Don't Waste Your Women's Team:
Now, we all know that the American women's speedskating team did not perform very well in Torino a few months ago, but I'm not going to talk about that right now. I'd like to focus on the future.
Look at the talented women we have in America: Catherine Raney, Maria Lamb, Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr., Maggie Crowley. These women should be training together. I believe, as do many others, that they can be every bit as strong as the Canadian women have become, if they only have a chance to work together.
But who is trying to make this happen? Is anyone in USSPEEDSKATING contacting these women, seeing if there is any interest in creating a strong training group, trying to figure out where they can train, who their coach will be, and trying to find them sponsorship?
This is Mike Crowe's job. And, now that his little "conflict of interest" has retired, there is no reason in hell why he shouldn't be doing it....*(Oh, wait, I spoke too soon....arrrrghhhh...No, that isn't the Great Salt Lake you're smelling...it's the Undead Speedskating Career of Amy Sannes!!! Guess who is still on the Category One list and has failed to submit an official retirement statement to US Antidoping? Yeah. The one who was so freaking stale she couldn't even step up to skate a race at the Olympics.)*
Right now, Catherine is looking for a training program. Maggie is attending classes at Northwestern University. And Nancy, so I've heard, is mowing lawns to try to raise some money.
Hey, USSPEEDSKATING, do you care enough about making this happen? Any of these women have more of a chance at medaling in Vancouver than some of the dead weight you've been dragging around. It's going to take a complete change in philosophy, though. USS will have to realize that it's better to make it their goal to have 3 women in the Top 10 on any given World Cup weekend, than to have one medalist and not care what happens to the rest. And, of course, the team that trains together will have to realize that they will be stronger if they work together and support each other.
Why do I have to write this up and post it online for the people in charge of USSPEEDSKATING? I'm sure this kind of thing isn't happening in China or the Netherlands right now. I mean, shouldn't it be obvious how to create a strong team of medal contenders? This is totally not what I expected from my national federation when I first started speedskating.
(11-13-06) I've been thinking a lot about women's sports over the past few months. From my own observations and from speaking with others, I've found that female athletic champions are less valued than male champions. This attitude is pretty pervasive around the world.
Within USSPEEDSKATING, I found that those administrators who took it upon themselves to decide who had potential and who did not, treated men differently from women. All that a male speedskater had to do was to show talent, but from a female speedskater, they wanted something else.
For the most part, USSPEEDSKATING has been run by men who are weak, cowardly, and stupid. This type of man needs his ego constantly fed by people who treat him like a big shot, even though he is incompetent and does not deserve to hold a position of authority. This is the type of man who needs any female over whom he has authority to be meek, subservient, and worshipful towards him. He needs this from his female athletes more than he needs them to perform on the ice. I can think of a few men who held positions of authority in USS, while I was competing, who fit this description.
I really do believe that between the years of 2002-2006, USSPEEDSKATING had the potential do develop a women's team of great depth. USS will tell you that the reason why our men did so well while our women did so poorly is that America had talented male skaters during this time but did not have talented female skaters. This is a big fat lie. The reason why USSPEEDSKATING's women's program failed is because of the administration's attitudes towards its female competitors and what it wanted from them.
Fortunately, things are looking a bit brighter for the future of the American women's team, at least in terms of the coaching situation. I trust both Ryan Shimabukuro and Chris Shelley because they both have shown a great deal of respect for female speedskaters, and for their actual accomplishments on the ice.
Now, we all know that the American women's speedskating team did not perform very well in Torino a few months ago, but I'm not going to talk about that right now. I'd like to focus on the future.
Look at the talented women we have in America: Catherine Raney, Maria Lamb, Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr., Maggie Crowley. These women should be training together. I believe, as do many others, that they can be every bit as strong as the Canadian women have become, if they only have a chance to work together.
But who is trying to make this happen? Is anyone in USSPEEDSKATING contacting these women, seeing if there is any interest in creating a strong training group, trying to figure out where they can train, who their coach will be, and trying to find them sponsorship?
This is Mike Crowe's job. And, now that his little "conflict of interest" has retired, there is no reason in hell why he shouldn't be doing it....*(Oh, wait, I spoke too soon....arrrrghhhh...No, that isn't the Great Salt Lake you're smelling...it's the Undead Speedskating Career of Amy Sannes!!! Guess who is still on the Category One list and has failed to submit an official retirement statement to US Antidoping? Yeah. The one who was so freaking stale she couldn't even step up to skate a race at the Olympics.)*
Right now, Catherine is looking for a training program. Maggie is attending classes at Northwestern University. And Nancy, so I've heard, is mowing lawns to try to raise some money.
Hey, USSPEEDSKATING, do you care enough about making this happen? Any of these women have more of a chance at medaling in Vancouver than some of the dead weight you've been dragging around. It's going to take a complete change in philosophy, though. USS will have to realize that it's better to make it their goal to have 3 women in the Top 10 on any given World Cup weekend, than to have one medalist and not care what happens to the rest. And, of course, the team that trains together will have to realize that they will be stronger if they work together and support each other.
Why do I have to write this up and post it online for the people in charge of USSPEEDSKATING? I'm sure this kind of thing isn't happening in China or the Netherlands right now. I mean, shouldn't it be obvious how to create a strong team of medal contenders? This is totally not what I expected from my national federation when I first started speedskating.
(11-13-06) I've been thinking a lot about women's sports over the past few months. From my own observations and from speaking with others, I've found that female athletic champions are less valued than male champions. This attitude is pretty pervasive around the world.
Within USSPEEDSKATING, I found that those administrators who took it upon themselves to decide who had potential and who did not, treated men differently from women. All that a male speedskater had to do was to show talent, but from a female speedskater, they wanted something else.
For the most part, USSPEEDSKATING has been run by men who are weak, cowardly, and stupid. This type of man needs his ego constantly fed by people who treat him like a big shot, even though he is incompetent and does not deserve to hold a position of authority. This is the type of man who needs any female over whom he has authority to be meek, subservient, and worshipful towards him. He needs this from his female athletes more than he needs them to perform on the ice. I can think of a few men who held positions of authority in USS, while I was competing, who fit this description.
I really do believe that between the years of 2002-2006, USSPEEDSKATING had the potential do develop a women's team of great depth. USS will tell you that the reason why our men did so well while our women did so poorly is that America had talented male skaters during this time but did not have talented female skaters. This is a big fat lie. The reason why USSPEEDSKATING's women's program failed is because of the administration's attitudes towards its female competitors and what it wanted from them.
Fortunately, things are looking a bit brighter for the future of the American women's team, at least in terms of the coaching situation. I trust both Ryan Shimabukuro and Chris Shelley because they both have shown a great deal of respect for female speedskaters, and for their actual accomplishments on the ice.
posted by Eva at 2:15 PM
<< Home