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LEE ALLEN tells a great story about the still-unresolvedBattle of the Sexes
in sports. He is a two-time U.S.Olympian in wrestling
and the coach of PeninsulaGrapplers, a small but growing Bay Area club that
trainswomen wrestlers.
Allen's two young daughters, Sara and Katherine, arewrestlers who compete
primarily against boys, becausethere are few
available female opponents. Last year,Katherine, then 10, was beating a boy
handily in atournament. During the break, the
boy's coach lookeddubiously at the score, as if he couldn't believe
thatKatherine was winning. He said as much to Allen.
The match ended, and Katherine had a victory. Her fatherremembers the final
score as 9-6. The referee, who hadscored the
match, went over to the table at the end andstarted playing with the
numbers. Allen was stunned bywhat the ref did next.
LEE ALLEN tells a great story about the still-unresolvedBattle of the Sexes
in sports. He is a two-time U.S.Olympian in wrestling and the coach of
PeninsulaGrapplers, a small but growing Bay Area club that trainswomen
wrestlers.
Allen's two young daughters, Sara and Katherine, arewrestlers who compete
primarily against boys, becausethere are few available female
opponents. Last year,Katherine, then 10, was beating a boy handily in
atournament. During the break, the boy's coach lookeddubiously at the score,
as if he couldn't believe thatKatherine was winning. He said as much to
Allen.
The match ended, and Katherine had a victory. Her fatherremembers the final
score as 9-6. The referee, who hadscored the match, went over to
the table at the end andstarted playing with the numbers. Allen was stunned
bywhat the ref did next.
"He went back on to the mat and held up the boy's hand,"Allen said. "He
declared him the winner."
ALLEN protested and finally persuaded tournamentofficials to relent. But
they didn't give Katherine thewin she deserved. They made her and the
boy replay thesecond period. Then she won.
"I swear, sometimes referees<get blind," Allen said. "They can't believe
that a girlcan beat a guy, so they didn't really see it."
Allen has a simple solution, an obvious one. Create girls'wrestling
programs, in schools, in athletic clubs. As itis, females usually have to
compete
against males. Rightnow, there aren't enough opponents of their own
sexavailable.
So what happens? If you believe the Neanderthal element,the boys are getting
a raw deal. Taught, quite properly,that it is wrong to hurt or grab
girls' bodies, they don'talways know how to react when put on a mat with a
member ofthe opposite sex. Worse yet, if they win, their victorywill be
dismissed; if they lose, they risk terribletaunting from their friends.
This is exactly what Loi Chow, a male fighter, faces thisweekend in Seattle,
where he will take on MargaretMacGregor, in the first officially
sanctioned boxingmatch between a man and a woman. The promotion of the
fighthas caused controversy and uproar, the vital ingredientsfor a
cheap publicity stunt.
Chow is in a lose-lose situation. And whose fault is that?Don't look at the
easy targets, at the women who want tobox, or at feminism, the usual fall
girl. They aren'tresponsible for the silly myths that keep these
co-edbattles going.
Myth No. 1: Women shouldn't play certain sports becausethey're really not
interested. Truth: They must beextraordinarily interested if they're
willing to getinto a ring, or down on a mat, with a man. The number of
highschool girl wrestlers has tripled in the last three years.It has gone up
2,300 percent since 1990. This has happeneddespite the fact that many of the
girls have only limitedsuccess against the boys. (Internationally,
womencompete against each other, and the U.S. women just wontheir first team
title, aided by a gold medal from SandraBacher of San Jose.)
Myth No. 2: Women's sports are a joke because none of themcan dunk like
Michael Jordan, run as fast as MichaelJohnson, and so on . . . Truth: In
high schools, eventhough the girls win less, they do win. Allen's
daughter,Sara, finished first in her 100-pound weight class in
amiddle-school
tournament last year. When that happens,the Neanderthals become hypocrites.
Some of them behavelike that referee and insist that what happened
wasn'treal. Others, after finally seeing the superior femaleathlete they
always claimed didn't exist, can say onlythis: "We shouldn't allow our boys
to
be humiliated by agirl."
IN OTHER WORDS, they need to protect the boys from what issupposed to be the
weaker sex. A "20 / 20" televisionsegment on female wrestlers
focused heavily on thattheme. The correspondent sympathized with the
boys,never once suggesting the most obvious solution:Establish separate
women's programs and treat them withrespect. Otherwise, the girls have no
choice but to try tobeat up on the boys.
Allen understands this, all too well. As a coach, he hasencountered many
enlightened boys, or seen them evolveinto enlightened boys after training
with dedicatedfemale wrestlers. But some of his coaching colleagues,
orfriends from his days as an Olympian in 1956 and 1960,practically accuse
him of upending the social order.
"One friend, he went on this tirade about - who knows why?- women's
basketball," Allen said. "He went on and onabout how the best professional
women's basketball teamcouldn't beat an average boys' high school team. . .
. I'venever understood why people think that way. To me, themeasure
of a woman's success or failure shouldn't need tobe judged by how she
competes against a man."
In the long run, men could benefit enormously from thecreation of women's
wrestling teams. At the collegelevel, lazy administrators have axed
wrestling toaccommodate Title IX, the federal law that prohibitsgender
discrimination in colleges. Roughly half thecollege programs in this country
have disappeared in thelast 15 years. If the men's wrestling team had a
femalecounterpart, it would be less vulnerable to the cuts.
But the NCAA has resisted the idea pretty thoroughly. Onlythree schools in
the country, all NAIA affiliates,sponsor women's wrestling. Meanwhile,
the NCAA hasidentified fencing as an emerging sport for women, and,catering
to all those "National Velvet" dreamers,equestrian made the list, too.
GARY ABBOTT, a spokesman for USA Wrestling, points outthat far more high
school girls wrestled last year thanfenced or jumped with their
ponies. There were 2,361female wrestlers, 651 fencers and 281 equestrian
riders.
How can this be? Wrestling is inexpensive, open toparticipants of all
weights and appealing to manydifferent ethnic groups. Equestrian is elitist
andridiculously expensive. You can just imagine a schoolarguing that it has
enough female athletes because all ofits horses are mares.
Logic says that wrestling should be considered a women'ssport, because it
already is. Logic also says that theBobby Riggs-Billie Jean King tennis
match of 1973 shouldhave settled the issue of where women
belongathletically. Instead, 26 years later, we're repeatingourselves, still
answering the
same questions, withgimmickry subbing for real progress.<-------------
Female wrestler says she'll sue U. of Wisconsin for right to join men's team
------------------------------------------------
The Chronicle of Higher Education; Washington; Oct 22, 1999
A FEMALE STUDENT iS threatening to sue the University of Wisconsin at
Madison for allegedly trying to keep her off its varsity wrestling team.
Jennifer Wong, a freshman from Woodbury, Minn., wrestled for her high-school
team and placed sixth in the 119-pound weight class at the Junior
Women's World Championships this past summer, in Romania. While she was
applying to colleges, her lawyers have said, Ms. Wong received
assurances from Wisconsin coaches that she would be allowed to practice and
compete with the all-male team.
But this summer, after she had decided to enroll at Wisconsin, sports
officials told her that women would not be allowed on the team after all.
When
she threatened legal action, her lawyers say, the university imposed a cap
on the number of wrestlers on the team. Athletics officials then told Ms.
Wong that she would be allowed to try out for the team, but would not be
guaranteed a spot on the roster.
Ms. Wong's lawyers say Wisconsin's latest action essentially excludes her
from the team, because she doesn't have the physical strength to
compete with male wrestlers in her weight class. As a team member, she could
practice with the men and even compete in occasional matches, in
order to build strength and skills for women's tournaments outside college.
ROSTER CAPS
The university established roster caps for its nine non-revenue men's teams
this year, as part of a long-term plan to provide equitable opportunities
for men and women, said Vincent J. Sweeney, an associate athletics director.
Any argument that the caps were established to exclude Ms. Wong is
"ludicrous," Mr. Sweeney said.
"We're in a roster-management mode," he said. "This is the first year we've
had those types of numbers goals for most of our men's sports,
including wrestling, but arrival at a roster limit has absolutely nothing to
do with" the lawsuit.
He said Ms. Wong had been working out with the team since the beginning of
this month and would be allowed to participate in team tryouts in the
next few months. "If she's unsuccessful in the tryoutand-selection process,
we'll sit down with her and review her options," he said.
Ms. Wong's lawyers said she also had applied to Northwestern University
intending to wrestle. She was accepted, but decided to enroll at
Wisconsin instead.
Tim T. Cysewski, Northwestern's wrestling coach, said he had had no formal
discussions with Ms. Wong about joining the wrestling program there.
When he heard about her situation at Wisconsin, he checked with Northwestern
officials to see whether he could accept a woman on his squad.
"The word I got was that if a girl came out, she would count on the women's
numbers" and hence would not deprive a male student of the chance
to wrestle, he said.
"If she wants to walk on," Mr. Cysewski said, "it's no problem. As long as
my administration doesn't come down on me."
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Copyright World Publishing Company Oct 6, 1999
Tulsa Sports Commission executive director Jon Schmieder announced Tuesday
that Tulsa has been selected as the site of four AAU national
championship events in 2001 and 2002.
The city will play host to the Golf Junior College Showcase and the Older
Girls Basketball National Invitation Championship in two years.
Also secured at the AAU annual convention in Puerto Rico two weeks ago were
the 2002 LaFemme Wrestling Championship and the 2002 13-
under (80-foot) Baseball National Championship.
"These events will generate over $2.7 million in economic impact, use over
5,500 hotel rooms, attract more than 2,500 athletes and 6,000
spectators," said Schmieder. "Tulsa had a great week at the AAU convention.
We actually bid for five different events, but four out of five will
keep us in the game for a while."
Schmieder said the TSC will bid for the 2004 Women's International Bowling
Congress national tournament and possibly the 2003 Senior Olympic
Games. He will attend the 1999 Games in Orlando in anticipation of bidding
for the event.
The 2001 Golf Junior College Showcase will be held at Battle Creek Golf Club
the week following the U.S. Open. Schmieder said the Open was an
instrumental factor in bringing the event to Tulsa. He said the TSC has been
working on landing the Older Girls (14-18) Basketball National
Invitation Championship for two years.
"Before the AAU will award a national championship tournament, they want to
see you do other statewide events," said Schmieder. "We've done
the MAYB (Mid-America Youth Basketball) and BCI (Basketball Congress
International) tournaments.
"We just missed out on three separate National Championship tournaments for
11-, 12- and 14-year-old girls. They told us we did such a good job of
bidding on them, they would give us the National Invitation Championship."
Held in Memphis last July, the event had 85 teams competing over an
eight-day period. The economic impact is estimated at $1.4 million. The
Union
school district and Victory Christian High School will be among host sites
in addition to the Champions Athletic Complex.
The LaFemme Wrestling Championship will be held at the Convention Center
with the Tulsa World of Wrestling, Inc., serving as the tournament
coordinator of the all-female event. Over 500 participants are expected.
Convention Center Arena also will be the site for the AAU Folkstyle National
Championship over Easter weekend next year and the AAU Ironman
World Championship over the Labor Day weekend in two years.
The 2002 13-under Baseball National Championship will be held at the
All-Star Sports Complex. The facility played host to the 1998 13- under
National Invitation Championship and the 1999 National Championship. Also,
it will host the United States Sports Specialty Association 13-under
World Series next July.
"We have not had a run like we have seen recently in a few years," said TSC
chairman Tom Maxwell. "These AAU events and the WAC
Basketball Tournament will keep the staff and our volunteer base busy for
the next 18 months. Hopefully, we can build on these events and
continue attracting amateur athletic events to Tulsa."