Women's Sports

My title is perhaps too ambitious, for what follow are a mere few of the noteworthy items (selected aimlessly by yours truly) from what has been an eventful year:

Strongwoman Kara Mann showed us how to pull a car.

Aneta Florczyk not only won her fourth World's Strongest Woman title but made it to the Dancing on Ice semifinals.

C. L. Hanson demonstrated that prudery and prejudice often masquerade as feminist outrage, an example of clear thinking set forth in a most readable style.

Candace Parker had a busy year—her first WNBA dunk, and then right in the middle of the first WNBA brawl. But just as memorable, the picture of her towering over David Beckham.

Brittney Griner made it clear that the ability of female athletes isn't so easily dismissed.

Female athletes dazzled us in the Beijing Olympics too; e.g., the awesome displays of strength by weightlifters like Cao Lei.

Finally, the best saved for last: Clara's marvelous video clip, a tribute to Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner), arguably the greatest action heroine ever:



See you in 2009!

The movie A League of Their Own, which I'm sure at least some of you remember, is a fictionalized account of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the first professional baseball league for women. From the AAGPBL website:

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League gave over 600 women athletes the opportunity to play professional baseball and to play it at a level never before attained. The League operated from 1943 to 1954 and represents one of the most unique aspects of our nation's baseball history.

Recently, Apryl DeLancey wrote about Vintage Blue, an eco-friendly sportswear company with a line of tees and totes based on the AAGPBL. Visit Women Like Sports to learn more about this important time in the history of women's sports, and the vintage clothing line inspired by it.

Congratulations to the Nittany Lions!

And to the members of the 2008 All-Tournament Team:

Destinee Hooker, OH, University of Texas
Jordan Larson, OH, University of Nebraska
Alix Klineman, OH, Stanford University
Cynthia Barboza, OH, Stanford University
Alisha Glass, S, Penn State University
Nicole Fawcett, OH, Penn State University
Megan Hodge, OH, Penn State University (MVP)

The NCAA volleyball semifinals produced two exciting matches last night. In the early match, Stanford beat Texas, coming from behind after losing the first two sets—the first team in the history of the final four to do that. Then, in front of the largest crowd ever to watch a collegiate volleyball match, 17,430 (mostly Husker) fans, Penn State defeated Nebraska in a five-set thriller.

This means we now look forward to a rematch of last year's final between Penn State and Stanford. That match will be shown live Saturday (Dec. 20) at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN2. (Big Ten Network will be re-airing the Penn State-Nebraska match tonight and Saturday, if you missed it.)

Additional sources: The Associated Press; Penn State Live.

Megan, Because I Played Sports, and Apryl, Women Like Sports, both lament the poor financial health of women's professional sports, which may be taking a turn for the worse thanks to the economy.

Megan asks why enough women aren't following women's professional sports, a legitimate question. But I find something even more puzzling: Why aren't men? You would think that heterosexual men would naturally be drawn to watching strong, healthy, vibrant women display their athleticism. Instead, we have a nation of jockstrap sniffers (and a most homophobic one at that—where is Freud when you need him?).

So the WNBA, for example, struggles, yet Candace Parker and her sister athletes entertain with enough athletic ability to satisfy any sports purist, and they bring an ineffable grace to their sport that the men cannot replicate.

I don't get it, do you?

If your holiday cheer seems a little lackluster this season, perhaps the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship will brighten your mood. This tournament, now underway, is one of the sporting events I most look forward to each year: I watch spellbound as preternaturally athletic Amazons do battle. (I'm forever amazed by not only their size and power but also their speed and agility—anyone that big should not be able to move so fast!)

ESPNU and ESPN2 will be televising games in the later rounds. I'm not sure yet if early games are going to be televised, or what channels they'll be on if they are, so check your local listings. You can print a bracket and keep up with results at NCAA.com.

One team to watch: Stanford; Pac-10 champs for the third straight year, they are among the favorites to take the NCAA title. Meet the senior women from this accomplished squad:

Kay Baxter was a pioneer in women's bodybuilding, an extremely influential one, too, though her competition record doesn't reflect it. Deemed too muscular by judges in her time, she responded: "Someone had to stick her neck out for the cause of muscular women . . . and I've got no regrets about that . . . not one."

Sadly, Kay died in an automobile accident in 1988. I recently ran across a video tribute to this remarkable woman whose spirit was every bit as strong as her steely frame: