Earlier: Female Soccer Player's Bad Behavior Makes Headlines

Semenya and the South African track team will take part in a rally at the airport, followed by a meeting with President Jacob Zuma for Semenya and the two other medalists. A weekend homecoming celebration is reportedly planned for Semenya in her hometown. Her family, her friends, and her government have been supportive of Semenya — the same can't be said for her competitors, or a sports culture that expects women to look a certain way. Runner Elisa Cusma said, "These kind of people should not run with us," and as Laurie and Debbie at Feministe point out, she's not the only one who thinks Semenya is unacceptable in some way. They write,

[W]e like our women at least a little fragile, at least a little vulnerable. Being blue-eyed and blonde makes a big difference too. We encourage women to be fit and strong, but not too fit, or too strong. Go to the gym, preferably at least three times a week, but pick those workouts so they don't give you "ugly muscles." Take up that sport, but don't get too good at it (we don't like our women really competitive, either).

As critics of the IAAF's gender testing have said, Semenya seems to have been flagged for testing solely because she's too good,and because her "ugly muscles" make her "look like a man." Whether or not she is found to have an intersex condition, the judgment sheds a lot of light on what we as a culture want women to look like, even when they are using their bodies for intense physical competition. Laurie and Debbie continue,

Women in day-to-day life face a lot of pressure to be the "right kind of women" (i.e., the ones men want). For celebrity women, the heat is turned up a lot … because, of course, celebrity women are the yardstick with which people measure the women they know, the yardstick by which the rules of sexiness, attractiveness, and appropriateness are determined.

When the celebrities are athletes, standards are even more complicated. Of course they're expected to win — and, presumably, they want to — but, paradoxically, if they do win, they may be criticized as insufficiently feminine. Laurie and Debbie point to a post by Unusualmusic at The Angry Black Woman, which tracks the career of Olympian Babe Didrikson and explains (quoting glbtq),

In the early 1930s, when Mildred "Babe" Didrikson, the greatest woman athlete of modern times, set world records in the woman's 80-meter hurdles and javelin throw, reporters continually remarked on her masculine appearance, and the press focused on the Olympic medalist in a campaign to restore femininity to athletics. The controversy finally ended when Didrikson married, started wearing dresses, and turned from competing in track, basketball, baseball, football, and boxing, to setting records in the more acceptably feminine world of golf.

Not much has changed since the early 1930s. Unusualmusic argues that women are expected to have "a thin shape, with a bit of a curvy shape, (but not too curvy, thats fat), and a distinct lack of muscles. So female athletes are by definition considered deviant." Some female athletes choose to respond to this perception of "deviance" by reasserting their traditional femininity. Basketball star Lisa Leslie, who has worked as a model and actress, recently told the Times that, "she has enjoyed being a role model, and that includes wearing lipstick and a ribbon in her hair on the court." She says,

It's always been important to me to show the young girls that it's O.K. to maintain their femininity and play sports.

On the one hand, showing girls that they can wear makeup and play sports is a good thing, as it demonstrates that sports aren't just for boys and that girls can embrace many different aspects of their identities. Danica McKellar has made somewhat similar comments, arguing that there's no contradiction between caring about fashion and liking math. The problem comes when female athletes (or mathletes) are expected to wear makeup, to be curvy, to lack "ugly muscles," not only to conform to traditional beauty ideals but even to make up for the fact that they're competing physically (or mentally) — an "unfeminine" thing to do. It may be "O.K.," as Leslie says, for young girls "to maintain their femininity and play sports," but they shouldn't have to submit to ideals of femininity imposed from the outside. Semenya doesn't do this, and for that she's a role model too.

Big Welcome For SA Runner In Gender Controversy [AP]
Women Athletes: Choose Between Strong And Sexy [Feministe]
American Women Athletes Part One: In Which Women Athletes Need To Be Sexy And Heterosexual (Preferably With Child/ren And Husband/boyfriend) [The Angry Black Woman]
Lisa Leslie, The Face Of The W.N.B.A., Prepares For Life After Basketball [NYT]

Earlier: Communists, Germaine Greer Weigh In On Semenya Sex Controversy

Semenya ran her race in an impressive 1:55.45, more than two seconds faster than silver medalist Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya. But suspicions that she is not "entirely female" require her to undergo "extremely complex" gender testing, including examinations by an endocrinologist, a gynecologist, and a "gender expert." Officials of the International Association of Athletics Federations clarify that they don't believe Semenya has cheated by undergoing a sex change or hiding her true gender — rather, they think she has a "medical condition," such as some combination of male and female chromosomes. She will lose her medal if she is found to be "male," but it's not clear exactly what that means in her case, or what will happen if tests determine she is intersex.

Semenya's family, for their part, deny their child is anything but female. Her mother says,

If you go at my home village and ask any of my neighbours, they would tell you that [Caster] is a girl. They know because they helped raise her. People can say whatever they like but the truth will remain, which is that my child is a girl. I am not concerned about such things.

Her grandmother adds,

She called me after the heats and told me that they think she's a man. What can I do when they call her a man, when she's really not a man? It is God who made her look that way.

Family and friends say Semenya has been teased for her appearance since childhood. Eric Modiba, head of her high school, says,

She was always rough and played with the boys. She liked soccer and she wore pants to school. She never wore a dress. It was only in Grade 11 that I realised she's a girl.

He adds that Semenya always wore the male version of the school uniform, with grey pants instead of a red skirt. Her friend Deborah Morolong says, "She never had a boyfriend. She doesn't like boys." But how Semenya dresses and whether she likes boys have no bearing on her gender. The real question is whether it's fair to subject a female athlete to complex medical tests when you're fully aware she's always identified as female. A spokesman for the African National Congress criticizes the gender testing, saying,

We condemn the motives of those who have made it their business to question her gender due to her physique and running style. Such comments can only serve to portray women as being weak.

It's true that if gender testing is something that athletes only have to undergo if other people raise suspicions — and if those suspicions are only raised when an athlete is "too good" to be female — then the process is hardly fair. The tests were once required of all female Olympians, but the process was discontinued because it was too invasive. This points to the great difficulty of determining "gender" in a lab in the first place — but if officials are going to try it, don't they need a better basis than whether someone "looks like a man?" And what happens if Semenya is found to have an intersex condition? Is it fair to ban all intersex athletes from competition? A woman with, say, more testosterone in her body might have a competitive advantage, but women produce different amounts of testosterone naturally, and women with long legs have an advantage too. All this points, as we mentioned yesterday, to the need for a clear definition of gender in sports and clear standards for determining it — both of which are difficult because gender itself is much more fluid than the concept of "gender testing" would imply.

Champion Female Runner's Gender Tested [AP, via CBS]
'She's All Woman': Mother Of Athletics Golden Girl Caster Semenya Rejects Claims Her Daughter's A Man [Daily Mail]
Mother Of 800m Winner Caster Semenya Dismisses Gender Questions [Telegraph]
ANC Condemns Semenya Gender Row [Mail and Guardian]

Earlier: Coach: Gender Concerns Reasonable Because Runner "Looks Like A Man"

The 18-year-old Semenya is slated to run the 800m for South Africa in tonight's World Championships, but, says Australian newspaper The Age, her "physique and powerful style have sparked speculation in recent months that she may not be entirely female." An International Association of Athletics Federations spokesman says, "At this moment in time we do not have any evidence to stop her running," but according to the Daily Mail, gender testing has already begun. Some say she could still be disqualified.

Perhaps even more disturbing than subjecting a runner to medical tests for no other reason than her physical appearance and athletic prowess is her coach Michael Seme's reaction to all this. He says,

We understand that people will ask questions because she looks like a man. It's a natural reaction and it's only human to be curious. People probably have the right to ask such questions if they are in doubt. But I can give you the telephone numbers of her room-mates in Berlin. They have already seen her naked in the showers and she has nothing to hide.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with "looking like a man" — if, for instance, you're transgender. But for a coach to say it of a teenage athlete who has always identified as female is pretty insensitive. He should be protecting her from the media's curiosity, not excusing it. And as far as his "showers" comment goes, even seeing her naked probably won't be enough to satisfy her critics. Says The Science of Sport (via Deadspin),

[E]ven genetic testing cannot confirm male or female. In fact, it is so complex that to do proper sex determination testing, you have to take a multi-disciplinary approach, and make use of internal medicine specialists, gynecologists, psychologists, geneticists and endocrinologists. I am afraid that dropping your pants is not proof at all.

As we pointed out last summer, gender testing is invasive, and can result in disqualifying athletes who are intersexed or have chromosomal abnormalities. Whether or not these abnormalities make women better runners is another question, but they don't make them into men. Deadspin's Tommy Craggs has a good point when he wonders what "entirely female" even means in the context of sports. The IAAF and other athletics governing bodies need to come up with a workable definition that's fair to intersexed athletes — and that definition shouldn't be "looks feminine to us and isn't threateningly good." Unfortunately, that's the definition Semenya's being subjected to — and her coach isn't helping.

She's The Man? [Deadspin]
World Athletics Sensation: Claims Emerge That South Africa's Female 800m Hope Caster Semenya Is Really A MAN! [Daily Mail]
Caster Semenya - Is She Really A He? [morethanthegames]
IAAF Isn't Sure South African Runner Is Female [AP, via MSNBC]
Athlete Could Be Disqualified Over Gender Doubts [The Age]
Is She Really a HE? Women's 800m Gold Medal Favourite Takes Gender Test Hours Before World Championship Race [Daily Mail]
Caster Semenya's Sex In Doubt, As Reports Of Sex Testing And Potential Disqualification Surface [The Science of Sport]

Earlier: Beijing Officials To Test Female Olympic Hopefuls For Sex Abnormalities

In his weekly sports column for The Nation, David Zirin writes that many have dismissed the revelation of sexist practices at Wimbledon, and some sportswriters are even defending the practice. L.Z. Granderson, writing in his ESPN column, says that he "found the Wimbledon officials honesty quite refreshing," adding:

Organizers are trying to sell their sport and believe the casual, straight male fan is more apt to watch attractive women-because if they had a love of the game, they wouldn't be casual fans, would they? In a sport in which Anna Kournikova, a player without a singles title, can become the most popular on tour, no one should be surprised by any of this.

As mentioned earlier, Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports was similarly unfazed by the biased practices at Wimbledon. In fact, he argued that the only thing preventing Serena Williams from being as big as Michael Jordan is that she spends too much time whining about sexism in tennis. Instead, she should accept the fact that sex sells and focus on reducing the size of her butt to a more media-friendly size.

According to Zirin, research by University of Minnesota sports sociologist Dr. Mary Jo Kane shows that sexy images of female athletes may make that women bigger celebrities but they don't translate into a deeper interest in their sport. Kane showed men and women sexy images of female athletes and found that while they may sell magazines, they didn't make the viewer any more invested in women's sports, and may actually alienate existing fans.

But, Kane says the focus on a female players' looks actually goes much deeper than just selling sports with sex appeal:

"This is also about what runs in the bone marrow of women's sports, namely homophobia. They are very well-meaning but they also want to distance themselves from the lesbian label. How do you do that? You reassure the viewing audiences, the corporate sponsors, the TV networks, and the female athletes themselves, that, No, no, no- sports won't make your daughter gay. Women's sports will be more acceptable if you believe, even though it is stereotypical and inaccurate, that if you are pretty and feminine in a traditional sense then you are not gay."

So as women struggle to be taken seriously as athletes, not just sex symbols, on the court, they're actually trapped between sexism and homophobia. The two stereotypes are are present even in the "grunting" controversy, in which the sounds female players make have been described alternately as sexual or overly masculine in nature. While the conventionally pretty Michelle Larcher de Brito has been called "more of a shrieker," last night during an interview with Serena Williams (clip below), David Letterman described the sound Williams makes as "kind of noise you associate with mayhem, like cage fighting."

At the core of both stereotypes is the idea that athleticism is inherently masculine. While women's sports are supposed to be about greater equality and empowerment, female athletes are still expected to strike a balance between being too sexy and not attractive enough. Unfortunately, until Serena Williams grunting on the court and wearing a dress and pearls during an interview are seen as equally feminine, there won't be a level playing field for women in sports.

Sexism On Centre Court [The Nation]
Finding The Beauty In Ugly [ESPN]

Earlier: Foul Ball
In Defense Of Grunts
Female Tennis Players: Faking It Like Meg Ryan?
Grunting Controversy Continues On Wimbledon's Opening Day

According to The Guardian, Larcher de Brito's grunting seemed "curiously subdued" and at a press conference after the match, she confirmed that Wimbledon officials told her she could be fined for making excessive noises. "I tried to quieten things down for you guys today," said Larcher de Brito, adding that she would rather take a fine than stop grunting completely. "If my body feels like it needs to grunt more, it grunts. If not, it stays quiet," she said.

Earlier in the day, in her first round victory over Viktoriya Kutuzova, Maria Sharapova refused to tone herself down. The Guardian reports:

As a side-show to the actual tennis, we have quite the grunting contest developing between Sharapova and Kutuzova on Court one. Kutuzova's is a little deeper - almost like she's trying to shout the word 'pow' each time she hits it, whereas Sharapova is getting a little hoarse.

Nick Bollettieri, who has coached many of tennis' greatest, and most notoriously noisy players, including Shrapova and Larcher de Brito weighed in on the controversy today in his daily Wimbledon column in The Independent. Bollettieri says that a series of graduating penalties ranging from the loss of a point to the loss of a match should be implemented to cut down on excessive grunting. However, he adds:

I have never taught anyone to grunt. It's just not part of the coaching regime at my academy.

Grunting on the courts may be a lot of things, including annoying, but it certainly isn't cheating, since it's been done under the watchful eyes (and ears) of umpires for decades with few complaints and fewer sanctions.

Three of the top female players of all time – Monica Seles, Serena Williams, and Maria Sharapova - have all been associated with making noise when making impact with the ball.

But to suggest that these women (all of whom, by the way, have trained at my academy) have cheated their way to 32 Grand Slam championships and more than 100 titles is offensive – and wrong.

On Saturday night, former Wimbledon champion Michael Stich, who is now a BBC Radio commenter, angered many people by claiming that the role of female tennis players is as much about "selling sex" as their physical ability, the Daily Mail reports. He suggested the best way to reduce the amount of grunting in women's tennis is to, "Just play it back to the women. It sounds disgusting, ugly, unsexy!"

According to the Mail:

When challenged that it was the women's role to play the best tennis they could, rather than look sexy, Stich stuck to his guns. ‘That's what they sell,' he told The Mail on Sunday.

‘They want to look good, they pay attention to their looks and everything.'

He then joked that the only way to make sure female players stop grunting is to "shoot them." Stich now claims that his comments were taken out of context.

Sexist comments aside, what may actually put an end to the grunting is a meeting of the Grand Slam Committee scheduled to take place at Wimbledon this week. An anonymous spokesman for the International Tennis Federation told Time that, "In light of the controversy at The French Open, the Grand Slam Committee will be meeting to see if anything can be done to make enforcement [of grunting] more official and explicit."

Since the committee, which sets the rules for tennis' four major events, releases a new rulebook annually, any restriction on grunting wouldn't come into effect until 2010.

Wimbledon 2009 — Day One Live! [The Guardian]
Coaching Report: Grunting [The Independent]
Wimbledon Girls Are "Just There To Sell Sex", Says BBC Pundit Michael Stich [The Daily Mail]
Ex-Wimbeldon Champion Says Players Are Just "Selling Sex" [Bild.com]
Quiet, Please: Tennis Pros May Have To Give Up The Grunt [Time]

Earlier: Female Tennis Players Faking It Like Meg Ryan

Of the 22 ballerinas studied, 86% had at least one component of the tetrad, and 14% had all four. A disturbing point of comparison — 44% of women who run six days a week are apparently amenorrheic. Athletes and ballerinas who restrict their eating and don't menstruate, says Hoch, have "the cardiovascular and bone density deficits of much older, postmenopausal women." Folic acid Supplements can help prevent vascular problems, but a better solution would be for girls and women to eat enough to support both their active lifestyles and their hearts and skeletons.

Ballerinas And Female Athletes Share Quadruple Health Threats [EurekAlert]

According to two studies being presented today at the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine, whether people are 10 years old or 70 years old, males are more physically active than females. Dr Nicky Ridgers, one of the co-authors of the research, says: "It is a concern that girls' activity levels are lower than boys and, although it is just one piece in a complex picture, this could be contributing to girls being overweight and obese.

Obviously, there are exceptions. Female athletes and boys who prefer to gossip. But some women find working out in a gym to be such a boring, lone-wolf activity, which makes sense if females have the inclination to "play" by interacting verbally in small groups.

Everyone knows that physical activity is healthy: When you're young, it helps build strong bones and joints; when you're older, mobility and flexibility are important. But knowing that females play differently, even at a young age, how do we get girls — and women — to be more active? Instead of shaming "chatty" girls, is there a way to harness strong social tendencies into physical exertion?

Girls Play Less Energetically Than Boys 'Because They Prefer To Chat' [Telegraph]
Studies Reveal Lifelong Gender Difference In Physical Activity [EurekAlert]
Females 'Less Physically Active' [BBC News]
Lifelong Gender Difference In Physical Activity Revealed [Science Daily]

• Speaking of cows, a new breed of miniature cows has been bred in Ireland. Each cow is no taller than a German shepherd. • The prospect of being forced to marry a 75-year-old man in exchange for her own father to have the older man's 13-year-old daughter has driven a Saudi teen to suicide. • Arwa Mutabagani, a professional show jumper, has been appointed to the Saudi Olympic delegation (a first for a woman) and intends to use her position to open Saudi Arabia up to female athletes. • Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice says she hopes to someday see Saudi women in the Games, which she think will happen after they are given the right to vote. • The lack of "artificial birth control" in the Philippines is expanding the amount of poverty in the region, where more children for a family can mean a great financial stress. • A 27-year-old Egyptian woman in Alexandria gave birth to sextuplets. • Mark O'Connell, author of the book The Marriage Benefit, believes that there are emotional and physical benefits to staying married. • "The Hardwood Cabin" a six-bedroom sex club in the Pacific Northwest, was shut down last month. • A group of South Korean lawmakers have introduced a proposal to ease a ban established in 1987 to prevent doctors from telling parents the gender of their fetus to stop abortions of unborn female children. • Some women work too hard in their positions to be seen as "leaders" and thus get promoted at their jobs. • Does Kim Novak get ignored by film critics because she was "the object of voyeuristic male gaze" in the '50s?

• Former biology teacher from San Marcos, CA and Army Reserve Capt. Laura Peters receives a medal from the state of California for her time spent as a liaison in Iraq. • Wajeha Al Huwaider is a Saudi activist who has made a YouTube video against Saudi Arabia's banning of women practicing sports in public. • Older female actresses are finding success and critical acclaim in television dramas where all five of the Emmy nominees for lead actress in a drama were women over 40 years-old. • An author of So Sexy, So Soon talks about the sexy images that young girls are exposed to at a early age. • Related: 6 ways to prep your kids for an oversexed world! Basically, just talk to your kids in a mature way about sex.

Which is to say, not only did the story expend 8,000 words on the "pain" supposedly afflicting a rarified slice of a rarified slice of the very upper echelons of the world's richest country — hypercompetitive female high school soccer players who voluntarily stress and occasionally tear their Anterior Cruciate Ligaments in order to get into college — it kind of is only maybe-true. It could be true, of course, but for the fact that

"Comprehensive statistics on total sports injuries are in short supply."

Some studies have measured sports injuries by emergency-room visits, which usually follow traumatic events like broken bones. A.C.L. and other soft-tissue injuries often do not lead to an E.R. visit.

David Cooper, Hannah's father, observed, "I once heard that the injury rate in the N.F.L. is 100 percent. It looks to me, in girls' soccer, it's the same thing."

Some researchers believe that in sports that both sexes play, and with similar rules — soccer, basketball, volleyball — female athletes rupture their A.C.L.'s at rates as high as five times that of males. According to the NCAA Injury surveillance system, it's 0.25 per 1000 in soccer as opposed to 0.10 per 1000 for male soccer injuries.

If you are the parent of an athletic girl and live in a community that bustles with girls playing sports — especially the so-called jumping and cutting spots like soccer, basketball, volleyball and lacrosse — it may seem that every couple of weeks you see or hear about some unfortunate young woman hobbling off the field and into the operating room. The first time, you think: what a stroke of bad luck. But you figure it won't happen to your daughter because, after all, what are the odds?

After a couple of more A.C.L. tears in the neighborhood, you get worried and think, Gosh, we must be in a really bad cluster for these injuries. Why here? But in all likelihood, what you are witnessing is not a freakish run of misfortune but the law of averages playing out...PARENTS OF TEENAGE GIRLS who play sports have grown accustomed to what seems like entire teams battling injuries — and seeing those who do make it onto the field wrapped in Ace bandages or wearing braces on various body parts. Hannah Cooper, a star soccer player at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Maryland, sat out several games early in the 2007 season with a severe ankle sprain, one of many she has suffered since her years in middle school.

The pressure to concentrate on a "best" sport before even entering middle school — and to play it year-round — is bad for all kids. They wear down the same muscle groups day after day. They have no time to rejuvenate, let alone get stronger. By playing constantly, they multiply their risks and simply give themselves too many opportunities to get hurt.

In a cohort of 20 soccer playing girls, the statistics predict that one each year will experience an A.C.L. injury and go through reconstructive surgery, rehabilitation and the loss of a season — an eternity for a high schooler. Over the course of four years, 4 out of the 20 girls on that team will rupture an A.C.L.

Each of them will likely experience "a grief reaction," says Dr. Jo Hannafin, orthopedic director of the Women's Sports Medicine Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. "They've lost their sport and they've lost the kinship of their freinds, which is almost as bad as not being able to play."

"I'm afraid for her, and for all these girls," Maria Pierson said. "What's it going to be like for them at 40 years old. They're in so much pain now. Knees and backs and hips, and they just keep on going."

So yeah, dear readers, I marveled that you managed to slog past the onanism and the haziness of the evidence, the utter boringness, the "because the Times really doesn't expend enough text on the sacrifices and psychodramas involved in the virtuous struggle to get into college, let's just add one more scene about how utterly Important It All Is:

She stayed down on the field, screaming. A trainer came out and tried to calm her, assuring her the pain would subside. But her screams came more from anger than pain. She instantly understood that most of her senior season of high-school soccer would be wiped out and worried that no college coach would want to recruit her.

24. We want girls to have as many opportunities in sports as boys.'

No, 'we' don't all agree with that statement. Womens' sports, with the rare
exception of a few outstanding performers, are profoundly boring and
athletically lacking when compared to the male varieties. And the fact that
women are so much more susceptible to all kinds of joint problems than men
is all the proof anyone needs of their biological handicap.

Jacob handelsman, surfzupp@cox.net

53. I would like to see some of the Title IX money going to sewing classes.

Women tend to have great fine motor control. Sewing is a kind of physical
activity. It's a training and an exploration of fine motor skills and mental
discipline. Many young women like to explore this aspect of their bodies
(hands and fingers.)

Anyone who's ever picked up an advanced sewing pattern knows that sewing is
fairly intellectual, as well.

Whatever happened to sewing class?? Not every girl in high school is a jock.
Why do we shower $$ on boys' activities, then try to make up for it by
channelling girls into equivalent activities?

How about showering some money on SERIOUS sewing programs and advanced
cooking classes? Then, let the boys to do those activities if we want to be
"fair."

We totally abandoned programs that lots of girls in the 1950's really
enjoyed. By the way, I am a serious feminist, I am not being ironic!

Claire, New York City

Like such as that amazing chick the other night on Millionaire Matchmaker who responded to news of the rice shortages by saying she was cutting carbs? She looked athletic enough, but I totes felt like tearing out my ACL the whole time she talked.

The Uneven Playing Field [NYT]

An editor from the Tribune explains: "I don't believe that, in the reality of limited and ever-shrinking resources, it's the right thing for us to simply say, "everything's the same and gets exactly the same treatment." We just can't do that. I believe we cover all sports as the news dictates - in fan interest, in accomplishment (an outstanding team that dominates, for example) and in uniqueness... But we're not in the promotion business." Still, it's true that when high schools, colleges and professional sports teams get covered, it's more often than not the men's team being covered.

As a non-sporting person, I took a moment to think of all the female sports figures I know as compared to the male sports stars. As a kid, I took gymnastics, but it seemed obvious — even from the Olympic athletes I saw on TV — that it was not a sport for adults. It was something to be left behind as you aged. Meanwhile, my brother, who was into baseball, could actually look up to Darryl Strawberry and Keith Hernandez — have their posters on his wall and dream of that future. Considering that under Taliban rule, women could not play outdoors and sports were out of the question, it's amazing that Mahboba is headed to the Olympic games, even if she doesn't really stand a chance of getting a medal. But we live in a world where a man who plays basketball can land the cover of Vogue while female teams don't get equal newspaper coverage. For all the soccer players, softball players, runners, basketball players and other sporty ladies out there, I have to ask: Does being a female athlete mean taking an extra leap of faith?

Not Enough Coverage Of Women's Sports? Blame "The Market," Trib Sports Editor Says [WIMN]
Afghan Girl Braves Taliban, Jeers In Olympic Quest [Guardian]
VIDEO: Afghan Woman's Olympic Dream [National Geographic]
When Girls Gotta Run . . . [Washington Post]