Women In The Arena

I don’t care if the New York Yankees could beat the tar out of the United States Olympic women’s softball team 100 times out of 100 tries, those women play a better game. The same goes for the women’s Olympic basketball team. I’d much rather watch the women’s crisp, unselfish team game than the self centered, me first men’s game. And I won’t feel deprived if I never see a woman execute a 360 degree, reverse slam dunk. In fact, I’d rather not see a slam dunk in a women’s game.
We need the women’s game to remind us that there is more to sports than posturing, strutting, and mouthing off at opponents. There is even more to sports than athleticism. The most important element of sports is the fun. After all, I’ve never heard an umpire open a baseball game by shouting, “work ball!” The women clearly have more fun playing their sports, and their enjoyment is contagious. When I watched the United States women’s Olympic softball team, I found myself smiling, even grinning unconsciously.
And if the women’s joy at playing the game is infectious, the sullenness of the United States men’s Olympic basketball team is definitely a contagion. I watched the United States men’s basketball team barely sneak past an athletically inferior Spanish team, and neither side seemed to enjoy a minute of the contest. The game was suffused with a grimness and even a desperation. Afterwards, the United States men’s team seemed relieved to have escaped a loss rather than joyous for having squeezed out a win. Even their victories are depressing.
Ask yourself. Who would you rather watch, the exuberant Lisa Lesley or the brooding Allen Iverson? Allen Iverson is far quicker, can jump much higher, and can rain three point baskets all night. But he never seems to be enjoying the game. To him, and to too many other American superstars, the game is but an instrument for inflicting humiliation on other men. Each basket is treated, not as a two point contribution to the team, but rather a teensy-weensy single combat victory over an opponent. To the male basketball star, a slam dunk isn’t two points, it’s a demonstration of territorial dominance.
In women’s basketball, it’s obvious that those wearing the same uniforms are partners and friends working toward a common goal. Have you ever heard of two women squabbling like Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant over whose team it is? In the men’s game, teammates are competing with each other for possession of the ball. And those who don’t get to dribble or shoot the ball as often as they want will pout or complain to the first sportswriter they can convince to turn an ear in their direction.
I even like women’s soccer – and not just because there’s always a possibility that one of them might strip off her top in celebration. I like watching women’s soccer, even though I really don’t like soccer. I like the women’s game because I like watching people having fun.
Have you ever seen anyone enjoy themselves more than the American beach volleyball team of Misty May and Kerri Walsh? Perhaps the men’s team enjoyed themselves too, but they were entirely too busy putting on their cool act to show it.
I was a Title 9 skeptic. But I can learn. Sport is about building character and women deserve the opportunity.
After all, as Teddy Roosevelt once said, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
The arena is now open for women, too.