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Should women and men play on teams together?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Shifty Squid, May 27, 2010.

  1. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    In co-ed volleyball and softball it works fine. In high-level, competitive sports we probably won't live to see the day, although evolution might do the trick over another thousand years or so.

    Jockeys are an exception, I suppose.
     
  2. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    OK fellas, the jig is up. I don't think we can hold em off any longer. Fair is fair. Can we finally allow them to have penises in the interest of equality?
     
  3. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    Forget world records, Starman. Try this example:

    Winning time women's 400M at Beijing = 49.62 seconds
    Winning time in boys 400 at our County HS meet last week = 47.84 (by a 16-year-old)

    Winning time women's 800M at Beijing: 1:54.87
    Winning time in boys 800 at our County HS meet last week = 1:53.47 (by a 17-year-old)

    I'm pretty sure every best time/performance in the HS boys state meets this weekend will be better than the women's gold medalist in Beijing.
     
  4. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    This kind of logic is why I only read the Socialist Worker for the sudoku.
     
  5. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Nah, it doesn't really. Co-ed volleyball and softball (and other sports) are specifically organized to account for/ accommodate/ compensate for differences in gender athletic ability.

    The whole premise is disingenuous and moronic: a comparable argument would be, "why do we restrict the fun of high school competition to those aged 14-18? Why don't we also open high school competition to people aged 25-29?"

    Isn't age discrimination as pernicious as gender discrimination?
     
  6. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    Elite women's high school runners could hold their own with men's high school runners and in some cases be better than most of them. At the college level those elite runners might be better than some poor D-2 schlubs or walk-ons. But that's when there is some women's sprint superstar or something.
     
  7. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    By the way that's an amazing 400 meter dash time. That would be our state record among all classes. That kid must be getting some big offers already.
     
  8. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Only way I could see a woman competing in a men's league would be a really good junk-ball pitcher who could perhaps have her fastball top out at least 80 miles per hour. Especially if she was lefthanded.
     
  9. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Couldn't find it through a quick Google search, but there was a story a few months ago where the Cavaliers' Anthony (brother of Candace Parker) was asked if he thought his sister could play in the NBA. His answer was some variation of, "She's a great player, but there's no way in hell she'd survive 82 games."
     
  10. Shifty Squid

    Shifty Squid Member

    Not saying it's not a great time, but it wouldn't be the fastest time in Georgia this year, nor the second-fastest.

    http://ga.milesplit.us/rankings/2010/outdoor/hs/m/400m

    It'd be the state's 24th-best time all-time.

    http://ga.milesplit.us/rankings/all/outdoor/hs/m/400m

    As far as mustang's statement that elite hs girls can compete with and beat the boys, I'll use Georgia too to look at that. In Georgia, the state record in the 3,200 is held by Emily Reese, who posted a 10:16.05, 13 seconds better than the next-best girls time.

    Just this season, that would not have placed her anywhere near the top 50 boys times. The 50th-best time this season for the boys was 9:54.04, some 22 seconds better than the best girls time in state history.

    http://ga.milesplit.us/rankings/2010/outdoor/hs/m/3200m
     
  11. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    The article does actually touch on a few thoughts I've had: how much of womens inferiority in sports is cultural and/or not physical?

    I was thinking about this during the Winter Olympics. Men certainly had some physical advantages, but the differences in the tricks freestyle skiers or snowboarders might pull is dramatic. Women don't even come close to doing the same kinds of tricks. Does some added weight make that much difference in terms of launching and spinning? Surely different body styles result in some different kind of in-air twisting, but it's not like women do equally complicated but different tricks. Are even the most daredevil of women still not expected to do something as crazy as a wild, trick-turning man? Are there that many fewer women even motivated to ski or snowboard like that, and does that comparative (and only comparative, as boys and girls youth skiing circuits are as cutthroat as any other sport out there) lack of competition hold down the whole sport? Even if you do get an uber-motivated, uber-daredevil woman, did she have to fight through so much cultural red tape to get there that it set her development so far back that she just can't ever match what the top men can do?

    I don't know. What men are doing now, you'll probably see women do in 10 years, which makes me believe that women now are physically capable, and if they're physically capable, then what is it that's holding them back?
     
  12. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    We have a pretty popular 10K run here. Draws about 1,000 people a year from all walks of life and all ages. In 30-plus years, I think the best a woman has ever done is break into the top 10. Most times the top female runner (typically a 25-30-year-old) finishes somewhere in the low-to-mid-20s overall, well behind the winner of the men's 45-50-year-olds' division.
    Racewalking is a different story, though. We've had several women dominate that event and finish first overall multiple times. So once a professional racewalking league gets going, they've got that going for them.
     
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