Who's In?

Time to give some props to Ashoka for organizing a UNICEF-supported sports-as-development competition. (Incidentally, I gave some props to Ashoka in 2001, as project manager on an editorial team that honored 100 organizations (including Ashoka) for innovation—so I’m glad to see the group is still going strong.) Ashoka bills itself as an association of “social entrepreneurs.” Hats off to UNICEF too. And OK, Nike, which gave money. Honestly, I can’t figure out the exact relationship between these organizations and this effort, and it appears the Women’s Sports Foundation is involved some way too; but anyway, I applaud them all!

According to UNICEF, this year’s competition, “GameChangers: Change the Game for Women in Sport,” aimed to bring together the next wave of innovators eager to catalyze change for women and girls through sport – and to bring real solutions to troubling, gender-specific social problems.

That’s a fancy mouthful to describe a dynamic I’ve been thinking is essential for some time. That is, the transforming effect sport can have on people, especially girls. The more beleaguered and oppressed the population, the more they may benefit from the freedom and empowerment athletic endeavors provide. Obviously, not every individual loves sports or physical activities at all, but everyone should have the opportunity to try them out. Which implies too they should have the requisite peace in their neighborhood and food in their bellies to make that possible.

The Game-Changers winners that Ashoka/UNICEF announced last month are:

3 Sisters Adventure Trekking This organization was started by three Nepalese sisters who saw a need for women guides to serve women trekkers, and dared to break out of traditional roles to offer this service. Now 3 Sisters recruits additional trekking guides from within the country, offering educational and employment opportunities never before known by rural Nepalese women.

Moving the Goalposts This organization in Kenya uses soccer to instill confidence, strength, and decision-making capabilities in girls; to expose them to safe and positive social interactions; to provide health education, and training in organization and management as they learn to run the program as well as play the game.

Team-Up for Youth This U.S. program works to expand after-school sports opportunities for low-income children, encouraging college-age women to volunteer as coaches and role models.

My friend of the great basketball blog writes:

So I'm in line at the bank just now, two behind a guy who's so frustrated at the numbing slowness that, I'm thinking, it's a good thing he didn't read Tobias Wolff's short story, "Bullet in the Brain". Anyway, a third teller who looks like something Donoghue's dog Riley might have buried three years ago and who, just moments before, dug her way out, moves toward a window, but before opening her window  (really, why speed up?) says to another teller, a sister Neanderthal, but so everyone can hear, "Did you see Obama's speech is delaying the start of the World Series a half-hour?" To which I shout (maybe eight people in line now), "No it isn't it!"

And she says, spitting grass and dirt, "Yes, it is, it's supposed to start at eight o'clock; he's really messing things up for himself in a hurry."

And I shout, louder yet, "The game never starts till 8:30pm. Eight o'clock is just a pre-game show. It never starts till eight thirty. That stuff about him delaying the game is just more Republican lies." (I hear people behind me laugh.) "What's more important, the pre-game or the  election?"

To which she replies, grubs and ticks and slimiest of worms calling her head home, "The World Series." I end the discussion with "There's the problem isn't it?"

Here's a shout out to the many mothers who model strength, determination, discipline, joy in life, self respect, and healthy habits for their daughters and sons by not giving up their athletic life or pursuits when they have children.

I think either there are more mothers competing at the Olympics in 2008, or else it's they're more public about it. On the American team alone there are 20 or so moms. You can read about them in lots of places--here's one collection of mini-bios.

We've all heard of Dara Torres, a five-time Olympian and now mother of a two-year old at age 41. The American swam to three silver medals in Beijing. 

But I was also impressed with the less well-know (and photographed) Stepanka Hilgertova, another five-time Olympian from the Czech Republic, competing in white water kayak. She too is 41 and has a child. Only he is 20 years old, and also competes on the Czech national kayak team! Hilgertova came in 9th out of 21 in Beijing; she already has two gold medals from previous Olympics at home.

I love the span of choices these women illustrate. Have a child at 20, have a child at 39 ... you can still succeed at other passions alongside mothering. 

 

 

Since the season of cheer is here, I will complain about it. Not the season, no. The cheering. And not actually the cheering, it's the dancing.

We lucked into going to the Boston Celtics' opening home game at the Garden on Nov. 3. Great seats, great spirit in the place, great local celebrity spotting, great playing by the rejuvenated Cs, great time. The one blot on the whole thing is the Celtics Dancers (I think they're called). I'm sure they're probably earnest young women seeking a career in entertainment. Maybe it's their big break. But a) ugh, they're not very good and b) do we have to sexualize everything? and c) when we sexualize everything, does it have to be in an irrelevant, robotic, stamped-from-a-press kind of way? I would have less of an issue with real cheerleaders, leaders of cheers who toss in some acrobatics to keep it interesting. But the Jumbotron and electronics now lead the masses in cheers. We get women in a narrow range of skin tones, with long hair ironed flat, slim but without muscle definition in their polyester briefs, posturing in suggestive ways to some mostly quite old tunes.

If we spectators are such cretins that we need to be visually entertained every minute, let's rely more on "Lucky" the fully human mascot who is surprisingly charismatic and gymnastical. Or show some replays on the big screen. Or troop out again the various local kids' talent acts that seem to make an appearance at every game. Or get some guys to dance too, c'mon, equal opportunity exploitation.

I find the dancers' presence embarrassing for everyone. I suppose maybe some people like watching them bounce out and shimmy unathletically. There's got to be some bottom line (pardon bad pun) reason the franchise would undertake it. Do they think it's gonna sell more tickets? Now that they have a powerful team of players, I think not.

Most embarrassing is how, on opening night, the organization dedicated the parquet to the late great Red Auerbach, and not long after that the dancers were out in the first of their five costume changes. You notice dancers are a recent thing with the Celtics--since just before Auerbach's death. That's partly because he reportedly had said, in regard to team dancers, "Over my dead body."

Completely nonironically, that is where those dancers are now, skipping about the Red Auerbach parquet.

I tip my hat, conversely, to Russell Crowe. He's a part owner of a rugby team in Australia, where he has sacked the dancing cheerleaders. He told ESPN, "We examined game day and wanted to contemporize and make the focus [on] football." A team of percussionists will replace the cheerleaders, the club announced last February. The club's website invited drummers to audition.

 

Last weekend I had the honor of meeting Emily and Joita and a whole bunch of other kids who came to play at a multi-sport clinic that World T.E.A.M. Sports put on at Agganis Arena in Boston.

What’s World T.E.A.M.? I had to ask, too. The T.E.A.M. part stands for the exceptional athlete matters. It’s an organization that seems to live to put on sporting events that combine conventional athletes (i.e., those with all their limbs and senses) and unconventional ones in shared endeavors. For adults it may be a trek up Kilimanjaro; for adults or families maybe a two-day 110-mile bike ride; for kids a free sports clinic. My pal Mary is on their board of directors and invited me to volunteer at just such a clinic. Sounded good, so I did.

The organization’s official goals are these:

• Increase and promote inclusive sports opportunities for all people, especially reaching out to disabled people.
• Organize and host innovative and challenging sporting events that encourage all individuals, especially those with disabilities, to participate in lifetime sports.
• Promote diversity and increase awareness, acceptance and integration of those with disabilities.

But back to Emily and Joita. They were just two among the 20 or so kids who were on my team as we spent half an hour in clinics for golf, soccer, basketball and rock climbing. (Agganis Arena is a very nice facility.) Most of the kids were unremarkable looking, if it’s fair to say that about any individual, and were aged from just under eight to just about 14. They came from city and suburb and all kinds of gene pools and language groups. And a handful had challenges that were visible and some likely had some that weren’t. Emily, age 10ish, had a left arm that ends at the elbow. Joita, almost 8, had legs that don’t particularly cooperate. Don’t know and didn’t ask if it were muscular dystrophy or MS or some other musculoskeletal/neurological thing. The cool thing was that it didn’t really matter here.

Of course it was taken into consideration, but along with so many other things. The golf pro himself had lost most of his left arm in a boating accident at age 19, so he had some good advice for everyone on how to hit a golf ball—two-handed, one-handed, or from a wheelchair. All the kids got a chance to practice their swings at tennis balls. And I got a few pointers in case the time comes I ever take up golf.

We moved on to soccer, where a coach ran drills and a little scrimmage. Emily was an old pro at soccer, having come with shin guards at the ready and everything. Joita was incredible, speeding around the court on crutches and getting in the mix at every turn she could. Kids can be cruel, but sometimes their obliviousness is a kindness. I suspect there are times when a person who often needs special attention enjoys just getting totally ordinary treatment. Everyone was caught up in the game.

Next up, basketball. In wheelchairs. A couple of wheelchair basketball players had brought a dozen or so sporty chairs for kids to try. They were light and zippy and easy to tip! Made me think back to the movie Murderball. We did relay races and a passing drill in the wheelchairs. Although this was a bit unorganized, the kids loved it! It was tough getting them out of the gym and down to our last station, the rock wall.

That is where I was stunned. With little to no instruction, but on belay with certified rock climbing guides, kids scrambled and scraped up the different faces of the wall. Some got only a few handholds in. Some didn’t like to slip or to cling while deciding what to do next, and rappelled down shortly. A few made it to the top. A lot preferred the small bouldering walls they could use without ropes. But most impressive were Emily, who gutted through several slips and muscle-quivering hesitations to power to the top using her elbow to grip and leverage on the left; and Joita, who left her crutches earthbound and would not give up. With a tiny bit of help, mainly because she was tiny and couldn’t make the reaches between a few holds, she traversed the rock upward of three-quarters of the way to the top. We on the ground cheered. Such achievement! Such elevation above their ordinary. It was thrilling. We all have it in us to outdo ourselves, I suppose, but sometimes need the example of an 8 or 10 year old.

I don’t really care for golf, but I like Michelle Wie. I don’t dislike golf; I appreciate the skill and strength and mental toughness it takes, but the game has just never called out to me. Maybe that’s a stage of life that lies ahead somewhere. In any case, I happened upon an interview with Michelle Wie that really made me admire the 17 year-old professional.

She was being asked about her plans for the year ahead. And replied with some specifics about winning some events and planning better, also saying that, “Whatever happens, happens,” and that she was thinking about process more than outcome.

Then she gets asked the inevitable dumb questions, like, what do you say to people who think you shouldn’t try to “challenge traditions,” in other words, play against men?

Her excellent answer: “It’s ridiculously mean for people to say you shouldn’t even try. Because, you know, that’s just what life is: You fail, you succeed. And if you don’t try you don’t even know. Even if I do fail, I know at least I tried.”

“Whatever people say, they say.”

And then she gets this nonsensical poser: “Would you rather be the best female player or the 20th player overall?”

She graciously didn’t point out that that was just retarded and she could be both. She said, “I just want, after my career is over with, to have no regrets.”

Good for her.

I have a guilty conscience.

I like sports. I like doing sports of all kinds—basketball, rowing, skiing, tennis, running, lifting, hiking, goofin’ around with any kind of equipment for the most part (excluding motors). I also like watching sports of all kinds—from young nephews’ Little League games to little-understood equestrian events on YouTube to the Celtics on TV (even their 18th consecutive loss). And much else besides, from Major League Baseball to the Olympic Games (the more obscure the sport the more fun) to the World’s Strongest Man competition, if the mood is right.

I find that most, probably upward of 90 percent, of the sports I watch are men’s sports. I obviously (or not obviously) am a resolute supporter of women’s sports. Not only do I think it is good and important for women for health and sociological reasons, I think it’s just plain good, even for spectating. I’m just as happy to watch Duke vs. UNC’s women’s teams play basketball as I am the men’s, if not more so. (See AP photo, left.) Likewise tennis. Soccer. Swimming. Curling. But where are they? 

Truth is, I am not a devoted spectator. I’m lazy. If it’s on television right at the moment I feel like watching something, I’ll tune in. I don’t care enough about what’s on television in general to own or even desire TiVo or an equivalent, and with sports—unless you wanted to save a copy of a game for educational or sentimental purposes, like your kid was in it—watching an event after you know the outcome is bizarre. Even if you don’t know it but the rest of the world does. You can’t put your toe in the same river twice, right? You may be on the same spot on the riverbank, but the river has flowed by and changed. It has something to do with that.

The trouble with all of this is that, at any given time you can find men and boys doing sports on television. I mean that quite literally, I think, though haven’t subjected it to testing at 3:17 a.m., etc. (though I do believe that that is prime Strongest Man in the World time). But at any given time you cannot find women and girls doing sports on television. I’m not saying you don’t see it, or even that it’s impossible to find, but it is not at all ubiquitous. Often you can spin the whole dial, if you’ll pardon the anachronistic imagery, and not see a single women’s sporting event. If you’re really lucky, you might catch Violet Palmer reffing an NBA game.

I do wonder what percentage of sports programming covers women’s sports. Somebody must know this. Anybody? (I just checked the Women’s Sports Foundation site. Their listing of televised women’s sports is only as up-to-date as January, and here it is February 12. For January they listed the Australian Open, three days of Winter X Games (you caught that snowboarder X women’s qualifier at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday the 25th, didn’t you?) plus five college basketball games. I hope this merely speaks to the lameness of WSF listings.)

So I think this state of affairs is bad and it makes me feel guilty that I just lazily go with it, because I’m not about to make the reform of ESPN a crusade or anything….But if I, a strong supporter of women’s sports, by my actions (or lack of actions) appear to just accept the implied secondary place for women as athletes, who else is going to care? How’s anything going to change?

My brother-in-law once removed (my brother’s wife’s brother) wrote an op-ed that was published in the Gainesville Sun recently. He makes the interesting observation that we often suspend the criminal code inside the confines of an athletic competition, and maybe that's not good. In short, if hotheads (or dimwits) brawl on the basketball court, perhaps they should be charged with assault and battery and treated like you or I would if we did such a thing on the street, and not just given a six-week vacation in which to work on their abs and celebrity endorsements. Maybe that would set an example that would make them chill. Not a bad point. I suppose some of the tolerance for the violence comes out of western sports’ gladiatorial past. There is some unspoken suspension of real world for the special rules of the ring. But, indeed, there are children watching, and what they’re learning isn’t, “It’s all right to punch someone who bumps into you,” but, “It’s all right to punch someone if you’re a valuable celebrity.” I’m glad Bobby wrote the piece; it’s easy for bad sportsmanship to become ho-hum, and it shouldn’t. He didn’t say in the article, and maybe it goes without saying, but he’s a lawyer himself.

On a different but not-too-different topic, I heard an intriguing piece on Marketplace this evening on my way to basketball practice. It was about big money sports and so-called student athletes. Everyone decries scholarship athletes getting wined and dined and otherwise materially spoiled by boosters or whoever it is that gets cars for them or apartments for their mothers or whatever all it is. (Again, here’s a state of things that’s probably bad, but not as bad as global warming, the war in Iraq, or the absence of a walk button at the crosswalk between my two work buildings, so if we have to triage the things we get up in arms about, this one doesn’t occupy my mind all that often. But still…) This commentator, Dwayne Ballen, took a different tack: If sports is such monstrously big business that head coaches of, well, just say, college football teams playing in a “national championship” (quotes to acknowledge BCS critics) make more than $2 million per annum, shouldn’t the players who do the real work get a little something out of it? He suggests setting up trusts for them that they can’t access till they graduate. Or if they don’t graduate, until they’re 30 years old (aaaancient to a college kid). And they can get more if they get good grades. I think it’s a very good idea. Not everyone goes on to huge salaries in professional sports, though they alter their lives to pursue it. If they’re the revenue producers for these big schools, yeah, why not give them a tiny slice of the pie?

Meanwhile, climate change continues apace. Temps in the 70s in Massachusetts this past weekend. Which was January 6 and 7, if you weren't paying attention. Now, while balmy air on a jacketless day feels undeniably pleasant to one’s body, if you think about it at all, it’s quite disturbing to the mind. It makes me sad how little anyone thinks about it at all. The reliably idiotic local news was all delirious about it in a giggly way, interviewing people dining out on the street in downtown Boston. Hello? Think about the polar bears, could you? If you like this so well, move to Georgia or something. Some of us want to ski! And keep the slate-colored juncos coming back. And to quit plucking ticks off the dogs in the midst of the freaking winter.

 

Is it sport? It is sporty. More complex than synchronized diving, more spirited than figure skating, more daring than snowboarding (at least for those with a fear of conveyor belts). The four guys in the band OK Go go wild on six treadmills.

I have to say I’ve never actually used a treadmill, preferring to run in the real world even in heat and snow and cities, but this makes them look fun!

I’ve found tons of really interesting research and reports at Peak Performance, a U.K. publication you can subscribe to, or get online info through its blog. It’s got everything from “How to Train for a Triathlon,” to “Sports Drinks and Teeth.” Did you know the acidity in sports drinks is high and therefore if you drink them regularly your teeth enamel may erode 30 percent faster than if you just drink water? Yikes.