After Atalanta

...because there's another naked calendar featuring female athletes. And it's selling out! Not surprising. A little surprising that the women of the Old Boys University rugby team thought it wouldn't be popular, though, and only printed 1,000 copies. At first I thought this was a joke. Not because I am surprised that female athletes would pose naked, but that there is a place called Old Boys University. But indeed there is. It's not a university though--or at least not what Americans think of when we say university. It's a rugby club--co-ed now. Since 1991 I believe. Miss March, Bekki Abernethy is "blown away by the coverage. I walked into the local dairy and saw that my buttocks made the front page of The Dominion Post. And I choked when I saw myself on the South African Sports Illustrated site." Though she acknowledges that there has been controversy, she said even the negative responses bring attention to the sport. Just like all of Natalie Gulbis's...

Carbs. Some funky spandex. And maybe a smidge of recognition. This article in WaPo did a great job describing the situation of many collegiate women's rugby teams. Most of them are club teams. That means they provide (or seek out through fundraising or non-athletic department institutional sources) most of the funding for participation. This is despite the fact that the NCAA has listed women's rugby as an emerging sport. That means that schools could elevate their women's rugby teams to varsity status and perhaps deal with some lingering Title IX issues by doing so. Rugby teams are large. Not as large as crew teams--but also not as expensive. And it's a growing sport, actually the fastest growing women's sport at American colleges. But only four schools have elevated women's rugby to varsity status. Because while it might help with Title IX numbers, there is some (legitimate) concern that NCAA and institutional oversight of rugby isn't really what the sport...

I have not been surprised by the renewed calls to abolish/reform Title IX in the wake of University of California Berkeley's announcement that it is cutting five intercollegiate sports. Yes, it's lousy that this happened. But California is not in good financial shape--as we all know. So it's not surprising that a department in one of its state schools--a department that has been running a $10-13 million annual deficit*--has been forced to tighten the belt. And some are saying that the men are paying for this financial mismanagement more than women because more male athletes are affected by the cuts than women--because of Title IX. True. And yes, I do think that it is fair that the gender that has more opportunities should bear more of the cuts. But The publisher of Forbes , Richard Karlgaard, does not . This is an attack of excellence, he says, because we are putting equality above excellence. I will just state right away that in intercollegiate athletics, I will always cho...

A friend and colleague sent me the link the You Tube video (below) promoting women's rugby at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. QU added women's rugby in an attempt to come into Title IX compliance, after it was told, by a federal judge, that it could not--at this time--count competitive cheerleading as a sport. It also added women's golf and kept--per the judge's order--women's volleyball. You may recall that QU tried to cut its women's volleyball team, but because it was not providing equitable opportunities to women, it elevated competitive cheer to varsity status to compensate for the cut. But it was also revealed that there had been some roster doctoring going on. So, as said friend noted, it was kind of interesting that the promo video stressed--repeatedly--opportunity. Seems to be a word they only recently learned. And you know how it goes. You learn a new word and you just want to use it over and over again. I also found it kind of amusing that the v...

So sometimes I can be a little judgmental. Last week when I posted on the Hunky Dorys chip company in Ireland selling chips (and sponsoring men's rugby in the process) by using poorly outfitted female models in some costumed version of a rugby kit ( may raise a few eyebrows (two of which would be mine) but would likely go largely uncommented upon. And maybe there is not an uproar in Ireland. But there is this one sport columnist for Irish Times who did a very good job assessing the situation and chiding both Hunky Dorys and his professional colleagues and people in general. [He does note that some rugby officials might be not so pleased with the campaign by one of their sponsors as it counters the less "bestial" image rugby is going for.] I also learned what camogie and hurling are--bonus! Here are some excerpts: The reason Hunky Dorys didn’t have to think twice about descending into the world of dreary single entendre with their ad campaign is that women in sport are ...

Some time during the past couple of weeks (even though I wasn't blogging, I have been trying to keep up) I read about the growth of women's rugby in the NYT : "Women make up the fastest-growing segments of rugby players in the United States," the writer notes. And most of it is at happening at the college club sport level (though there has been a recorded growth at the youth level as well. Let me say, for the record, that I think club sports are great. But I am a little disappointed that, eight years after the NCAA put rugby on its list of emerging sports, only one university (Eastern Illinois) started a varsity program. Again, there are hundreds of club teams with various levels of institutional support. With the addition of rugby (7s) to the summer Olympic Games roster, we may see changes within the collegiate sports structure. But I wonder about the cultural legitimacy of the sport in this country, and specifically how this will affect female rugby players. What I...

It is not news to most that BYU athletic teams (or even, I suppose, the debating team, if they have one) do not compete on Sundays for religious reasons. It is not especially difficult to control when scheduling regular season contests. Post-season can be a little more tricky. But the NCAA does not allow scheduling that would infringe on a school's religious practices. But the BYU women's rugby team is a club sport (not governed by NCAA rules) and the women have made it to the national championships which are being held this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. By the time the scheduling issue was realized plane tickets had been purchased by BYU and other teams and it was too late. So if the BYU women win on Saturday, they cannot play on Sunday . Actually they are not officially affiliated with the school (not sure how that works) so they can play, but being practicing Mormons, they will choose not to. My reaction to this story is a mix of "live and let live" and "scr...

From all accounts the IOC will vote on Thursday as to which two sports will be considered for admissions to the 2016 Olympics. And according to the NYT the top contenders do not include softball. Based on nothing concrete as far as I can tell rugby and golf are the favorites right now. This is disappointing. I am all for rugby getting in but golf should not be an Olympic sport. As some article (can't find it now) pointed out two of the organizations behind golf's bid are all-male golf clubs--one of which is Augusta National (the other is in great Britain). Not a great way for the IOC to prove its alleged commitment to gender equity. I had thought softball was doing a pretty decent job arguing its case and not showing any bitterness over apparently being booted out in the first place over a misunderstanding. Of course the misunderstanding itself was likely because so many IOC members are men who have no clue what softball--marked as a women's sport--really is. Anyway back to...

As I mentioned, softball made its bid this week for a (re)berth in the Olympics. But six other sports did the same: baseball, golf (Annika Sorenstam was part of that presentation), karate, roller sports, rugby, and squash. (Remember, women's boxing may be making its Olympic debut, but in 2012, because it is not considered a new sport because men's boxing already is in.) ESPN has a brief synopsis of each of the sports that made presentations to the IOC last week. PS According to Jessica Mendoza's Twitter page, the IOC was "wowed"--their words--by softball's presentation.

Yesterday, seven sports made their cases to an IOC committee about why they should be included in the 2016 Olympics. Softball and baseball, of course, were two of the seven, making separate arguments to the program commission which is comprised of 16 IOC members. Long day for the commission with each sport making a one-hour pitch. Also pleading for inclusion: golf (we know how I feel about that); karate (still surprised it isn't in already); rugby (I'm in support--far more supportive of it than baseball certainly); roller sports (not really sure what this would look like and am doubtful they have garnered enough support to get it over the other high-profile sports); and squash (ambivalent). In June the commission will issue its recommendations and the full 100-member IOC board will vote next year at a meeting in Coopenhagen.

Since it seems to be okay to write about the Olympics now that they're over (note that the Paralympics are currently underway; Fat Louie at Women's Sports Blog is doing the best she can--given the dearth of coverage--to blog about them); or at least that's my rationale for writing more after the fact than during. Besides, this post is about the Olympics generally not specifically Beijing. There's been discussion all along, as I mentioned recently, about the eliminations of baseball and softball and the attempts to reinstate them--focused mostly on softball. But there's also been some discourse on which sports should be in the Olympics generally. This Canadian columnist shares his opinions on the matter. He advocates for the inclusion of rugby and cricket, which I wholeheartedly support, assuming both can get some of their historical problems with gender equity in order. I have written about cricket's campaign previously. I don't know anything about cricket b...

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...

The Women's World Cup is not the only women's sport underway this weekend. The World Cup of Rugby began this week as well and is being held in Paris where apparently people are pretty excited about the six-week tournament. And though rugby is even less popular with American audiences than soccer, maybe we should start paying attention. The NCAA has sanctioned women's rugby and it's likely that many of the over-300 club teams that exist at American colleges and universities will consider trying for varsity status. Also, the US Open of Women's Bowling will be taking place over the next several weeks and ESPN is airing the competition on Sunday afternoons. This information is posted on a blog at afterellen.com which I link to largely because blogger Ace14 has included a clip from Grease2 (the superior Grease movie of the series in my opinion) where the Pink Ladies and T-birds bowl and sing and dance--at the same time! Don't forget the Solheim Cup which pits a US ...