After Atalanta

I know we in the US are in the midst of basketball madness, but I thought I would share this pic from a friend. It's from Preston, England, 1920, and features the captains of two women's football (US soccer) teams greeting each other with a kiss. Not sure how historically accurate it is (those seem like pretty short shorts--even for the roaring 20s!) or whether this was truly a tradition. Friend send it to the GF because she plays soccer in a league that was some sports(wo)manship issues and to me because, well I like women's sport history. Captains' kissing tradition (?)

Two stories completely unrelated except for the fact that they are both about British athletes. And I have no reason to combine them into one post but I read them on the same day and so there it is. First, did you know that the national cricket team made it to the finals of the World Cup? Me neither. But I don't live in England so I feel I have an excuse. Unfortunately it appears not that many people in England knew either. And that's because it's the women's World Cup. Apparently sport is "the last bastion of sexism" in England where token coverage has been provided during the current event and past World Cups which the national team has won. This is in contrast to the men's team, which has not been doing so well on the international stage. There's an interesting comparison of the male and female captains of both the national cricket and football teams. (HINT: it's about salaries.) Second, Andy Murray, who beat Roger Federer this past week at Indi...

There are a lot of stories coming across my Google news alert about the World Cup. Of course none of the ESPN "news" shows that I have seen pay it much attention. I guess they figure just airing the matches for two hours every other morning is enough. But there has been print coverage of the event across the world. And despite the initial trepidations over the poor timing of the event, it has not gone completely unnoticed. Though, again, television coverage has been minimal. The coverage that does exist, however, is pretty good. We're even starting to hear the p-word, parity. Yesterday at SI.com, columnist Mark Bechtel wrote a piece that suggests he is impressed by the teams in this year's tournament. The level of competition has changed for the better. As Bechtel notes only Brazil has gotten out of the first round of play without a loss. Teams are getting better coaching and more attention--in the form of funding--from their national associations and this makes for g...

Good: Scott Allen, a columnist for the student paper at Sacramento State takes a different tack on women's athletics. (Different from too many other male--and some female--student columnists who complain about how boring women's sports are and why the university is forced to spend money on them and take it away from their precious football teams.) But Allen applauds the women's teams at Sac State and notes that, in general, women's sports deserve more media attention and a home outside of the ESPN2 ghetto. And specifically that at Sac State the women's teams have had greater success than such traditional favorites as football and baseball. Both women's rowing and volleyball are championship winners in the past few years. Bad: I like to advertise adult recreational sporting opportunities, usually teams but I am open to specific events like tournaments. But this hockey tournament for women coming up in Woodstock, Vermont in November makes me cringe. It's being...