After Atalanta

Not too long ago I wrote briefly about Rusty Kanokogi who was dubbed the "mother of judo" for her lifelong dedication to promoting the sport in the United States including getting girls and women involved. It was largely due to her efforts that women's judo made it to the Olympics. Rusty made news then when the YMCA awarded her a gold medal for her participation in a the state championship match she took part in in 1959. When the officials found out she was a girl, they took her medal away. The YMCA rectified that mistake this year. Kanokogi was battling leukemia at that time, a disease she had been fighting for three years. She died of the disease this week. She will be inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame this April. Her accomplishments are many and some can be found in the above-linked article. She sounds like one of the unsung heroines of women's sports, the martial arts, and sport in general.

Just doing some post-weekend catching up on stories. Dr. Alice Dreger wrote a very good piece in the NYT about the biology of sex--inspired, of course, by the story of Caster Semenya. A 74-year old woman received a gold medal in judo--50 years after winning the YMCA competition. Rusty Kanokogi, who was legitimately part of a judo team when she was in her 20s and took the position of an injured teammate, was disqualified after she won the competition when officials discovered she was a woman. Apparently in her gear she appeared somewhat androgynous. The outrage she felt at being stripped of her gold medal fueled her activism on behalf of women's judo. Netball is coming to the United States! What is netball, you ask? Well it is one of the most popular women's sports in the world. And it is going to be played at the Staples Center September 11. It will be an exhibition game prior to the Sparks last regular season home game. Here is a description of the sport: Netball is similar to...