After Atalanta

Last year when everyone was like "Oh the WPS is starting during troubled economic times" and "oh, the WUSA failed even after the success of the World Cup" and "oh women's professional sports don't draw enough fans to be self-sustaining", I--the perpetual Debbie Downer--remained hopeful and criticized all the naysayers. But I have to say that the news of the Sol's demise is hitting me pretty hard. I mean how can number one (or two depending how you view last season) team in the WPS fold? It's like the Yankees folding. (Well, you know, kind of--maybe.) This is the team with Marta. This is the team with US National Team member Shannon Boxx. And it's L.A. Warm, California, soccer--right? What was happening out there in L.A.? It's worrisome, even with the addition of two new teams this season.

So much for my one religion post a month. I guess I just can't will culture to limit my exposure to such things. So who is talking about Tim Tebow--besides this reluctant blogger? Well every guy on Sports Center and Mike and Mike in the Morning (I sit through a lot of crap to get tennis highlights). Tim's currently in Mobile, Alabama for the Senior Bowl which is a parade of intercollegiate football players for professional franchises. And Tebow is all anyone is talking about down there according to the ESPN on-the-scene reporter. One of the Mikes was actually astute enough to ask whether the whole Superbowl ad controversy is being talked about by anyone who matters--i.e. anyone who might potentially draft Tebow. And no, apparently it is not on the radar screens of any powers that be. Not surprising, even though one of the Mikes contends that pro teams don't like controversy. Perhaps, but they have plenty of experience dealing with it! And this is probably a welcome controve...

It's a little late, of course and one has to wonder where all the sympathy from the mainstream, American-based media was when these women were in the midst of their battle with the IOC and, by default, VANOC. The righteous indignation is nice but just two weeks before the start of the games, it's a little less righteous and indignatious. But the SI column does do a good job noting the male-dominated make up of the IOC, the lip service Rogge has played to gender equity, how softball was cut on his watch and continually and problematically compared to baseball, and the admittance of other sports ahead of women's ski jumping. It also makes a good point about the limited growth of a sport that is not in the Olympics (one of the reasons behind the decision was that there was not enough depth) and, I would argue, not an intercollegiate sport. With very limited funding for a national team that is not an Olympic sport, many women have or will quit jumping.

The title implies that there might be only be one--ever--on this blog. That would be nice. But alas it's probably more accurate to call this the January sport and Christianity post. And that's only because the Superbowl doesn't happen until February. Because the sports world--or at least the sports world I live in which is a slightly different reality from say the ESPN sports world others inhabit--is abuzz with the Tim Tebow Superbowl ad brought to you by my favoritest group evah: Focus on the Family. Of course the ad is being paid for by a few generous and seemingly anonymous individuals and not coming out FOF's general budget. But now several women's groups are asking CBS , which has a policy against airing "contentious advocacy ads" which was why they rejected an ad from the United Church of Christ that welcomed all types of people to their congregations--including gays, lesbians, and other queer-type people. But CBS does not seem to be concerned about ...

Pat Griffin (of It Takes a Team) and Helen Carroll's (from the National Center for Lesbian Rights) editorial in Inside Higher Ed . They provide and throughtful and informative piece on transgender athletes focusing on high school and collegiate student-athletes.

...the female ski jumpers who will not be there, of course, because the IOC's decision to keep ski jumping the only male-only winter sport kept being upheld by varying governing and judicial bodies. I was thinking yesterday when skiing in Vermont about watching my first (and only admittedly) ski jumping competition in Brattleboro last winter. So I was pleased to come across this article out of Rutland, VT about a local female jumper (who was actually at the competition last year). It chronicle's the 16-year old's history in the sport. She was US junior Olympian and, of course, hoping for the inclusion of her sport in the games in Vancouver. But unlike jumpers like Lindsay Van, Vermont native Tara Geraghty-Moats is likely young enough to compete in four years at the next Olympics on Sochi. (This is assuming of course that the IOC has had enough of the negative press and actually includes the sport in 2014.) Geraghty-Moats actually won't be in Brattleboro next month becau...

Sean at Sportsbabel was kind enough to send along this article entitled "Basketball league for white Americans targets Augusta." But the title confused me. A white basketball team was going to protest Augusta National which still won't allow women as members and has a lovely history of racism? How would that work? So naive. But it so clearly illustrates my thought process! Anyway, no what is happening is that a whites-only basketball league is trying to establish a team in Augusta. The city, not the golf course. I guess, given my initial interpretation of the headline, it wasn't too out of the realm of possibility for me that there would be such an organization. And it isn't. Basketball has always been rife with racial tensions. There have always been the subtle reactions to the prevalence of Black people who play the game professionally and in college. Have I recounted here before the story of sitting at a UIowa women's game against Rutgers when the older whi...

Of course! Of course, Patrick McEnroe and Mary Jo Fernandez and every other Australian Open/ESPN commentator. Gender had nothing to do with Serena Williams's biggest-fine-in-tennis-ever as she claimed in a recent interview at the Australian Open. I mean, really. We're still talking about gender? No--we're all equal now that Wimbledon finally ponied up equal prize money. Oh, and P.S. just in case you were thinking it, race had nothing to do with it either. Because we are soooo lucky to live in a post-race society too. 'Cause, you know, we elected a Black man to be president. [Can you even imagine what would have happened if Serena had mentioned race in that interview? Pam Shriver's head might have exploded. Remind me to tweet Serena and ask her to talk about race!] All these gender is not a factor comments are ringing pretty hollow to me, a Massachusetts resident, this morning. 'Cause another potentially powerful woman in Congress who dared to call out a man'...

I went to a hockey game! My first collegiate women's game of the season. Yea! My team lost. Boo! Also irksome was that it was the "Stick it to cancer" event which meant that everything was pink. Pink shirts and shorts and pj bottoms for sale. Pink programs--which I refused to even pick up. Thankfully my father snagged me a normal one. And pink tape on the players' sticks and socks. Oh, and pink scarves on the female coaches. The male head coach--no pink. What was interesting was that all of the verbal announcements in the pre-game ceremony, etc. only talked about cancer--not breast cancer. So either we're afraid of saying the word breast at a hockey game or this is a general fight cancer event which means the whole pink thing is even more bizarre. And speaking of pink, when I saw this year's ball persons uniforms at the Australian Open I bet (only myself which isn't as fun) that it would take Pam Shriver less than one hour to comment on the color. And I wo...

And thank goodness for that because then I might have been recruited as a hostess. You're thinking sex work, right? Nope. Well, maybe, kind of. According to this article from a December issue of Inside Higher Ed , the sketchy practice of pretty girls hosting a university's football (and basketball too I believe though this article focuses on football) recruits continues. In 2004 the NCAA cracked down on hostessing, instituting specific rules, etc. But it seems that mostly that has meant that there is a lot more winking and nodding and turning of heads, like that being done by University of Tennessee's head football coach after two hostesses went to a high school football game to cheer on two recruits. Sounds innocuous but not so much. I have heard countless stories about what happens between recruits and hostesses. Let's not forget that the lawsuit brought against University of Colorado by former female students stemmed from sexual violence that occurred at a recruiting...

Woo-hoo, look at me, up on the breaking news that Mark McGwire has admitted to taking steroids. Shocker. Seriously. But even in admitting his deep regret and wishing he had never ever taken steroids, the heartfeltness of it all remains suspect--to me, anyway. First of all is the naivete or the feigned naivete or the deliberate denial of the role and intent of his steroid use. He was injured so he wanted to take something to get better--he wasn't after strength!! So, yeah, definitely a substance (or substances) so suspect that it's illegal--that's what I would turn to to fix my injuries. And of course strength alone does not make a good hitter, McGwire still contends--it's all about the hand-eye coordination. Well, sure. But my guess is that everyone hitting in the major leagues has above average hand-eye coordination. What set him apart was STRENGTH . If he really believed that strength was not a huge factor in his successful hitting career he wouldn't be so underst...

Usually I post about another college or university adding women's wrestling to their roster of varsity sports. Sometimes it is to increase the number of opportunities for women to participate in sport; sometimes it is an attempt to "save" men's wrestling. But this time, it's just to get women involved in the sport and sport more generally. And it's not at a college or university. It's not even in the United States. Apparently wrestling clubs for women are taking off in Iraq. One guy, a former champion wrestler and national coach, came in and started a club for women a year ago and despite some community resistance, women came out to wrestle and more clubs around the country have popped up. And they like it. They really like it. Plans include travelling to tournaments in nearby countries like Syria and Turkey and the women in the founding club have their sites set on the Olympics.

Wow--I just don't know what to do with this story (kindly sent to me by Sean at Sportsbabel ). Australian track and field star Jana Rawlinson, who specializes in the hurdles, recently had her breast implants removed. Not because she didn't like the way they looked: "I absolutely loved having big boobs" she said. No, it was because she didn't want to "short-change Australia" in the 2012 Olympics. She wanted to be the fittest she could be and I guess that meant ditching the implants. Curious, curious, curious. Why would she add them in the first place? [OK; just found this article about when the news of the implants was publicly revealed.] Olympic-level track athletes usually start running pretty early in their lives. Likely earlier than the decision to have implants would be made. Actually, we can infer that Rawlinson was indeed already an athlete when she chose to have breast augmentation because the reason behind the implants, she says, was that she did...