Athetes We Can All Root For

For the first time in the modern Olympics, women will be competing in wrestling. Here’s a terrific story about a gutsy, hard-working athlete I will be rooting for when she competes in Athens.

Notice that, while the coach and the boy’s team were understandably skeptical when she first showed up, she earned their respect and a place on the team through hard work and achievement. (As opposed to whining and lawsuits.) Now, the coach is her biggest fan.

Women competing in wrestling? Well, it must be that wonderful playing-field-leveler Title IX that made it possible, right? No indeed. It was USA Wrestling, the governing body of the sport, that was most responsible for getting women’s wrestling included. These are the same coaches, athletes, parents and boosters who have been derided as sexists and Neanderthals for the last three years for daring to suggest that Title IX could use some reform.

Worth pointing out, too, that women’s wrestling is gaining rapidly in popularity around the country. Meanwhile, the most frequently added women’s sports on campus are rowing, equestrian and bowling. Two of those are added solely for their huge roster size and are mainly pursued by privileged white women (the feminists' favorite constituency) and the other is, to quote the president of beer, a traveshamockery.

01:22 PM

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