After Atalanta

I was having deep discussions with my collaborator just yesterday about how to make changes in intercollegiate athletics that benefit both women and racial minorities. Football always seems like this monstrous blockade to potential solutions. It's hard to simply say "nix football." But someone has. The writer of Friday Night Lights, Buzz Bissinger, has written a column for the Wall Street Journal saying that football serves no purpose in colleges and universities--causing more harm than good. He focuses mostly on the economic harms and the false promises football makes. He doesn't even mention the physical harm to players, an issue that has become even more salient since Junior Seau's suicide last week. Frank Deford does though in his weekly NPR piece . He notes that even as former NFL players pursue their class action suit against the league over safety issues, that the lower levels of the game should also be concerned. According to Deford, 5 million teens ...

Brittney Griner's dunk last week in the NCAA tournament made a lot of noise--media noise that is--despite the fact that she's 1) done it before in competition, 2) does it all the time in warm-up, and 3) is the second --not the first to dunk in the women's tournament. (Though, as I believe I noted before, Candace Parker's dunks were not all that exciting.) Some of the press is centered around whether Griner is the gateway dunker. Will more female dunkers follow? Questions have been raised: is the women's game evolving? I would ask: evolving into what? Though I believe the implication is that it is evolving into a game/style that more closely resembles what the men play. Of course, critics of the men's game suggest (often with a healthy amount of racial prejudice) that there is too much showboating and not enough fundamentals on display. This columnis t is one of the "where are the fundamentals" types while also asking why the women aren't leap...

In case you needed another--I don't personally--but here's one for the holdouts**: John McEnroe thinks that the women just are not capable of enduring the 10-month season so changes need to be made. Note that he also thinks the men's season needs to be shortened as well but he didn't apply the same incapability rationale. "I think that it's asking too much of the women. They shouldn't be playing as many events as the men. . . . The women have it better in tennis than in any other sport, thanks to Billie Jean King [a founder of the Women's Tennis Association and pioneer for equal prize money for women]. But you shouldn't push them to play more than they're capable of." This pedantic statement illustrates how either absolutely clueless or especially nefarious McEnroe is. To invoke BJK in a statement that says how inferior female tennis players are is just--well clueless or nefarious. Mary Carillo, who will now have to refrain from slapping Mc...

I am an athlete. I think. I've been having this conversation a lot this summer: what is an athlete? Seems to be going along with lots of conversations, internal and external, about identity--self and otherwise. So since I am being so contemplative and self-reflexive these days, I thought I would post about whether I should ride my bike up a mountain tomorrow. It's all related, trust me. So this summer I was diagnosed with Achilles tendinitis. It's been a major bummer that I initially (in April) had a good attitude about. I haven't been able to play tennis, but I also have not had to deal with all the drama that seems to come from playing tennis in a women's league. I couldn't run the bases in softball, but I could hit and do some fielding. I also, apparently, have a high pain tolerance which helped me push through activities like biking and spinning. But my good attitude is turning bad. And there's nothing worse than an athlete with a bad attitude. Let'...

1. The moment, described as tender/nurturing/loving between West Virginia's Coach Bob Huggins and player Da'Sean Butler happened when the latter went down with a knee injury during the semifinal game against Duke. With Butler writhing in pain on the floor, Huggins came out and knelt down and cradled his head and kind of stroked his face and got really really close and was talking to him trying to calm him down. I read it is as quite a queer moment in men's basketball. Not a "that's so gay" moment. I just thought it was interesting, especially given that coaches often do not come off the sidelines when players get injured (I watched a women's hockey coach talk strategy with his players on his bench while one of his players was down on the ice for an extended period of time, eventually going off on a stretcher with a season-ending back injury.) And the ones that do come out to check on things don't kneel down and whisper comforting words while cradling t...

Because if Lindsey Vonn had a plan to gain Michael Phelps-like fame by winning many medals and becoming a highly decorated American skier, she might have to fall back on her modeling career. I refrained from commenting on the little upsurge in controversy after my colleague dared to suggest that the pose of Vonn on a recent SI cover, the one with her ass in the air and perfectly coiffed hair and impeccable make-up superimposed on a mountain, was slightly problematic. Though I was tempted to comment on how ugly the response to something that was nothing new: people including Dr. LaVoi and myself and many others have been noting the problematic ways in which female athletes are depicted for a long, long time. Luckily she and others addressed the sexist, homophobic responses. So now we can all move on and think about Vonn's latest SI appearance: the photos of her in the annual swimsuit issue. There's no question that these are indeed sexual pictures; there is no question of in...

Women's Olympic boxing is looking more and more like it will have a place in the 2012 Olympics. The IOC is in the midst of considering changes to existing sports and adding women to boxing is high among them. The changes being proposed by the International Boxing Association would allow three women and ten men on a country's boxing contingent. But the IOC, which has refused to allow women's boxing into the Games in the past, seems a little more supportive this time. Of course, they do need to accumulate some documents and get the facts and all, according to IOC sports director Christophe Dubi who said that the AIBA has "provided documents concerning the medical elements of the women's discipline." That's cryptic. Let me see if I can translate that: we're worried about women's "parts" getting hurt. Probably not just the girly parts but injuries in general, though I am sure the girly parts are of primary concern. Good thing men have that ha...

Abby Wambach's tackle that resulted in Athletica star Daniela's injury last week has also resulted in Wambach's one-game suspension . A suspension not handed down by the WPS disciplinary committee that reviewed the game, including the many egregious fouls by Athletica defenders on Wambach. (See the video posted on Women's Sports Nation.) WPS commissioner Tonya Antonucci reviewed the game footage and issued one-game suspensions to both Wambach and Athletica defender Kia McNeill. Which is all basically crap. If the refs had done their job and issued yellow cards for those fouls, it would have sent a message that they were watching. But the game got out of control. Wambach's challenge to Daniela was clearly yellow-card worthy but not suspension worthy. The disciplinary committee thought so. That Antonucci gets to overrule is a little problematic. Injuries happen. As I mentioned, Wambach herself was the victim of a foul-worthy challenge that took her out of the last Wor...

I was pleased to see (well, pleased in that, I'm-not-quite-sure-how-I-feel-about-this way) that ESPN online had a column about the WPS. I have not gone back into the ESPN archives to view their previous coverage (I don't even know if there is any). But this article focused on the event of the week. It's not a convincing win, a great shootout, or an amazing goal. It's Abby Wambach's yellow-carded challenge/foul on Athletica star Daniela that resulted in torn ligaments and a broken tibia. Should Wambach receive further disciplinary action? Most people think no; though the issue remains under review by WPS peeps. It raises issues of whether Wambach plays "too tough." But Wambach herself was on the receiving end of a challenge that resulted in two broken bones in her leg and took her out of the last World Cup. And she gets a lot of physical play against her. Some argue she takes falls and plays up these moments of physical contact. But you cannot deny that she...

Nothing pleases me more than a snarky comment about ESPN's special women's history month programming. (More on the specifics of that in a moment.) After noting the good: a profile of Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long; blogger Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun says this: Danica Patrick also will be featured, presumably to show how women athletes have been empowered to sprawl across a sports car in a bikini for a magazine photo shoot even after winning an event at their sport's highest level. Love it! So, yes, ESPN is engaging in some special programming for women's history month. We could say, yeah, they're not going to sit back on the fact that they cover women's March Madness. Or we could say--hey--what about the other 11 months of the year, guys? Pick your level of cynicism. I had been tuning into Sports Center in the mornings in an attempt to get some clue about how to fill out my brackets this year. I never saw a story about women in the line-up. (This was befor...

The hype (hysteria?) over women and their ACLs must be waning. Looks like the new focus* is on concussions. I've actually read a little about concussions in women's sports. The injury just doesn't receive nearly as much attention and "concern." This is likely because no one seems to be suggesting that there is something about a woman's physiology that predisposes her to concussions whereas that argument has been proffered to explain the higher rate of ACL injuries in women. Oh, but wait. This article does seem to fluctuate between the rate as a trend versus an effect of physiology. Also, the data that suggest women are receiving concussions at a much higher rate are from an NCAA study of a relatively small sample. The NCAA's data do not reflect other research that has examined concussions rates in male and female hockey players. The article does mention other possibilities: ...reasons are varied, ranging from what sounds like sexist science – that women ...

I feel a little bit like a hypocrite. Well not exactly a hypocrite. But I feel a little weird about how, now that she's broken her leg, I so easily put aside my issues with Abby Wambach after she said, basically, that athletes shouldn't be political (in regards to the controversies surrounding the Beijing games next month). And truth be told my infatuation with Wambach has been waning. And I'm a little sad about it. It's a little like a break-up; just realizing you're not quite right for each other. It started a while ago when I heard from someone who used to play against her that she would engage in some not exactly fair defensive maneuvers when the refs weren't looking. And the comments about apolitical athletes was clearly a sign that the end was near. But how can you abandon someone when she's down? Anyway, this was supposed to be an update about Wambach, not about my changing feelings toward her. She had surgery last week. There's a metal rod in her...

Me...and the US National Women's Soccer team. Because Abby Wambach has broken her leg . And not just broken her leg. But broken it in two places and in need of a titanium rod. Of course this means no Beijing for her. The breakage happened in the first half of a match against Brazil when Wambach collided with a Brazilian player. Here's a YouTube video in which you can see the incident (over and over again) for yourself. (Someday I will learn how to import these things.) I haven't listened to the audio on the 7+ minute clip yet but you can see how it happened. h/t to Ebuz for breaking the bad news to me.

Since I have all these pics of Wimbledon just hanging out on my hard drive I thought I would see how many I can post this fortnight. And because in an excellent example of karma Amelie Mauresmo, who is r ecovering from a quad tear, beat Ashley Harkleroad today at Wimbledon. The lesbian should indeed always triumph over the Playboy model.

I thought this article about the number of concussions female athletes are incurring might make me hit my head--against a wall in frustration. But it did a decent job acknowledging the cultural factors that may contribute to the seemingly larger numbers (the article presented only raw numbers not percentages per sport) of female high school athletes who report concussions. Of course part of the problem is the actual reporting. The study suggested that female athletes' concussions are reported more often because of cultural pressure on boys to just suck up injuries and get back into the game. Also part of the cultural explanation is that girls are seen as inherently more frail so when they incur injuries--like a head injury--they are more likely to be examined. I did not like that the article stated that female athletes are more "prone" to concussions early on because it implies that they are physically weaker; that their bodies cannot handle hits and falls, etc. Reading o...

Reading the myriad of tributes to Title IX that came on or around the 35th anniversary of the legislation, I came across this one written by Susan Reimer of the Baltimore Sun . It is part movie review ( Gracie ) and part memoir of her own athletic endeavors prior to and post Title IX. Reimer takes the discussion of Title IX in a slightly different direction from other articles I have seen. She talks not about numbers of opportunities and the experience of winning, but of missing the opportunity to build "a real relationship with our bodies." This is a crucial point that often gets overlooked when we talk about things like boys' teams versus girls' teams and legislation and court cases and cuts. Why is it actually important for young women to be able to play sports? Because, as Reimer says, the transition from girlhood to womanhood is a time where bodies have a tendency to "shock[] us or betray[] us or embarrass[] us." And, I would add, that women's bodie...

...but a danger to kids. Heelys is the brand name of the popular roller shoes--sneakers with wheels built into the heels that pop out when kids shift their weight back. So obviously this post is not about organized sport but it does fall broadly under the category of physical activity so I am going to write about. And also because when I saw kids whipping around on sidewalks and in the malls and in the grocery store, I knew that it would not be long before these things caused injuries or even death. (I saw one kid wheeling down the aisle of the grocery store pushing his baby sister's stroller and just rolled my eyes.) In other words, this is my "I told you so" moment even though I didn't really tell anyone. The Consumer Product Safety Commission initially reported 64 known injuries and one death due to the shoes--which are starting to be banned in certain places I have noticed--in a 15-month period that ended in December 2006--the month where I am sure many more kids ...

Critics are being quite harsh about Kim Clijsters's retirement. In this month's TENNIS , which was put to bed long before her announcement, they deride her for then intention to skip the US Open. But this column from Selena Roberts of the NY Times (kindly sent to me by a reader because I do not have a Times Select subscription) is the harshest condemnation I have seen yet. Roberts suggests that Clijsters is turning her back--negating practically--all the work that pioneers in the sport, like Billie Jean King, Martina Navratlilova, and Evert (note that Evert was not initially on board with this whole equality thing) did in the 70s and 80s. She writes that Clijsters would make " a terrible bra burner." (Of course all feminists are terrible bra burners given that no bras were ever burned; it's just a (anti?)-feminist urban legend.) Yes, some of us are none too pleased with the married/having children discourse that Clijsters herself is putting forth, but this is not...

I read this morning that Kim Clijsters is retiring --effective immediately. She had said, for some time, that this would be her last year but she decided she just could not make it to the end of the season as planned given her nagging injuries and the physical toll the game takes on the body. Although I have not always been on board with the "I want to get married and have babies" housewife discourse around her decision, I think the retirement is still a huge loss for tennis. And I think her retirement brings up two important issues to consider. The first is an old one that is allegedly being addressed by the WTA. How absurd has the sport gotten that 23-year olds are retiring early because of persistent injuries and pain? And actually they are not specifically addressing this but rather the length of the season which they see as a contributing factor in injuries and burnout. Unfortunately I see the plans that aim to make some events mandatory as counterintuitive. I just finis...

Michelle Kwan withdrew from the Olympics today because of a groin injury--allegedly a different one from the injury that prevented her participation in the US Nationals that serve as the Olympic trials for figure skating. When Kwan received a bye from the powers-that-be I was almost entirely supportive of this move despite my sympathy for Emily Hughes, the third-place finisher at Nationals whom Kwan replaced essentially. I was a little suspect of the possible economic motivations for the bye (i.e. Kwan's appearance in Coca-Cola Olympic-themed commercials and Visa too I believe) but she is the reason the US could send 3 skaters this year and she is an icon--one who's ability has not, in my opinion, waned. But her withdrawal makes me a little uneasy. This was it for Kwan--her last chance. The competition is still a few days away. Kwan always seemed like the type to push through adversity. This situation reminds me of the one a few weeks ago in Australia when Justine Henin-Harden...