Too Dangerous for Women...from a Medical Point of View

I digress from more professional topics to express some personal frustration. I just watched a video clip of an ABC Nightly News segment that profiled the US women's ski jump team. Yes, female ski jumpers do exist. The US has two of the top three ranked women in the world. But the FIS (The International Ski Federation) feels the sport is "too dangerous" for women "from a medical point of view." Hello, McFly?

But women still don't even swim the 1500m (but they swim the 1650 yards in NCAA competition and 1500m in USS competition), don't speedskate the 10,000 m--and remember, the women's marathon was only added in 1984. We are so fragile....

I wonder what we'd find if we measured the forces the female freestyle aerial skiers deal with and compared them to those of the ski jumpers? Or the mogul skiers. The freestyle people drop virtually straight down 4-5 stories. Did anyone else see and hear the the Aussie freestyler blow her 7 month-old ACL replacement during the first round of jumping?

Instead, the IOC has found room to invite male and female half-pipe snowboarders into the Olympics. And we are treated to the antics of the baggy-ass uniformed, iPod-wearin', hot-dogging "extreme athletes" who go for "method air" during their routines. Sorry, dudes and dudettes, but I don't believe a "sport" belongs in the Olympics if the athlete's boxer shorts and ass hang out of the uniform, and he/she can listen to an iPod during an actual competition. Call me old-school, but these people can hardly speak in complete sentences (despite NOT being out of breath) and spend way too much time flashing what look like gang signs for the camera after their runs. In my opinion, this sport and many of its athletes are like Fat Albert during summer: no class.

Send the half-pipe snowboarders back to the X-Games where they belong and let the female counterparts to the male ski jumpers join the Olympic program. These women get some real air.

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