After Atalanta

 One of my favorite podcasts, P op Culture Happy Hou r, does a weekly segment on Fridays when all panelists/hosts are asked what is making them happy this week. I find it both enjoyable to listen to and am reminded that this practice that should be more widely undertaken.  So this week, what is making me happy is Elana Meyers Taylor and her gold medal win in monobob at the Milano Cortina Olympics. This win makes her a six-time medalist (with one event to go)--and the most decorated woman bobsledder.  Sidebar: I was slightly disturbed, when looking for stories to link, to find this one from Savannah with the headline Who is Elana Meyers Taylor? Le sigh, Georgia. [Also, it is getting more and more difficult to find media outlets to link to that don't make me ill, and I still feel like I am not doing a great job at this. Still, FU CBS. No clicks for you!] This USA Today piece provides some history on her athletic career--including how she got into bobsled--and her legacy. ...

 It is not at all surprising that the IOC disqualified Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych for refusing to change his helmet. The helmet had pictures of Ukrainian athletes who have died in the conflict with Russia.  As I noted when Kirsty Coventry was made IOC president, she was not about to change the culture of the organization. And this decision--which did not have to be a decision--was in keeping with how I expect she will govern. (For clarification, the IOC issued the warning about the helmet and engaged in "negotiations" over it, but International Bobsleigh and Skeleton made the decision. Heraskevych appealed to the the Court of Arbitration for Sport which turned down his appeal.) Coventry did report that she cried over the decision. #whitewomantears The helmet broke the rules over athlete expression on the playing field, they all said. He was told he could wear a black arm band before and after his runs. But political expressions on the field of play are ...

 In less than 20 minutes, coverage of the men's final of the US Open will begin. TV media outlets that are covering the match are being asked not to show (to mute? to cut?) the boos that will be directed at the president of the United States who has decided to accept the invitation of Rolex (who may be trying to curry favor given the tariffs on Switzerland).  It is the USTA doing the asking , by the way. (Presumably the governing body of American tennis was asked by White House type folks.) I am not surprised. Few probably are. There are not too many sports governing bodies that have a political conscience. (Interesting conversations exist and persist around the WNBA and NBA and how players are leading the way in political stances vs the organizations themselves.) I truly hope people in attendance know this happening and that people pull out their phones and post--immediately and often.  Finalist Carlos Alcatraz made some comment about how it is good when presidents atten...

In a continuation of my last post in which I crib from GLAD lawyer Jennifer Levi's thoughtful social media posts, I offer here an explanation of why and how trans athletes became the target of the right. First, I keep seeing left of center posts/headlines/discourse that highlight how few trans girls/women are competing in sports. I don't love this framing. The underlying premise of inclusion and access does not have a tipping point.  Perhaps what it is meant to show is how the right is weaponizing this issue. This is both reasonable and true but not really very profound in its assessment. Look at some of the groups and people doing the work of banning trans athletes and you will also see agendas which are racist, and anti-Semitic, and Islamophobic, and anti-LGB as well.  If I have not already recommended Judith Butler's Who's Afraid of Gender? (though I am pretty sure I have), go read it. Some of what Butler says is what Levi echoed in a recent posting contemplating the...

 Oddly, sexism is giving me hope right now. Well, the recognition by folks that all this shit is based on sexist and racist idea that white women need protecting.  For example, the attack on trans women, which WILL expand to other folks in the queer alphabet. It is lumped in with the anti-woke agenda of the right. But do not overlook the decidedly sexist discourse. A rationale for removing transwomen from sex-segregated spaces (which is a project of erasure and violence) is that (white) women need protection from people believed to be men. This was excellently articulated by Jennifer Levi, a lawyer for GLAD, Gay and Lesbian Legal who is currently fighting the ban on transgender persons in the military and the removal of transwomen from women's prisons. In a commentary on the unfolding events caused by the cruelty of this administration, Levi cites Ruth Bader Ginsburg's argument in Reed v Reed (a Supreme Court decision which marked the first time the Equal Protection Clause was...

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has elected a new president, Kirsty Coventry. Coventry is the first woman to earn the position. While this appointment has generated celebration among those who see it as progress in an organization with a history of male leadership, it raises important questions about representation, policy direction, and the true meaning of progress. Why do people continue to peddle the idea that women in leadership equals progress. That gender essentialism--especially regarding women's "nature"--is still so prevalent despite soooo many examples to the contrary astounds me. But this is about Coventry so let's go there.  She is a former Olympian (not unlike past presidents). She swam in five Olympic Games and won seven medals. This makes her the most decorated African athlete. Coventry is from Zimbabwe and has served on various IOC committees and on the Zimbabwean Olympic Committee. She is the youngest person to serve as IOC president as well...