Quote: (12-17-2016 09:21 AM)Edmund Ironside Wrote:
US women dominated in the 2016 Olympics. Is their reasoning about why valid, or is the US just better at getting away with doping?
Quote:Quote:http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/sports...n-rio.html
Most striking was the performance by the American women. The American men won 18 gold medals, the same as Britain. But the American women were dominant with 27 (not including a gold in mixed doubles tennis). Had the women competed as a separate country, they would have ranked third in the overall medal chart (61), behind China (70) and Britain (67) and just ahead of the American men (60).
There are two primary reasons for this pre-eminence. The United States is one of the few countries to embed sports within the public education system. And equal access to sports for women comes with legal protections, gained with the education amendment known as Title IX in 1972 and the Olympic and Amateur Sports Act in 1978.
About one of every two American girls participates in sports in high school. Of the 213 American medalists in individual and team sports in Rio, according to the U.S.O.C., nearly 85 percent participated in university-funded sports. “Those things don’t exist elsewhere in the world,” said Donna Lopiano, a former executive director of the Women’s Sports Foundation. “We have the largest base of athletic development. Our women are going to dominate, not only because of their legal rights but because women in other parts of the world are discriminated against.”
No. It is because the U.S. pours a ridiculous amount of money into women's sports. Few countries in the world have women's sports on the organizational and participation level of the U.S. Most countries don't have the extra cash, or simply refuse to dump said cash, into the money pit that is women's sport. The U.S. simply uses the successful and profitable men's sports to subsidize and pay for the women's teams. Title IX is the greatest example of wealth redistribution the world has ever seen. She is right. It is law in the U.S. that profitable men's team have to pay for money-pit women's teams. Go equality!
While women in other countries may or may not be discriminated against, it is fact those countries don't force the men's teams to pay for the women's. Oh, the sexism of paying your own way!