournament to upset 3# Dartmouth, who probably should have played Harvard who they beat soundly i...

Intercollegiate sports work a little differently in Canada from what I understand. Though I don't know many details, Canadian hockey players I have talked to say they come to the U.S. to play college hockey because they can get athletic scholarships here. Basically intercollegiate athletics here get more funding. But it also seems like athletics, in educational institutions anyway, are a little more sane up north. This also means that coaches are not making million dollar salaries. Coaching is actually more of a part-time gig supplemented by other work in the university. This was the case of the McGill women's hockey coach, Peter Smith, who coaches the successful team part time and is the facilities manager for recreational sports the rest of the time. Until recently that is when a couple, the Kerrs, donated a $1 million to endow the head coach position . Both were associated with the team in the past: the husband as a former coach and the wife as a former player. It is the lar...

Because I might not be playing tennis right now. (Well in an hour actually.) A new study shows that only 19 percent of British women participate regularly in recreational physical activities. The study, conducted by the British Women's Sports Foundation, also shows that race is factor. Only 13 percent of Asian women say they participate in recreational sports. The link above does not provide many details however. But it seems that participation in recreational sports is not widespread in Great Britain. Because, according to the study, only 24 percent of men say they participate in sports three or more times a week. But when compared to the United States and Australia where about 50 percent of women take part in recreational sports, participation numbers for women are low. The plan is to work with 15 women in GB and develop them into leaders in women's sports over the next three years. It appears to be a trickle-down plan rather than something more grassroots. Though the British...

I have never been a huge follower of extreme sports and the X Games, but I remember that when they began, however many years ago now, there seemed to be women competing in them in events like skateboarding and rollerblading. But when I caught some of the action a few years ago there seemed to be no women in the Games. The women's events had disappeared. I guess not too surprising given that the games are owned by ESPN--not exactly an exemplar of gender parity. I don't think this marks a resurgence necessarily, but it is promising that women's surfing will be incorporated into the Games this summer to be held in Mexico. I really like women's surfing actually. (I am not ashamed to say I own Blue Crush and thought Kate Bosworth looked far better as in-shape surfer than she does now as anorexic waif.) I also liked the few reality shows that came out a few years back on surfers. One was on MTV and was about female surfers trying to win a spot in a professional competition ...

This story about the state of women's sports from last week begins with a very cute story from Brazilian soccer star Sissi do Amor Lima who refused to take no from her parents who wanted her to play with dolls rather than pursue soccer. Sissi just ripped the heads off her dolls to use them as balls. The rest of the story about women's sports is worth reading, too.

I have been meaning to write about Katie Hnida's memoir Still Kicking for while now. I read it over the holidays while I was sick and on the couch for about 48 hours. So I think that gives you an idea of the type of book it is. It's not especially challenging--which is fine. I was expecting a little more though than just the details of Hnida's career as a kicker in DI football. It was good in that some of the details were filled in: how she got started kicking (yes, she was a soccer player first who quit after a knee injury), her high school career, and her career post Colorado (where she was raped by a fellow teammate and generally made miserable by the coach and select other players). The problem I had with the book was that it all operated at an individual level. Again, I was not expecting an in-depth analysis of the patriarchy. I realized it would be difficult for Hnida to critique the ideologies that football reifies as someone who "succeeded" in the sport. ...

Finally a rational suggestion about the James Madison University athletic cuts. The cutting of ten teams (JMU previously carried the most varsity teams at the DI level), for anyone not familiar with the story, were announced last September and very much blamed on Title IX rather than the poor budgeting skills of university administrators. And the decision has been news ever since because of the furor over the cuts, including the hatred of the Virginia state legislature which has threatened to cut some of the university's funding unless the powers that be reconsider. A Virginia columnist, who apparently goes by the name Poppin, encouraged the legislature--which apparently hates Title IX so much--to just forgo federal funding of JMU, make up the difference themselves, and run as many teams with whatever gender ratio they want. Oh wait, you don't the money to do that, Virginia? Right, tight budgets are what started this mess in the first place. Poppin was being facetious of course...

Not in Jello, not in mud, not wearing string bikinis--but on a regulation mat wearing real wrestling singlets in intercollegiate competition. It appears that women's wrestling may be an emerging sport in intercollegiate athletics. And Oklahoma City just may be the epicenter of this progressive move. Oklahoma City University is starting a women's wrestling program to go along with its successful men's program. It will also be coached by the current men's coach. The program, when it is implemented next fall, will be one of only 6 programs in the country. But the move by OCU is generating significant buzz. The coach has already fielded calls from all the top female high school wrestlers in the country. And OCU will also have the benefit in recruiting as it borders Texas, which has half of the country's 5,000 high school female wrestlers. [I find this somewhat ironic given that, last I knew, Texas had a ridiculous law that said, after age 14, girls could not wrestle aga...