By: Ryan Hetrick
In last Tuesday's class, the Olympics was heavily discussed and the impacts of the Women's World Cup in 1999. These topics brought many different opinions and views on the events on a social level.
First, in 1999, the United States hosted the Women's World Cup. Now since I was only seven when this took place, I cannot properly speculate as to how America viewed women's soccer. I know that watching the small video clip in last gave a brief picture, but it is still difficult for me to believe that those working around the World Cup were actually concerned that they wouldn't sell how the venues that they selected. I know that it was one of the first breakout women events in U.S. history, but I feel that people would have rallied around the event specifically because it was a large event taking place in the U.S. I know that watching and having the United States win was a big moment for America, but I feel as though it would have been just as big of a moment had it been men playing. The national pride of the United States trumps the gender disparity in my eyes.
Although I feel that national pride raised curiosity for the World Cup, it did pave the way and inspire many young female athletes. It showed them that they could achieve some of the same exposure and glorification as men in sports if they stuck to it and dedicated themselves to it. This trend has truly shown in the Olympics with girls like Gabby Douglas, Missy Franklin, and continues in soccer with Alex Morgan and Hope Solo. This drive started by the 1999 World Cup inspired women and I think led to the 58 medals in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The final thing I wanted to hit on in this entry was the difference of medals for U.S. women and U.S. men. The women finished the 2012 games with 58 total medals with half of them being gold while the men finished with 45 total medals and 17 gold. Why the difference if men are supposedly the dominate gender in sports? There are several reasons for this but I think the main reason is the lack of women's sports being developed in other nations. This used to be the case even for men, the best example being the 1992 dream team. While a great team, the rest of the world had not developed their county's basketball program which led to big, big wins by the U.S. This is now happening in women's sports. The U.S. women have been allowed more freedoms and opportunities to compete in sports while other county's had women enter the Olympics in certain events for the first time. It will be interesting to see how other country's move forward in developing women's sport program in the Olympics in the coming years.
By Jeff Hardin:
ReplyDeleteI agree also that national pride trumps gender disparity, when it comes to national pride I see no gender equality or differences because you are showing pride in your country and representing your country. The 1999 USA Women's soccer team was a very great team and had so much talent but I feel as though it would have been the same impact if it was the men's team as well. The men's USA soccer team is not that good so to see them in the World Cup at that time would have been just as amazing as the women's team. Also in the 2012 Olympic Games the women took home more medals than the men but in the years to come that medal count will decrease a little bit because countries will develop female athletes in sports that they aren't use to participating in just like with the men countries will train and develop women to be greay athletes in those sports too.
By Kody Burlingame:
ReplyDeleteI think that it helped the 1999 USA women's soccer team that no other sporting events were going on around the time they held the World Cup. I think the whole women's soccer team was nervous that no one would show up because soccer has never really been a big sport in the US. If there was another sporting event going on at the same time, like football or basketball, then I would understand the women's team being nervous that no one would be there. I myself realize why they were nervous that no one would show up because gender has always been a factor for attendance in sports. If I had the chance to watch the women's or men's soccer team, I would watch the women's because I think they are an overall better soccer team than the men's. When I was watching the women's soccer clip in class I thought it was awesome how the nation showed so much pride. I am a very patriotic person so seeing all the fans showed me that it did not matter what sporting event was going on or if it was a men's or women's team. Overall, it should not matter what sporting event is going on or what gender of the teams are playing, when the US is hosting a World Cup or Championship and a US team is playing in it, then our nation should show pride.
I completely agree that national pride overtakes any gender issues when it comes to the Olympics. I found myself cheering for every single American in the Olympics regardless if they were male or female. The 1999 Olympics did fuel women's sports to develop and grow, before that Olympics there were not many notable female athletes and now some females are just as known as male athletes. I also agree that women's sports in other countries are not as developed as in the United States, the U.S. women dominated in the Olympics. It almost felt like they had no competition at all. Now that other countries have developed their male sports the United States has great competition in every sport, ones that we use to dominate with no problem. I think it will also be interesting to see how and if women's sports around the world develop like male sports have.
ReplyDelete-Jacob Beverly