Tag Archive for "Olympics"

Posts Tagged Olympics

There’s no crying in…the Olympics?

I must have missed the memo but apparently it’s a BFD that U.S. gymnast Jordyn Wieber cried. Wieber, last year’s World Champion, missed the cut and will not be able to compete in the upcoming individual all-around competition at this year’s London games. The rule states that only two athletes from each team are allowed to perform and although Wieber finished in 4th place overall finished third on the U.S. team after qualifying and hence has to watch the all-around from the sidelines. Wieber will be able to compete in tonight’s team final as well as the individual event final on the floor exercise so she still has two more shots at medals.

But now that we’re caught up let’s talk about the ...

By Chloe Angyal • 11 years ago

Olympics update: Saudi Arabia will not send women after all

A few weeks ago I excitedly reported that the last three dominoes – that is, countries that exclude women from Olympic competition but not men – had fallen. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei had all decided to let women go to the Olympics.

Turns out I got a little too excited. Yesterday, it was reported that no Saudi women have qualified for the Games. Probably because no women were allowed to participate in qualifying events. Per the AP:

The story in the pan-Arab daily newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat — an important media tool for Saudi rulers — said Saudi male athletes have qualified to compete in track, equestrian and weightlifting at the games that start in less than three ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Why doesn’t Sarah Robles, the highest ranked American weightlifter, have all the athletic sponsorships?

I mentioned this story about American weightlifter Sarah Robles already, but I think it deserves a whole post. The twenty-three-year-old is the highest ranked weightlifter in the country, beat out every female and male American at the world championships last year, and can lift more than 568 pounds–which is apparently equivalent to one large adult male lion. And yet Robles scraps by on $400 a month from U.S.A. Weightlifting and donations from friends because she doesn’t the kind of body that secures lucrative endorsement deals.

Track star Lolo Jones, 29, soccer player Alex Morgan, 22, and swimmer Natalie Coughlin, 29, are natural television stars with camera-friendly good looks and slim, muscular figures. But women weightlifters aren’t go-tos when ...

By Chloe Angyal • 11 years ago

The Modern Olympics just got a hell of a lot more modern

The BBC reports that after much speculation, Saudi Arabia will finally allow women to compete at the Olympics this year:

The public participation of women in sport is still fiercely opposed by many Saudi religious conservatives.

There is almost no public tradition of women participating in sport in the country.

Saudi officials say that with the Games now just a few weeks away, the only female competitor at Olympic standard is showjumper Dalma Rushdi Malhas.

But they added that there may be scope for others to compete and that if successful they would be dressed “to preserve their dignity”.

In practice this is likely to mean modest, loose-fitting garments and “a sports hijab”, ...

The BBC reports that after much speculation, Saudi Arabia will finally allow women to compete at the Olympics this year:

The public participation of women in sport is still fiercely opposed by many Saudi ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Olympic sexism study: Male athletes have skill and female athletes have luck

According to a new study on past television coverage of the Olympics, sports commentators talk about athletes in notably different ways depending on their gender. And by “notably different” I mean “pretty sexist.” The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Delaware, analyzed NBC’s primetime coverage of past games. The main findings:

When female athletes succeed, commentators tend to focus on luck and less on physical ability. When female athletes fail, physical ability and commitment are noted. When male athletes succeed, commentators applaud their skill and commitment to the sport. When male athletes fail, it is not necessarily about their failure, but about how their competitors succeeded.

So basically women athletes can never truly win and male athletes can never truly lose. ...

By Jos Truitt • 11 years ago

The Olympic Games are obsessed with policing femininity

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has planted itself firmly at the intersection of gender policing and colonialism.

The Star recently published a fascinating and infuriating article by Stephanie Findlay about the policing of femininity in preparation for the Games being held this summer in London. Remember all the sturm und drang around Caster Semenya? The IAAF has continued their biological gender essentialism campaign from there.

When folks decide they need to fight for the binary, they go looking for the place where they believe they can find the Truth of Gender. The IAAF has located it in hormone levels. Athletes competing in women’s sports are now required to have testosterone levels below a certain threshold. If they have “too much” ...

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has planted itself firmly at the intersection of gender policing and colonialism.

The Star recently published a fascinating and infuriating article by Stephanie Findlay about the policing of femininity in preparation for ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah: The US women boxers

Andrecia Wasson, right, and Raquel Miller at the US women’s boxing Olympic trials. (Photo credit: Jed Conklin/zReportage.com)

As we’ve mentioned before, a good century after the men did it, female boxers will compete in the Olympics for the first time this summer. That means that for the first time in Olympic history both men and women will be competing in every sport.

Mother Jones has an awesome photo essay of the three American boxers who have a shot at London 2012. Marlen Esparza, Queen Underwood and Claressa Shields now head to competed in the 2012 Women’s World Boxing Championships in China for the final hurdle to qualify for the Olympics. Update: Thanks to commenter Sara ...

Andrecia Wasson, right, and Raquel Miller at the US women’s boxing Olympic trials. (Photo credit: Jed Conklin/zReportage.com)

As we’ve mentioned before, a good century after the men did it, female boxers will compete ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Saudi Arabia one step closer to letting women compete in London Games

It looks like some Saudi women athletes will be allowed to compete in London this summer. According to the New York Times,

A pan-Arab newspaper based in London, Al-Hayat, reported Tuesday that the Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz has approved the participation of female athletes in London as long as their sports “meet the standards of women’s decency and don’t contradict Islamic laws.”

The International Olympic Committee said in a statement that it met with Saudi Olympic officials last week and that it was “confident that Saudi Arabia is working to include women athletes and officials at the Olympic Games in London.”

This would be the first time ...

It looks like some Saudi women athletes will be allowed to compete in London this summer. According to the New York Times,

A pan-Arab newspaper based in London, Al-Hayat, reported Tuesday that the Saudi Crown ...