Every time I turn on the radio or TV I hear about "Team Canada". Despite the fact Canada has many Olympic teams in various relays, curling and hockey, "Team Canada" is used exclusively for the men's hockey team. The media broadcasts all of our men's hockey practices and games, sometimes ignoring other events to do so. I also hear all about "own the podium". Something else I have noticed and I have not heard any media coverage about at all is that our women are outstanding. Women have won 11 of our current 15 medals! Has anybody else noticed this? Our female athletes are incredible! They are so strong - physically and emotionally. I am thinking of Joannie Rochette who skated 2 days after her mother's death. Maybe we should change our focus for the next Olympics. Find out what our women are doing right and pass it on to the men.
And I want to salute Petra Majdic too. This amazing Slovenian woman skiied with 4 broken ribs and a collapsed lung and earned a bronze medal. I think that she should have been given an honorary gold. Every breath and movement would have been agony. I dislocated one rib two years ago and I couldn't shovel the driveway, walk the dogs or even use a dustpan.
disclaimer - I am not extremely knowledgeable about sports and I apologize for any generalizations or ignorance. This is not meant in any way to belittle the performances of our male medal winners. Neither am I a feminist - these are just my casual observances.
5 comments:
It does amaze me how everyone is so focused on the men's hockey and yet for years the women's hockey has far out shown them in good hockey.
I am a feminist and I think it is predictable that the media isn't pumping up how many of our medal winners are women.
Men's sports sell products. Women with big muscles only sell products in the field they're engaged in... not beer, or cell phones etc.
All of our athletes have been amazing. I've really enjoyed the women's hockey and I'm looking forward to the game tonight.
That the women have more of the medals than the men is interesting. I wonder how the numbers compare for male/female athletes overall.
Rumour going around out here that the IOC may discontinue women's hockey due to the complete dominance by Canada/USA and lack of sporting competition.
Hmm, and for how many years did certain Euro countries dominate certain other sports we wonder.
KM
Interesting thought Susan - you must have been giving it thought too. Anon - the Germans have 3/4 of the medals in the sledding sports so they should probably discontinue them too. Part of the women's dominance may be explained by some of their events being finished before the men's but it will be interesting to see the end tally.
The press has caught on! I just heard a blurb that women have won 80% of our medals. They are attributing it to the fact that women receive the same funding as men. Doesn't make sense to me - shouldn't the results be closer if the same training is available to all? Oh well!
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