The world is enthralled by the Olympics right
now, as we are every two years or so. While I have watched the events as I’ve
been able, a lack of television in my house makes that difficult, I have read
about them online. As I track the results of my favourite sports and note the
number of times the royals are spotted in the stands, I’ve also read a lot
about women at these Olympics. Lots of history has been made this
summer. These are some of the things I’ve learned:
- This was the first year ever that every
participating country sent female athletes. The most talked-about was Saudi
Arabia; it went back and forth many times as to whether or not they would
actually allow women to compete for their county with official delegation. In
the end, they permitted two women to compete, one in judo and the other in the
800 m track event.
- For the first time ever, there were women’s competitions in every sport on the Olympic programme. Boxing was the last men’s-only Olympic sport; history was made when Elena Savelyeva of Russia and Kim Hye-Song of North Korea entered the ring on Sunday.
- In at least two instances, sports analysts compared a male and a female athlete performing the same sport and declared that the female athlete’s performance was superior – this is extremely rare. The first was when a 16-year-old Chinese swimmer named Ye Shiwen swam the final 50m of her 400m individual medley in 28.93 seconds to win gold. Ryan Lochte of the US won gold in the men’s version of the same race and swam his final 50m in 29.10 seconds. The second was when US gymnast McKayla Maroney nailed an extremely difficult vault that was identical to one performed by a male gymnast (I cannot for the life of me find his name). In the side by side analysis, Maroney was shown to be approximately a foot and a half higher in the air mid-vault than the male gymnast.
- The governing associations for women’s boxing and women’s badminton faced harsh backlash by trying to mandate that the athletes wear skirts as part of their competition uniforms. Both associations backed down, with boxing making it optional for female fighters to wear skirts instead of trunks.
- On the other side of the issue, the governing association for women’s beach volleyball change their uniform regulations, allowing female competitors to choose to wear shorts and t-shirts, instead of bikinis.
I have opinions on each of these observations, but for now I’d like to hear yours. What have you noticed about women in the Olympics this year?
Dana,
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
Comments relating to these very cool facts were the valid complaint I was expecting in relation to my post on olympic sprawl... If we eliminated basketball because of the NBA would we eliminate women's basketball because of WNBA? or is it not high enough profile? what about women's soccer etc? if women are competing at an equal or higher lever... should we have coed competitions? Does it make sense to have Olympic competitions of both gender even if the total number of world contestants is very very small such as women ski jumping I believe... Is egalitarianism more important than competition quality? How long would an affirmative action approach be valid?
ALSO: while women may have competed in every sport... men do not. rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming are both female only sports.
AND: there are some gender specific swimming events: mens 1500, women's 800, men's decathlon, women heptathlon.
If the Olympics can convince saudi arabia to let women compete... Why can't we convince Mark Driscoll to let them teach?
Duncan! Friggin' fantastic counter-points! I'm so jazzed. Your observation that although women participated in every sport, men did not was a great reminder to me that my egalitarianism is often lopsided...I'm so busy with the feminism of my egalitarianism that I forget about the equality of my egalitarianism. Thanks for the reminder - it's something I continually work on because I prefer to be an egalitarian, not simply a feminist (but that's for a future post).
ReplyDeleteI appreciated your question about whether it is always necessary to have competitions for both genders and whether the agenda of egalitarianism is more important than competition quality. I'm torn over the answer; on one hand, the egalitarian agenda is big in my life and something I work for every day. On the other hand, I'm a former competitive athlete and that competitive nature hasn't gone anywhere. Which is more important? I can't answer that objectively. I long for a day where affirmative action isn't necessary, not just in Olympics, but on so many levels. For example, I long for a day where I can walk into a church in the Lower Mainland, look at the list of names on the leadership council, and not feel heartbroken and angry that the names are all male. I long for a day where that doesn't matter because it doesn't mean they've intentionally excluded the female voice. I look forward to a day where an Olympic sport that is men's-only doesn't mean that someone thinks that women shouldn't (or couldn't) be participating in a sport like that. Until that day comes, I think affirmative action remains necessary.
And finally, in response to your last comment...amen, brother.