After Atalanta

1. More competitive opportunities for women's sports in Asia, including the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, are paying off for previously unnoticed teams. The Malaysian (field) hockey team will be participating in its first Olympic qualifying tournament ever because of its performance in these two recent tournaments. Qualifying happens in Vancouver in the spring. 2. In China, officials with the International Table Tennis Federation are worried about the decline in popularity of the sport in the country. Their solution? Encourage the female players to wear sexy skirts and dresses a la Maria Sharapova. While I appreciate Sharapova's--and others'--fashion sense, I am conflicted about using fashion to sell sport. I also have a hard time getting my head around playing table tennis (ping-pong in my mind) in a short skirt. To me, it's more of a jeans and t-shirt kind of sport played in the basement before and after holiday dinners, preferably with a glass of wine near...

A few years ago the talk in women's professional tennis was all about the "Russian Revolution"--all the Russian women who were quickly ascending the rankings and, in 2004, winning 3 of the 4 Grand Slams. Though the cadre of Russian women--some of the same, some new--are still a formidable threat at every tour stop it seems, a new revolution is brewing. This one is a little farther east: China. Chinese women are making a name for themselves in both women's singles and doubles. But what's interesting is that they aren't being discussed in the same ways that the Russian women were. In fact, whereas names like Sharapova, Kuznetsova, Dementieva, etc. are known to tennis fans, there are probably few who could actually name some of the dominant Chinese players right now despite their success. ( Yan Zi and Zheng Jie won the doubles title at this year's Australian Open.) There are probably many factors that have contributed to this lack of attention. It does not se...