Have you ever noticed that women and women's sport generally (and I know... generalizations are dangerous) don't get much attention? They don't get a whole lot of TV coverage. They don't get the big professional leagues with the big media attention.
I'd just like to point something out about Canada's Medal Standings at the olympics at the moment.
Currently, Canada has 7 Gold, 6 Silver and 2 Bronze. Taking the pairs Ice Dance gold out of the equation for the time being.... 4 out of 6 Gold, 5 out of 6 Silver, and Both Bronze medals have been won by women (individually, or teams of women). That's 73.33% of our medals (excluding ice dance. Throw Ice Dance back in...11.5/15.... 76.67% of them... women.
Canadian women are guaranteed 2 more medals, too... since we've made the Gold Medal Match in both Women's Curling and Women's Hockey.
In a nutshell... Canadian Women Rock!
A man may have won the first Gold on Home Soil, but with 3.5 days left, I think it's safe to say that for Canada, the Women are the Heros of the Olympics.
And you know what's sad? If the Men's Hockey team make it to the gold medal match, no-one will give a flying rat's ass that we're as high as we are in the medal standings for the 21st Winter Games because of the Women.
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As you said... women in sport don't get much attention. Something to note is the fact that in Canada, we're very aware of this and make an effort to develop female athletes. It would appear that other countries don't. We as a country would take personal offense if our government was neglecting women athletes while funding the men. Other countries wouldn't. So it stands to reason that our women should compare favourably to those in other countries while our men are on far more even footing.
So are the women better than the men or do they just face lesser competition? I think the answer is somewhat obvious.
That said, I don't discount their achievements. Hopefully showings like ours will drive other countries to put more value in their women athletes and help drive equality outside our own borders.
I don't disagree with you... exactly.
Yes, women in some other nations might not get the same funding for training as in Canada. Or we just might not know about it. I'm not sure the assumption can be made, though, that there are discrepancies in funding between the sexes in other countries... just like the assumption can't be made the other way.
Going into the Olympics we heard about the Canadian Cowboys Alpine team and how between the 4 of them across 3 events they should be able to bring in 4 or 5 medals. Not one of them medalled... most of them didn't even finish their events.
I'd even point out that most of the Women's Alpine team did complete the majority of their events... on a run that the men themselves said was a more challenging course with more difficult elements.
But that's not really my point. My point is that perhaps Canadian Women Athletes are deserving of more media attention than they get. Because they rock. Because without them and their outstanding performances there would only have been half as many reasons for massive partying in Vancouver (not that Vancouver, or anywhere else in the country, really need much reason to party ;) )
And, as expected... the men's hockey team won gold and that's all we've heard about since. All the other medallists have faded into the background in the news with the exception of Joannie Rochette... who only got mentioned again in the news because of her mother's funeral. Which shouldnt' have been news anyway, in my opinion.... let the family grieve in peace.
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