Friday, March 5, 2010

Women's Sports and the Olympic Games

The Olympics are the biggest stage for women in sports. Women's sports do not have a Superbowl or World Series and the men's World Cup generates far more attention than the women's. The Olympics are the stage on which female athletics get the same amount of attention as that of their male counterparts and, in some cases like figure skating and gymnastics, even outshining them. The Olympics promotes female sports and allows them to progress, or at least the Games are supposed to.

Following Vancouver, there has been lots of talk of removing women's hockey from the Winter Olympic program, mainly because no other countries can come close to challenging the United States and Canada. After seeing scores such as Canada's 18-0 defeat of Slovakia, it is easy to see where that idea comes from. However, more should be done to promote women's hockey throughout the world instead of just axing it. Throughout the world, women's hockey budgets cannot be compared to those of men's teams. Perhaps the biggest thing the women have going for them is that men's hockey is not going anywhere and they share venues.

The IOC eliminated softball from the Olympic program beginning in 2012. This was unfortunate because softball had been a sport that was developing internationally thanks to being a part of the Olympic program. Signs of parity finally began to emerge in Beijing as Japan upset the US 3-1 in the gold medal game. The Americans had easily won the three previous Olympic tournaments. It takes time for sports to develop.

As part of his reasoning for thinking about eliminating women's hockey, IOC president Jacques Rogge has said that the sport has been dominated by two countries and only two countries have won gold medals. Women's hockey has only been a part of the Olympics since 1998, 4 total Olympiads. Men's basketball has been a part of the Olympics since 1936. In 17 Olympiads, the US men have only lost 5 games (3 of which were in 2004) and won all but four gold medals (or 3 if you do not count the 1980 boycott). In fact, the US men won the first eight gold and, to my knowledge, no one suggested removing basketball from the Olympic program.

The IOC seems to hold a double standard. 39 women from 13 countries participated in women's ski jumping world championships last year, but the IOC did not think there was enough female participation internationally to include the sport in the Olympics. Female ski jumpers took their case for inclusion to Canadian courts, but, though the courts thought the women should be included in Vancouver, they decided against forcing the IOC to include them. According to a Sports Illustrated article, world champion Lindsey Van thinks that the IOC does not want to include her sport is because female jumpers jump similar distances to their male counterparts, thereby diminishing their accomplishments. Rogge has said that things look positive for women's ski jumping to be included in the 2014 Olympics. Van says that she heard the same thing in 2002 and 2006. Canadian IOC member Dick Pound has even gone as far as to fear that women's ski jumping will not be added in 2014 because these athletes embarrassed the IOC by suing them.

Women's sports need the Olympics to thrive. Sports like golf and tennis mixed doubles have replaced softball. This decision is particularly unfortunate because an Olympic gold medal will never be the highest prize available for a golfer or tennis player; these sports do not need the international exposure the Olympics provide. Four-time Olympian Angela Ruggiero, a member of the US women's hockey team, was recently elected to IOC athletes' commission. Hopefully she will be another strong voice for women at a critical time in a body controlled by European men.

1 comment:

  1. Several good points. Have heard about women jumpers besting men but didn't know the IOC might be vendictive enough to withdraw an event because there were sued.
    So much for open fair amateur competition. GP

    ReplyDelete