After Atalanta

Been in Canada this week--hence the lack of posts. (Always an excuse, I know!) Saw some very good tennis Tuesday at the Rogers Cup. (I've included a few photos below.) Last night at the hotel bar, where I was watching a most excellent match between Kim Clijsters and Bethanie Matteks-Sands but drinking an only so-so sidecar, I saw a commercial for the hockey hall of fame. No sound so I am not sure what the exact nature of the commercial was but I was pleased, pleased, pleased to note that two of the first three images flashed onscreen were of women. The first was Cammi Granato with the gold around her neck in Nagano and the third featured members from the Canadian women's team. Since I get accused of being a Debbie Downer so often, I just thought I would take this moment to point out the good that I do have the capacity to see. Enjoy the pics!

Laura Pappano and Eileen McDonagh argued in their book, Playing with the Boys: Why Separate is Not Equal in Sports , that the continued separation of the genders (for the purpose of this post we'll go with the rather simplistic construction of gender as a binary system) harms women's athletic participation. Note that their argument is more nuanced than that one-line synopsis as they compare the historical and ongoing separation of boys and girls and men and women in athletic endeavors to the cultural and political separation of races in the United States and discuss the damage done by failures to integrate, by gender, sports. This is an ingoing debate in the study sport, gender, and culture and I myself haven't come down on any particular side (shocking, I know!). What worries many, myself included, is that we just don't know what will happen if sports that have not been integrated (and some certainly have and some certainly should be--hello, billiards??) begin to move ...

I complained yesterday about the crap I had to "deal" with in the form of the criticism levied against women's hockey by the powers-that-be, namely Monsier Rogge who wants the women to improve the depth of their game or else face elimination from the Olympics. But it's not nearly as much crap as the members of the gold-winning Canadian women's team found themselves in the morning after. Because long after the crowd had dispersed the women went back on the ice with champagne and beer and cigars. There were, however, members of the press still in the arena. And thus there are now pictures . And the IOC is investigating. Given that they kicked Scotty Lago out of the games for behavior that occurred outside an Olympic venue, one would think things do not look good for the team. But it's also a tad more difficult to kick out a whole team, that happens to have a gold medal, and also is from the host country. Not that they should be kicked be out. (Lago's ousting...

The IOC has stated that , in the wake of the Canadian appeal's court decision to uphold the lower court decision, it is pleased that it can now move on and focus on the forthcoming games. Yes, it must be nice when a legal entity says it cannot hold you responsible for discrimination. The IOC sure knows how to spin things. I was a little surprised by this statement from the organization: "As the lower court noted, the IOC has continued to demonstrate by its actions its support for women athletes and their participation in the Olympic Games." Hmmm....I didn't read the lower court decision, but the message I got out of it from all the coverage was not that the IOC was a great supporter of women's sports, but that it was a great discriminator and the judge regretted that it was beyond her power to hold them accountable.

The appeal, filed by a group of female ski jumpers attempting to get their sport into the Vancouver Games, was dismissed after two days of hearings in a Canadian court of appeals this week. The court agreed with the lower court ruling that it was the IOC that was at fault and the IOC can not be held to Canadian law. [I am not a legal scholar, and certainly not a Canadian legal scholar, but this decision would seem to set a bad precedent. They do have precedent in Canada right? I mean who knows what kind of outside entity can come in and shirk Canadian law.] The lawsuit, according to VANOC, which seems a little resentful for being involved in this at all, cost the organization "six figures." First, if they were so resentful, they should have put more pressure on the IOC to do the right thing, to take responsibility, etc. But it seems the IOC gets to be immune to all these things. They must believe that because they are in Switzerland, they are neutral. Second, how much exactly...

I sometimes am accused of "ruining" my students by making them see things (i.e. discrimination) on television and in the media that they can no longer ignore. It seems now that I am doing something similar for some readers. (Haha--my feminist agenda is well on its way!!) Yes a dear reader sent me an article which mentioned many times the boyfriends and male partners/husbands of members of the Canadian women's hockey team. I don't know why I think Canada is immune to patriarchy but I seem to hold it (you know, the whole country basically) to higher standards. But this article from The Canadian Press was pretty blatant in its attempt to heterosexualize women's ice hockey. Perhaps it would have been more subtle if it hadn't started out like this: Goaltender Kim St. Pierre will see her boyfriend a lot less now. I am not usually one to do the men/women comparison because I often find it reductionist but in this situation one of the first things I thought of--after,...

1. A tween rugby phenom is being denied an opportunity to play with the boys. Jessica Neilson, 12, who has trained with elite female rugby players, was barred from competing on her middle school team this year after having done so for the past few years (along with several other girls) because the school does not have a girls' team. Some strange bureaucracy is at work. Neilson's junior high became a middle school, which means the sports are now under the auspices of the Lower Island Middle School Sports Association. Although it has a non-discrimination policy that prevents discrimination on the basis of sex it also has an explicit rule that no girls are to play on boys' teams and boys are not to play on girls' team. Though Jessica and her mother have appealed the rule, there has been no decision which means Jessica keeps losing opportunities to play. 2. A group of Saudi women are playing basketball and hoping to one day represent their country in international play. It...

I'm a little late on this as the Women's World Curling Championships occurred a few weeks ago but given the lack of attention the sport receives I felt I should still post about it and the news it generated. This article , out of Canada where the championships were held in March, discusses the division of the women's and men's championships and the positive effects that have come from holding the events separately--or rather the lack of negative effects. This is the fourth year the women have held their own championships and they are hopeful that the event will continue building and that they won't, as one curler predicted, have to curl naked to get attention.* The Chinese women made quite an impression in Canada. Getting special attention was the Chinese skip Bingyu (Betty) Wang. Their success at the worlds is especially impressive given that the entire Chinese team began training in an ice hockey rink because there was no curling ice in the entire country until j...

I have gotten notice of quite a few articles about women's hockey lately so I thought I would do a round-up. The other day I linked to this article about Canadian hockey moms: mothers who play hockey, most who have taken it up later in life after watching and supporting their children for years and years. And though it is nice and possibly inspiring, unfortunately* it spent about three paragraphs on the mothers before launching into a lengthy discussion of the overall decline in Canadian boys who play hockey. It did end by noting the huge rise in the numbers of girls playing though and the hope that the increase would bring a little more respect to the women's game. And according to a Toronto paper , the women's game is gaining respect. Most of the article focuses on the national team and veteran member Hayley Wickenheiser who comments not just on the (lack of) depth in women's ice hockey but also on the denial of women's ski jumping in the 2010 Olympic games and th...

1. The United States Agency for International Development recently gave a fairly large grant ($95,000US) to the Ghana Society of Physically Disabled Sports. The money will go toward the creation of men's and women's wheelchair basketball teams that will compete internationally as well as a tournament that will assist in identifying athletes for these teams. 2. Cricket in the Olympics? Could be. Honestly, I am a little surprised it isn't there already given its international popularity (not in the US but there are certainly enough countries with viable national teams to create a strong field from the outset). Cricket has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee . But recognition is not any kind of guarantee of inclusion in future Olympic Games though the sport's governing, the International Cricket Council (ICC) body seems to want to work toward that goal. Part of convincing the IOC that cricket is Olympic-worthy will be strengthening the women's game. ...

Sounds like some interesting stuff happened last weekend in Nashville at the annual NCAA meeting. The very controversial issue of male practice players in women's basketball was brought up by Division III administrators. They did vote to accept the proposal that would limit the use of male practice players to once a week during season but provides for unlimited use during the off-season. DI has not taken a vote on male practice players but I am guessing support for a proposal that would limit how DI coaches can coach is not going to be well-received, especially because every coach I have heard speak on the issue is balking at the idea of regulation. In some very interesting news, the NCAA has decided to allow some Canadian universities join the organization. After previously receiving executive committee approval, the DII committee was the first* to vote to allow Canadian universities to become NCAA members. A ten-year pilot program will be started and we could see Canadian parti...

The IOC issued a statement to the media today about the forthcoming pressure the Canadian government has vowed it will put on the organization in an attempt to get women's ski jumping into the Olympics in 2010. The statement says the decision has nothing to do with gender discrimination but is rather one based on "technical merit." Such a typical liberal response. See, no one on the IOC could possibly be sexist or practicing gender discrimination because the vote to exclude women from ski jumping is just one that was based on the "rigid criteria." It just reeks of the rhetoric used in other discrimination-remedying programs like affirmative action. If you just follow the rules, meet the criteria, then you can compete just like everyone else, is what is being said here. And of course there is the implication that if you want to bypass these rules and criteria, if you want a "special exception" then is what you received really worth having? Hasn't it...

1. Last time I wrote about international events, I mentioned the report out of the UK about the decrease in the activity level of women that is causing some concern among health experts and proponents of women's sports and physical activity. This story offers a different angle on the report that other news outlets do not seem to be addressing: the physical activity level of Muslim women. Some of the reason for the disproportionate level of activity is attributed to the different constraints on some Muslim women. Those who wear the hijab and/or adhere to the rules of sex segregation have an especially difficult time engaging in sport and other physical activities once they leave school. But the issues are being addressed--including in Great Britain where more and more opportunities are being especially created for Muslim women as well as opportunities that would not preclude Muslim women's participation. These involve sex-segregated spaces in locations with Muslim large populati...

1. A very good column about the Pakistani national women's cricket team currently preparing for World Cup qualifying to happen this month. The writer, who spent time with the team as they trained, recounts the obstacles they face as female athletes in an Islamic country. Many of the players receive marginal support from their families, especially male relatives who do not find athletics for women appropriate. Additionally, there is no team sponsor (because there is no television coverage) and there is no television coverage (because there is no team sponsor). Other problems include a lack of senior players because women, after marrying in their mid-20s, leave the team; lack of money to keep up with fitness in the off-season; and players balancing cricket with schooling. But President Musharraf seems intent on increasing opportunities that can emancipate women. And cricket falls under that category. Whether that desire will be enough to overcome the many cultural obstacles currently...

The arguments against women participating in ski jumping are antiquated and include something about all that pressure on their bones from landing. Hello? Gymnastics? Figure skating? But the women ski jumpers have not backed down and recently filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission in an attempt to force the International Olympic Committee to add women's ski jumping to the program in Vancouver in 2010. Because the Olympics are funded, in part, by Canadian federal monies, the jumpers contend that excluding the sport amounts to gender discrimination which is illegal, of course, in Canada. It is an interesting strategy but it reads like what it truly is: a last-ditch effort. The CHRC seemingly has little actual power; it is only a "quasi-judicial body" and though it might voice a strong objection to the exclusion or pass the complaint on to some other federal body, it is difficult to imagine the IOC backing down--especially given that they have already sa...