Going the Distance Olympics: The Year for Women? Is Cheerleading a Sport? One College Thinks So. NFL Names First Female Official

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1 Going the Distance AUGUST 2012 Is Cheerleading a Sport? One College Thinks So NFL Names First Female Official Why Helmets are needed in Women s Lacrosse 2012 Olympics: The Year for Women?

From the Cover: photo from olympics.al-monitor.com 2012 Olympics: The Year for Women? Saudi Arabia sent female athletes to the Olympics for the first time this year.

2 From the Cover: photo from olympics.al-monitor.com 2012 Olympics: The Year for Women? Saudi Arabia sent female athletes to the Olympics for the first time this year. It took 116 years, but the Olympic Games will finally enter the 20th century before too much more of the 21st goes by. Nearly all the 205 nations marching into Friday s opening ceremony will have at least one woman competing. It required a lot of arm-twisting for the ultimate holdout, Saudi Arabia, to relent, but even the world s most chauvinistic Olympic nation has fallen in line, sending two women a judo player and 800-meter runner to compete in London. Perhaps it was the peer pressure from Brunei and Qatar. Those most traditional old boys clubs caved this time, too, giving International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge a clear victory in what has been an extremely uneven journey to some semblance of gender equity.

3 To be fair, we re talking about a long time ago, 1896 to be exact, when Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the modern Olympics, forbidding women because, as he reasoned, it would be impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and incorrect. Every country in the Olympics has at least one female athlete on their team Obviously the baron never met Hope Solo, Tonya Harding or Flo-Jo. The USA has led the way in this push for equality, and it s all because of Title IX, the 40-year-old law that opened the athletic floodgates for girls and women to play sports in America and in the process become the envy of the rest of the Western world. Which leads us to another first: The 2012 U.S. Olympic team is composed of 529 athletes: 261 men and 268 women. Never before has America sent more women than men to an Olympic Games. And they are being led by another woman, chef de mission Teresa Edwards, a five-time Olympic medalist in basketball. photos from olympics.al-monitor.com, journaltimes.com and world.time.com To be sure, had the U.S. men s soccer team qualified for the Olympics, that would have tipped the scales the other way. And many of the top American Olympic stars are male Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Kobe Bryant. But if this American squad develops a nickname, odds are it will be something along the lines of Team Title IX, which sounds just about right to some of the nation s best female Olympians. 3 countries sent female athletes for the first time The U.S Olympic team has more females than males for the first time When the Olympics began in 1896, women were not allowed to participate

4 History of Women in the Olympics: 1896 No women were allowed to participate. The creator felt that their prescence would be uninteresting, and incorrect. These were the first games in which women were allowed to compete. They were only to compete in lawn tennis and golf Women were allowed to compe in swimming for the first time. None, however, were from the Scroll through the image on the left to see a timeline on women s involvement in the Olympics! I think it s a big deal, to come so far, two-time Olympic beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh said Wednesday. I don t even know how many women would have been on the 1972 Olympic team, when Title IX was just starting. And now, to think of this. Swimmer Rebecca Soni, who is favored to win as many as three gold medals in these Games, also is a product of Title IX as a scholarship athlete at Southern California. It s just a beautiful thing, she said of the number of American women competing here. It s really wonderful to see that women athletes are celebrated just as much as men. I feel that, as a woman athlete, we re recognized equally. To have more women than men on the team is really exciting. That doesn t mean U.S. women win every time they leave the Olympic locker room. Long ago, the U.S. women realized that if they lose, women s sports worldwide actually win. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Brandi Chastain, the hero of the 1999 Women s World Cup, came out of the locker room proudly wearing her silver medal around her neck after a final loss to Norway. Asked why she appeared so content, Chastain said that although she obviously wasn t pleased that her team had lost, it actually proved an important point: If the USA couldn t win every competition, women s soccer around the world was advancing.

5 Going the Distance Is Cheerleading a Sport? One College Thinks So AUGUST 2012 NFL Names First Female Official Why Helmets are needed in Women s Lacrosse 2012 Olympics: The Year for Women?

From the Cover: Saudi Arabia sent female athletes to the Olympics for the first time this year. photo from olympics.al-monitor.com 2012 Olympics: The Year for women?

6 From the Cover: Saudi Arabia sent female athletes to the Olympics for the first time this year. photo from olympics.al-monitor.com 2012 Olympics: The Year for women? It took 116 years, but the Olympic Games will finally enter the 20th century before too much more of the 21st goes by. Nearly all the 205 nations marching into Friday s opening ceremony will have at least one woman competing. It required a lot of arm-twisting for the ultimate holdout, Saudi Arabia, to relent, but even the world s most chauvinistic Olympic nation has fallen in line, sending two women a judo player and 800-meter runner to compete in London. Perhaps it was the peer pressure from Brunei and Qatar. Those most traditional old boys clubs caved this time, too, giving International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge a clear victory in what has been an extremely uneven journey to some semblance of gender equity.

7 Every country in the Olympics has at least one female athlete on their team 3 countries sent photos from olympics.al-monitor.com, journaltimes.com and world.time.com To be fair, we re talking about a long time ago, 1896 to be exact, when Baron Pierre de female athletes for the first time Coubertin founded the modern Olympics, forbidding women because, as he reasoned, it would be impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and incorrect. Obviously the baron never met Hope Solo, Tonya Harding or Flo-Jo. The USA has led the way in this push for equality, and it s all because of Title IX, the 40-year-old law that opened the athletic floodgates for girls and women to play sports in America and in the process become the envy of the rest of the Western world. The U.S Olympic team has more females than males for the first time Which leads us to another first: The 2012 U.S. Olympic team is composed of 529 athletes: 261 men and 268 women. Never before has America sent more women than men to an Olympic Games. And they are being led by another woman, chef de mission Teresa Edwards, a five-time Olympic medalist in basketball. To be sure, had the U.S. men s soccer team qualified for the Olympics, that would have tipped the scales the other way. And many of the top American Olympic stars are male Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Kobe Bryant. When the Olympics began in 1896, women were not allowed to participate

8 History of Women in the Olympics: 1896 No women were allowed to participate. The creator felt that their prescence would be uninteresting, and incorrect. These were the first games in which women were allowed to compete. They were only to compete in lawn tennis and golf Women were allowed to compe in swimming for the first time. None, however, were from the Scroll through the image on the left to see a timeline on women s involvement in the Olympics! But if this American squad develops a nickname, odds are it will be something along the lines of Team Title IX, which sounds just about right to some of the nation s best female Olympians. I think it s a big deal, to come so far, two-time Olympic beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh, said Wednesday. I don t even know how many women would have been on the 1972 Olympic team, when Title IX was just starting. And now, to think of this. Swimmer Rebecca Soni, who is favored to win as many as three gold medals in these Games, also is a product of Title IX as a scholarship athlete at Southern California. It s just a beautiful thing, she said of the number of American women competing here. It s really wonderful to see that women athletes are celebrated just as much as men. I feel that we re recognized equally. To have more women than men on the team is really exciting. That doesn t mean U.S. women win every time they leave the Olympic locker room. Long ago, the U.S. women realized that if they lose, women s sports worldwide actually win. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Brandi Chastain, the hero of the 1999 Women s World Cup, came out of the locker room proudly wearing her silver medal around her neck after a final loss to Norway. Asked why she appeared so content, Chastain said that although she obviously wasn t pleased that her team had lost, it actually proved an important point: If the USA couldn t win every competition, women s soccer around the world was advancing.

LADIES IN THE LANES. Working together, we can eliminate gender inequality in swim. ACTIVEswim.com

LADIES IN THE LANES. Working together, we can eliminate gender inequality in swim. ACTIVEswim.com LADIES IN THE LANES Working together, we can eliminate gender inequality in swim ACTIVEswim.com The gold medal wasn t just for me. It was for people that came before me and inspired me to stay in the sport.