After Atalanta

Earlier in the week The Boston Globe had a feature on a local boxer , Wendy Sprowl, who was the first woman from Massachusetts to win an international boxing title. [The feature was in the Living Arts section which made me ask the somewhat rhetorical question: if Sprowl was a man would this story be on the Sports page?] Sprowl is not fighting professionally anymore though she did indicate that she would return to the ring if the price was right. This speaks to an interesting aspect of her story. She started boxing after she got hurt on the job working construction and had near instant success from the moment of her first fight. She turned professional and one year later won a championship belt to much fanfare--but no money. So now she does odds jobs, landscaping, trains others, and has a DVD out called "Sweatin Bullets" which is also a class she runs out of a Cohasset gym. The "Sweatin' Bullets" program seems to be pretty successful and I was quite impressed th...

The need for a fitter population is a concern frequently covered by the media. Yesterday I mentioned the WSFF report on the state of women's fitness in Great Britain. There was no mention, though, in the coverage I saw of the report, about disparities in fitness levels across racial and class lines. In the United States that concern is very real and many are trying to address it. When I was in graduate school in Boston I worked on a project funded, in part, through the Women's Sports Foundation where organizations that offered programs aimed at increasing the participation of girls in sports and physical activity--especially girls of color and those from working and lower class backgrounds--received grants to continue (or begin in some cases) their work. In return, some eager researchers came in and observed the process and collected data. Boston was a target city because statistics at the time showed boys in the city had twice as many participation opportunities as girls. Yest...

1. A new study in Britain by the Women's Sports and Fitness Foundation has found that more women need to get active--now! In the US we like to talk about "progress" and the numbers of women participating in sports and other physical activities; especially using 1972 (the passage of Title IX) as a reference point (even though women did engage in sport before then--sometimes we forget that). But there is no Title IX in Britain and now it seems that more and more women are not engaged in any physical activity. The study estimates that if the current trend on non-activity continues, there will be 1.25 million fewer women engaging in the recommended amount of exercise just one decade from now. One of the obstacles: image. Apparently being sporty is not sexy and though women want to be thin, they do not want to be athletic-looking. Having an athletic body (well a cetain type of athletic body) is not as much a problem in the US and certainly athletic is not equivalent to un-sexi...

It's so rare I get home in time to watch Jeopardy these days but for some reason I was able to catch it several times last week. And in those few times I heard host Alex Trebek make two questionable comments about gender and sport. The first came when he was interviewing one of the contestants (does anyone else hate these things as much as I do? I usually mute them). The contestant reported that he is both a high school swim coach for the girl's team and an ice hockey coach. Alex, apropos of nothing, said something like "and I assume the hockey team is boys." Why he would assume that is curious. Women play ice hockey--most people know that even if they don't watch or even support. And, hello, Alex Trebek is Canadian. Canada has the best national team in the world right now. Women's hockey has been around in Canada just as long as men have been playing the sport. So I thought it was a little bit of poetic justice when, later in the week, the defending champion ...

A sports editor in Virginia examines the coverage her newspaper provides to girls' and women's sports. She notes that her paper is above the national average (it's at about 11 percent right now) in terms of coverage provided to female athletes but that 32 percent still isn't equal. And, of course, she asks why and tries to offer explanations like there are 5-6 male football players for one female volleyball player. But that one is a little weak given that newspapers cover contests not individual players. It's good that a sports editor is self-reflective on this issue. Interesting that I have not seen the same type of analysis of the sports page by men who are at the helm of sports pages. And she doesn't really promise things will change, but rather asks readers to comment (you should, if you feel compelled, email her using the above link and give your opinion). And she generally relies on typical excuses: readers want to know about boys' sports, the departm...

This article is an interesting take on the recent public uncovering of the "halftime show" at Jets games where men line the pedestrian ramps and sexually harass women below. It puts the situation in the context of women's professional football which the author presents as a more pure version of football than "this hedonistic, misogynistic spectacle the NFL has been giving [us] lately." And as much as I support women's professional football and believe it is one of the most undercovered women's sports in the country, I am always leery of the implication that some women's sports or female versions of sport can be an alternative to men's sports. This does two things (well probably more than that but two for today): 1. One, it presents men's sports (some not all) as beyond reform essentially letting all this bad behavior by fans, players, owners, coaches slip by because "boys will be boys" and suggesting they are a lost cause because o...

Since I wrote about football yesterday I don't feel the need to dwell on that particular Thanksgiving tradition. So I'll just say "Happy Thanksgiving" to everyone. Here are my Thanksgiving wishes (I know wishes are for Christmas and Thanksgiving is for giving thanks but...) for you: I hope you eat everything you want without guilt and with much enjoyment. I hope you did not spend extra time at the gym this week working off what you have not yet eaten--a spin instructor once told us that as encouragement during class. I hope you are not taking advice about eating a small salad or drinking ten glasses of water before the meal. I hope if you're running in a turkey trot that you're doing it because it's fun and eating a good meal after an outdoor run makes food so much more enjoyable. And I hope if you do go to the gym this weekend it's not because you're anxious about holiday pounds and that no trainer or instructor pushes you to work harder by invoki...

I read the NY Times article about the "tradition" of sexually harassing female fans at halftime during Jets games yesterday afternoon. And in that time of processing I have felt a myriad of things: general disgust, a certain level of despondency, and validation from peers and colleagues about how atrocious this practice is. But I think, in the end, one of the most disturbing things about this news of men who line up on the spiral ramps and harass women below encouraging them to flash their breasts (and security guards and police who do nothing about it!), is that it isn't news at all. It's been going on for a long time; years apparently. Hard to believe that no one knew about it or thought to report on it before now. I mean, there are You Tube clips of this halftime event. Not much of a secret, I would say. What happens now that the Times has brought it into a little brighter light remains to be seen. What has been done thus far is absolutely nothing--tacit accepta...

Need a decent-paying part-time gig? Are you a former female athlete? Try refereeing. This article from an old Baltimore Sun addresses the need for refs at the junior and high school level because of the growing number of girls playing youth sports. This piece focuses on the lack of refs in lacrosse and field hockey but the overall trend is a lack of female refs in all sports. Because the pay might be good and it's a great way to stay involved in a sport you grew up around, but the work conditions are not always ideal. The article speaks to "the increasingly hostile environment for officials at games" and related the story of one new referee who quit after a season because of all the bad language directed her way. And one has to think, and there seems to be some research to back this up, that female refs get more crap than their male counterparts. A good example was Celtics commentator Cedric Maxwell saying that NBA ref Violet Palmer should "get back in the kitchen ...

Dave Zirin has a column in the LA Times about the return of Imus to the airwaves next week. He doesn't really say anything new--but that's okay because at this point, it's more important to keep the discourse going which is harder in our 24/7 news culture. Plus he's a good writer; intelligent and just the right amount of snarky. (I've been using that word a lot lately--I must be feeling kind of snarky myself.) Some highlights: Imus' punishment in retrospect appears like a massage on the wrist: He received a $20-million settlement from CBS for cutting his contract short, he took a nine-month vacation, and now he's returning to commercial radio. We are relentlessly sold the idea that our games -- our precious sports -- are a safe space from this kind of political abuse. Sports are a "field of dreams" where hard work always meets rewards. We treasure this idea. When the Rutgers basketball players defy the odds and make the NCAA finals -- and get call...

It was a sweet weekend for University of New Hampshire hockey. The women hosted #1 ranked (and two-time defending NCAA champions) Wisconsin. And they won 2-1 each afternoon . [ Being there is great but hearing it broadcast also provides some insight. For example, Martine Garland, who was easily the today's MVP scoring UNH's two goals, was called a defenseman. I have bitched about this before, but I find it so interesting that others don't find it jarring to hear something along the lines of " She's a great a defense man ." But not necessarily surprising. Last night Wisconsin earned what I like to call the "learn how to count" penalty when, in the course of a shift change, they wound up with 6 players on the ice. From the stands I heard fans yell--before the whistle blew and the penalty was called--"too many men, too many men." And they were not talking about the gender composition of the US Congress. But I was pleasantly surprised when the...

A columnist out of Tennessee has a snarky piece criticizing the position of women's bowling as an NCAA-sanctioned sport. Also annoying is that not so atypical "apologetic" pattern that male writers use when talking about women's sports: criticize, make a "but I really do support women's sports and equality and all that" statement, and criticize some more. It's like a reverse sandwich technique. And the author, David Whitley, certainly has the pattern down. Whitley seems to have a problem that bowling now (actually since 2003) has the same status as football. Only in name, I would say. Does any intercollegiate sport really have the same "status" as football? So he makes what he must see as the requisite bowling jokes as he goes off on his quest to find the NCAA Championship bowling trophy which is in defending champion Vanderbilt's athletic department. (Is it in the shape of nachos and beer, he gibes.) And then, of course, he launches in...

When people ask, "Why hasn't a male (currently playing) professional athlete come out yet?" I just roll my eyes and either assume one, the asker is a journalist posing a rhetorical question that s/he feels makes him/her look sensitive to gay issues or, two, the asker is extremely naive and perhaps also living in a closet--just a different type of one. And when I hear about (thanks to JB for the alert) comments like those made the other day by Lakers coach Phil Jackson , I shake my head resignedly and say "See? This is why. Now stop asking this ridiculous question and let's start doing something about it." After the Lakers beat the Spurs, in part because of great outside shooting (they made 13 3-pointers), Jackson was asked about the 39 points and responded: "We call this a 'Brokeback Mountain' game, because there's so much penetration and kickouts." GLAD issued a statement that included this "Phil Jackson's been coaching long e...

It didn't take long for the three-person hiring committee to find a new head coach for the US women's national soccer team. Former Swedish superstar (her picture was on a Swedish stamp!) Pia Sundhage got the job yesterday (well it was announced yesterday). Her contract runs through the Olympics next summer. The explanation was that it's the only major tournament until the next World Cup in 2011 but I think it's pretty apparent that US Soccer wants to see what the first non-American coach and only the second woman can do with the team that seems to have a lot of talent but had a lackluster (for them) World Cup earlier this fall. Despite the talented team members, Sundhage has a fairly tough job ahead of her. There are only nine months until the Olympics and in that time she has to make what looked like a fairly reticent team in the World Cup into the aggressive, offensive-minded team it seems they should be given the depth of talent. But Sundhage has the experience and I...

1. There must have been a rerun of The Family Guy episode in which Peter disses the WNBA relying on sexist and homophobic stereotypes. There have been a lot of hits looking for "WNBA Family Guy." If it is really as harmless as some of the commenters on the original post suggested, I don't think people would be looking for blog commentary on it. 2. There have also been a lot of searches about the Tonka "boys are built differently" ad campaign. I actually have not seen the ads of late because the little television I get to watch these days does not seem to be aimed a toy truck-buying market. But I hope every parent that sees those commercials is outraged. It seems that a feminist forum on a My Space page has linked here as evidence that others are perturbed by the blatant essentialism in Tonka's ad campaign. 3. Have I missed a big story about women's wrestling or race and gender in wrestling? There are a lot of searches for women's wrestling or black ...

Because if that's where we are sending female coaches who have transgressed coach/student-athlete boundaries, a la Pokey Chatman, ( see this USA Today article sent by JB for more info on that situation), then there may be another exile. Gina Ramacci, an assistant softball coach down at Florida Gulf Coast University, has been fired for improper relations with a student-athlete. Ramacci is a new coach hired last spring who will remain on administrative leave until December when her current contract runs out. What exactly happened is a little vague. There were allegations that came from the parent of softball player (not the one alleged to have had a relationship with Ramacci) of a sexual relationship which both coach and player have denied. But the university contends that whether a sexual relationship actually occurred is irrelevant to Ramacci's firing because the relationship was "inappropriate." What exactly inappropriate is, of course, they will not say. This is not...

The Hindustan Times has a good article about the utter lack of support for women's sports and female athletes in India. In describing the conditions--lack of quality equipment, poor facilities, no media coverage, and pitiful compensation--I began to think about what state women's sports in the US would be in were it not for Title IX. While Title IX applies only to athletic opportunities within educational institutions and not national teams like those referenced in the article, we all know that colleges and universities provide a training and recruiting ground for national teams in many cases. Of course sometimes the differences are not so exaggerated. Women's sports in the US get very little media coverage and when they are the coverage is often problematic due the sexualiation, infantilization, and general lack of respect for female athletes. And the issue of compensation is also a good one. We all know that athletes on women's professional team sports earn far less ...

Mechelle Voepel runs down who's who and what's what in college hoops this season, coaching changes mostly. So if you were in a coma last season and just awoke check out her column--smart and witty as usual--to find out who's out and who's in and who went overseas. The latter refers to former LSU head coach Pokey Chatman who resigned right before her team went into the NCAA tournament due to allegations of improper conduct with a former player. Chatman settled her complaint with LSU for $160,000 which precludes her from further legal action. The settlement though does not seem to contain a gag order but that does not mean anyone is talking. Chatman isn't saying anything about the incident in question including denying it. So she has been exiled to Russia where she will be coaching. Given the allegations, an overseas job was probably the only thing she could get right now. But will she be back? I want to say yes, but something in me says no--oh yeah, it's that ra...

The more I learn about women's sports, the more I realize just how remarkable Billie Jean King was--not just for her time--but for our time. An Australian paper reports on the disparate prize money for male and female cyclists. And like the female tennis players of the 70s, female cyclists are making a tenth of their male counterparts. And the article does not contain any sort of rationale besides some vague reference to, perhaps, an old boys network that does not want to see women biking professionally. And despite the fact that she believes female cyclists put in the same time and effort as male cyclists, an Australian cyclist Lorian Graham said: "That's just the way it is. I'm more interested in getting out there and promoting what women can do." Not exactly the sentiment of someone looking to change the system.

A local Utah paper has a nice feature on a man, Grant Cottam, who has supported girls' sports since the 1960s. Back then he attended a high school basketball game with his wife who had pressured him to go with her. While he went reluctantly, he was impressed immediately and became a lifelong fan of not only basketball but volleyball, track, and soccer. He travels to find good games and follow strong teams--though does not have a favorite. I am pleased there is such a devoted supporter in Utah, but is this really newsworthy? I was actually more interested in how his wife became a fan herself in a pre-Title IX era. Or what exactly it was that Cottam saw in the girls' game that he found so compelling. Why is it so interesting that a now 80-year old man is a fan of girls' sports? The writer didn't do a good enough job framing the story to convince me that this man was remarkable in any way besides the fact that she chose to write about his fandom. But a man's following ...

No, this post is not about Don Imus. It's about the University of Illinois bringing back Chief Illiniwek. You may recall that UI abandoned the mascot last winter after pressure from the NCAA. There had been a ban, put in place by the school, eliminating the use of the Chief (who was never a real chief by the way; whose dress and "dance" does not reflect anything the Illini ever wore or did) at school events. But this year Chancellor Richard Herman lifted the ban on using Illiniwek's likeness just in time for homecoming festivities because he felt it limited the free expression of students. And so various Illiniweks showed up at the homecoming parade. There were no protesters. It's nothing less than sickening. Sportswriter Dave Zirin devotes his column this week over at Edge of Sports to the issue. He spoke about it briefly last week in Pittsburgh where he gave a keynote address at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport conference. I found him very e...

We all knew it was coming. The plans for Imus to go back on the radio have been in the works for a while. Rumors about negotiations with WABC, we knew, we more likely truer than not. And so it will be that Don Imus will return to the airwaves on December 3. Coach Stringer says she knew Imus would work again but she's still angry at the comments, though she reiterates that she has forgiven him. She also seems to think this experience has humbled him and that he will emerge a changed man when he shows up for work in a month. Does she really believe that or is it just what she says to the press? I hope the latter because I really think Stringer is smarter than that. Imus had his already slightly sketchy reputation tarnished a little more. He did not have his consciousness raised. And speaking of the Imus situation. It has been a hot topic here in Pittsburgh where the annual North American Society for the Sociology of Sport conference is being held. [The conference is also the reason f...