International Women’s Week

It’s a global celebration of women’s talents, achievements and contributions to society. Every year, since the United Nations proclaimed March 8th  International Women’s Day in 1977, organizations around the world host a variety of events honoring those of us with a double x chromosome.

Women should be recognized for their strengths and accomplishments and we don’t do it enough so this is a really great an opportunity to turn the spotlight on the roles that women play as leaders, policy-makers, athletes, caregivers, educators, and peacemakers from the past to present day.

From the New York Times Learning Blog comes this great, thought-provoking assignment:

What makes an athlete ‘great’? Who did Times reporters choose as the top athletes of the 2010 Games? Choose your own “most memorable female athlete of the 2010 Winter Olympics” and write a newspaper profile or blog post, or make your own video, about her. How does she compare with her Olympic predecessors?

Are girls’ sports popular at your school? Why or why not? Consider the immediate and ongoing benefits of female participation in athletics. Then interview an alumna on how her high school sports career has affected her life, and write an article using the interview and commenting on the changes in female sports participation in the past three generations.

Diverse events this month reflect on the roles females have played throughout history as well as what remains to be addressed in terms of recognition and rights. These events occur not just on International Women’s Day but throughout March to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women so pay attention and get involved.

Girl power, indeed.

Black History Month – Honoring Female Athletes

Over the years, there have been many great black athletes. This month, to celebrate Black History Month, we’d like to honor some of the women who have contributed to the soul of sports.

Pioneers
Althea Gibson was a pioneer in both amateur tennis and professional golf. In 1942, Althea entered and won her first tennis tournament. In 1947, Althea won the first of ten straight ATA National Championships. In 1956, she won the French Championships and, in 1957, won the All-England Championships at Wimbledon and U.S. National Tennis Championships at Forest Hills. Althea retired from amateur tennis in 1958 after she had won Wimbledon. In 1964, Gibson launched her golf career, joining the LPGA. She retired in 1971.

Another pioneer, Zina Garrison, became the first black woman to reach a Grand Slam Final (1990). She began playing tennis at the age of ten and held 20 major doubles championships before the end of her career.

Tennis
Both Gibson and Garrison are sports legends who paved the way for athletes like Venus and Serena Williams. Both sisters turned professional at 14 and have since moved up in the ranks to become two of the top single and doubles players on the circuit. In 2008, Venus won Wimbledon in a match against Serena, sister against sister. Last month, Serena won the Australian Open for a record fifth time.

Track & Field
It’s inconceivable to discuss black, female athletes without mentioning Jackie Joyner Kersee, considered by many to be the greatest female athlete ever, who became the first participant to score more than 7,000 points in the heptathlon.

Gail Devers is also an inspiration, winning gold in the 100 meter dash in two consecutive Olympics as is three-time gold medal winner Valerie Brisco. And of course there’s Flo Jo (Florence Griffith Joyner) who set record after record as the World’s Fastest Woman. Following in the footsteps of these great track and field athletes are contemporary runners like Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards.

Basketball
On the basketball court it’s easy to think about Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson. But how about Lisa Leslie, Chamique Holdsclaw, Swin Cash, Cheryl Miller, Sheryl Swoopes and Candace Parker? From Final Four appearances to representing the U.S. at the Olympic Games and playing in the WNBA, these basketball players, and many others, are role models for thousands of girls.

Softball
Softball also boasts some great players. Gold Medalist Natasha Whately broke the Olympic record for stolen bases with five in nine games and emerged in 2004 as one of the best players in the world.

Gymnastics
It’s easy to see why Dominique Dawes was called “Awesome Dawesome.” Dawes vaulted her way into the record books with a string of awards and titles. She came home with a bronze medal from the 1992 Olympics and two years later became the first gymnast since 1969 to make a clean sweep of everything gold at the U.S. National Gymnastics Championship.

Volleyball
Flo Hyman is remembered not only as a great athlete whose life and career were cut tragically short, but also as a woman of great character. At 6 feet 5 inches she played volleyball for the University of Houston and went on to win the silver medal at the 1984 Olympic games. In 1986 Flo collapsed and died during a volleyball match. Later than year, she was posthumously inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Winter Olympics
Who can forget 2002 when Vonetta Flowers made Olympic history, becoming the first African-American to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics? Her fellow Olympians chose her to carry the U.S.A. flag in the closing ceremonies.

Swimming
Maritza Correia is part of a new generation of competitive African-American swimmers. In addition to competing at the Beijing Olympics, Correia hopes to provide young minority girls with a swimming role model and bring the sport to inner city communities.

Fencing
Black, female athletes are making moves in new arenas, some fairly obscure. Laura Flessel-Colovic has established herself as the top French fencer and one of the world’s best. Flessel-Colovic started her career at seven years old and worked her way up to winning three Olympic medals and three world championship titles.

For their contributions to female sports – from amateur and college competitions to the world stage of the Olympics and professional sports – black, female athletes have achieved parity with their white female counterparts and are celebrated around the world.

As we embark on a four-week-long celebration of African American History, let’s not forget these unforgettable athletes.

Against the odds: Girls in urban areas face unique challenges in playing sports

.Katie Thomas has written two parts of a series for the New York Times looking at the unique challenges facing urban girls who want to play sports

Her first piece, about a middle school basketball team in Brooklyn, highlights challenges facing the girls who want to play. Thomas writes:

The Cougars of Middle School 61 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn have few of the basics that suburban public school girls have, including free transportation, uniforms and full seasons of regularly scheduled games. At M.S. 61 each road game is a logistical puzzle for Mr. Mariner, the dean of students who doubles (sans pay) as the coach of the school’s girls’ and boys’ basketball teams. Even when the Cougars arrive ready to play, games are sometimes canceled because the opponents – facing the same obstacles – cannot field a team. Parents rarely show up to watch. Mariner, by the way, won’t cut a girl from the team regardless of ability… and he has to clean the gym after he’s done, despite being the Dean of Students.

The other problem lies in how many girls can overcome the barriers to participation. In the suburbs, girls play sports at rates roughly equal to boys. A 2007 survey by Harris Interactive of more than 2,000 schoolchildren nationwide showed that 54 percent of boys and 50 percent of girls in the suburbs described themselves as “moderately involved” athletes.

Urban areas revealed a much greater discrepancy. Only 36 percent of city girls in the survey described themselves as moderately involved athletes, compared with 56 percent of city boys. This hints at the idea that class and economic circumstances weigh heavily on girls when it comes to sports. Marj Snyder, Chief Program Officer for the Women’s Sports Foundation, points out in the above clip, that studies show girls’ participation in sports can help them build career-critical team-building skills, help combat obesity and improve their academics.

In Brooklyn, Thomas tracked one immigrant girl named Soledad who, while a star on the team, was assigned by her family to pick up a cousin each afternoon from kindergarten and another from daycare instead of going to practice or participating in games. Child care responsibilities of teenagers – particularly girls, is a major obstacle to participation.

In most cases, boys in the family share no such responsibilities. So in more ways that one, traditional views of women’s roles continue to shape girls’ lives in ways that are unhealthy for them.

Thomas demonstrates that school athletics in suburban areas have come pretty close to gender parity and private leagues that require fees are common and parents take time off to attend games — but none of those structures or opportunities are available in urban areas, particularly to girls because of a mixture of time, sexist ideas about the role of girls in extended families and the view of sports as a male activity, and money.

Coaches and organizers of youth sports in cities say that while many immigrant and lower-income parents see the benefit of sports for sons, they often lean on daughters to fill needs in their own hectic lives, like tending to siblings or cleaning the house.

Although boys in the city also have fewer opportunities in sports, other factors work in their favor. Lean athletic budgets leave a gap that is filled by a blend of volunteers and private groups that have traditionally served more boys than girls.

“The needs of boys just have always been, and to a large extent remain, the unspoken, often unrecognized priority,” a professor said.

In part two of her series, Using Teamwork to Bring Girls Into the Game, Thomas profiles the situation in Boston where a number of non-profit groups are working to try to encourage girls to participate more in sports. One group is even helping adults learn to break down barriers in gender-specific play.

Employees at Sports4Kids, a nonprofit group that oversees recess at public schools, have been devising ways to shake up gender roles and increase options for girls. Tes Siarnacki, a recess coordinator at a school in East Boston, regularly encourages older girls to referee boy-dominated soccer games, and assigns older boys to monitor double Dutch jump rope, which is played mostly by girls. One day this spring, Siarnacki encouraged the girls to begin doing sit-ups and jumping jacks. “They wanted to play ‘teacher,’ so I told them to play ‘gym teacher,’ ” she said. “It was a pretty easy sell.”

Like the kids profiled in the Brooklyn story, Boston kids also struggle with familial obligations. In Boston, one sports program attempted to create an program to watch the charges of their participants. In most cases, boys in the family share no such responsibilities. So in more ways that one, traditional views of women’s roles continue to shape girls’ lives in ways that are unhealthy for them.

It’s interesting to note that in many urban schools, basically no tax dollars are spent on sports programs (for boys or girls) and that, given historic interest in keeping boys off the streets and busy, girls athletics have been ignored by the many private groups trying to address the situation, despite the proven benefits for girls.

The whole series, which is well written and researched, is basically an analysis of the role that class and to some extent race play in girls’ participation in athletics. And it’s disheartening to learn that girls with the least opportunity are the ones that might benefit the most from such activities.

Any ideas on how to better bring the girls into the game?

State of Vermont hopes to make snowboarding an official sport

The state flower of Vermont is the red clover. The sugar maple is the official tree of the Green Mountain State. And within the next year, several legislators hope to make snowboarding the official sport of Vermont.

How awesome would it be if every state had its own official sport and one day out of the year was designated a state holiday just for that sport.  Hawaii could claim surfing while Californians take a day for kiteboarding. The official sport in Idaho could be cow-tipping. Florida might make swimming the official sport. Rhode Island could adopt sailing.

The bill currently sitting in the Vermont legislature cites the importance snowboarding plays in the economic and historical well-being of the state.

Colorado has skiing and snowboarding as its state sports and some Vermont legislators would like to see the dual sports designated as official sports in their state. With competing pieces of legislation sitting in committee, lawmakers do not expect to tackle the state sport issue until the 2010 session.

Both options make sense since skiing and snowboarding have a long history in Vermont:

In 1934, the country’s first ski area opened outside of Woodstock when the first rope tow ski lift was installed, leading to the nation’s first ski race on Mount Mansfield the same year.

Four years later, C. Minot Dole founded the National Ski Patrol in Vermont, using his model to convince the U.S. Army to activate a division of soldiers on skis.

The Suicide Six Resort in Pomfret was the first American resort to allow snowboarding in 1982. Vermont was also the first state to host a snowboard park.

Additionally, Vermont resident Jake Burton Carpenter founded the first snowboard company in 1977 and perfected the technology to build the boards.

A number of Vermonters have excelled in the Winter Olympic games as well, from skier Barbara Ann’s gold medal in 1972 to the first-place snowboarding victories by Hannah Teter, Ross Powers and West Dover’s Kelly Clark.

While we wait to see what happens in Vermont, what do you think should be the official sport in your state?

Sisters Unite! Executive Order creates White House Council on Women and Girls…

President Barack Obama signed an executive order today creating a White House Council for Women and Girls to focus the federal government’s efforts on advancing the interests of a group that has long done less well than men by a number of measures.

On hand for Obama’s announcement were the WNBA’s Donna Oreander and Lisa Leslie along with Olympic gymnast and Women’s Sports Foundation member Dominique Dawes.

Obama paid poignant tributes to the grandmother who raised him and his mother who died of cancer, at the launch of a high-level forum to advise him on women’s issues. Obama also held up the life story of his wife and “rock” Michelle and the example of his foe turned ally, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as he signed the executive order .

“The purpose of this Council is to ensure that American women and girls are treated fairly in all matters of public policy,” Obama said.

“I sign this order not just as a president, but as a son, a grandson, a husband and a father,” Obama said.

He cited the example of his mother, Ann Dunham, who educated herself even while she worried about paying the bills and cared for Obama and his sister as a single parent.

Obama also recalled the example of his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who worked hard in the corporate world, but then hit a glass ceiling and saw less qualified men get jobs ahead of her.

“I’ve seen Michelle, the rock of the Obama family, juggling work and parenting with more skill and grace than anybody that I know,” he said.

“I had the privilege of participating in a historic campaign with a historic candidate who we now have the privilege of calling Madam Secretary.”

The new council will work to ensure each government agency is directly orientated to improving the economic status of women and to try to frame policies that establish a balance between work and family.

It will also work with the vice president’s office and the Justice Department to seek ways to halt violence against women in the United States and abroad, and work to improve women’s healthcare.

Now, if we can only elect a woman president!

Q&A: ESPN’s HerStory – Celebrating Women in Sport

This month, in honor of  Women’s History Month, ESPN puts the spotlight on female athletes – past and present – with stories of empowerment and inspiration, struggle and triumph, appearing across all ESPN platforms, including television and ESPN.com. The celebration starts this weekend and culminates on March 27th with “Her Story: Celebrating Women in Sport” a one-hour special hosted by anchor Hannah Storm.

Senior news editor Kristin Huckshorn coordinated all production elements of the “Her Story” project.  She was kind enough to take some time to talk to us about all the great programming taking place this month.

PT: What’s your background and how did you come to write about women’s sports?

KH: My own background in journalism is eclectic. I have worked as a sportswriter, political writer and foreign correspondent as well as an editor but my career begins and ends with sports. I started as a sportwriter in 1980 for the San Jose Mercury News, covering college and pro sports and the Olympics. I spent four years in Washington DC and almost 10 years in Asia as a news reporter before returning to the US and becoming the deputy sports editor of the New York Times. I joined ESPN in 2007 as a senior news editor.

PT: ESPN must have an amazing archive of material. How did you choose which shows to include?  What’s your favorite piece of programming?

KH: Yes ESPN has an amazing archive but what you will see and read this month is almost all original programming and content. We set out to create something new and to focus on contemporary stories about young female athletes today. There have been magnificent iconic moments and athletes through the years but we felt those stories had already been told and told well. For instance, we will run vignettes – basically short little films – each weekday and they feature a lot of young women you will have never seen before. Our one hour special on March 27 is primarily a collection of stories starring fresh faces. The average age of the subjects is probably around 18.

Time on a busy cable network like ESPN is at a premium. There is a whole lot of programming to get on the air each day. We knew we had to choose wisely and we felt aiming the cameras at new stories was the most powerful way to celebrate the month.

With a nod to the past, on March 14, for 11 hours, ESPN Classic will air stories about some of those icons. My favorite in that marathon is the reairing of the Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs classic match. It was great theatre.

PT: The My Story element is great. How will you pick the winning clip(s)?

KH: We have a panel of five judges from ESPN. I’m one of them, so is associate producer Melissa Panzer, whose idea this was. We will watch each clip and judge them based on who has told the best story in the time allowed. We are looking for inspirational or empowering stories told creatively. The clip needs to be about a female athlete or team or a coach of a female team but the director/producer can be male or female. The best part is that we will air the winning clip on our Special [HerStory airing March 27th].

PT: What, if any, challenges did you face putting the HerStory series together?

KH: The usual – tracking down athletes and securing shoot dates. The most complicated part was lining up the athlete-men who star in our vignettes talking about their inspirational daughters/sisters/mothers. They have busy schedules. For instance Stephen Curry of Davidson, who talks about his mom, a former volleyball player at Virginia Tech, is in season right now. So is Jamie Dixon, the Pitt coach, who talks about his sister Maggie. But all the men were very eager to participate in the project. In terms of getting the time and commitment from ESPN, that was easy to be honest. The project was actually [ESPN EVP] John Skipper’s idea and I think people internally really understood and liked the concept of focusing on new stories about young women.

PT: How do you feel about the blogosphere in general and sports blogs in particular? What do you think about how women’s sports are covered in the blogosphere?

KH: I appreciate and admire the democracy of the blogsphere. I don’t equate it with journalism. Journalists are usually professionally trained and must adhere to high standards of fairness, accuracy, balance. They have a lineup of editors behind them, a safety net. But I think blogs are a great tool for starting a conversation about any topic and letting anyone weigh in. There is a lot of writing talent out there. I have seen very little on women’s sports in the blogosphere but I think it benefits women’s sports. Obviously women’s sports does not get the amount of coverage anywhere in broadcast or print that men’s sports receives and blogs help equalize that a bit more. And any writer loves the idea of being able to write as long as they want!

PT: It seems ESPN is slowly increasing it’s support and coverage of female athletes. What’s the plan for the future?

KH: ESPN has always, to me, done a solid job of covering women’s sports. They have the entire NCAA women’s tournament and they make that a showcase event in March and April. They had recently added more elite tennis, early rounds of Wimbledon and the US Open so you will certainly see more women on air this summer. I am not someone who thinks you cover women’s sports out of altruism. My mantra as a reporter, as an editor at the Times and here at ESPN has been that we want to tell good stories, whether they are about male or female athletes. I am hoping that what we do this month is tell good, interesting, new stories that anyone would want to watch. They just happen to be about young women. I also give ESPN a lot of credit for putting so many women on air. Doris Burke does play by play for men’s hoops, for instance, and I think she is a great talent.

PT:  Additional thoughts?

KH: It was amazing to me to meet so many empowered young women athletes. I came up at a time when Title IX had barely taken root. Young women today feel absolutely entitled to equal opportunity on the field. They take it for granted and I think that is a good thing. They won’t settle for less. They are way cooler than I ever was.

We can’t share any of the programming here, but go to ESPN.com all this month to find great articles, videos, and more. Thanks Kristen and thanks to ESPN for commemorating the accomplishments of great female athletes – from the pioneers who paved the way to those carving the future of women’s sports.

Women’s HerStory Month on ESPN

Billie Jean King made history 35 years ago by beating Bobby Riggs in a tennis match in an iconic moment in the history of women’s sports. Today, a new generation of female athletes make their own history on playing fields across the country.

This month, in honor of  Women’s History Month, ESPN will broadcast a contemporary collection of stories of empowerment and inspiration, struggle and triumph. The programs, which feature both pioneers as well as a new generation of female sports icons will appear across ESPN platforms, including television and ESPN.com.

Stories include a profile of supergirl Candace Parker  (now dunking for two), who will appear on the cover of the March 23 issue of ESPN the Magazine. In that same issue, and on March 8 on “Outside the Lines,” senior writer Peter Keating expands his ongoing investigation into sports and concussions by examining the ramifications on female athletes.

A series of vignettes featuring the newest generation of female athletes will begin airing March 8. Athletes such as Jessica Long, a double amputee swimmer who won gold at the Paralympic Games in Beijing (not to mention the Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete back home), and Darienne Serna, a spectacularly agile wide receiver who helped her Texas team win the girls 12- to 14-year-old NFL flag football championship by channeling her hero, Larry Fitzgerald.

On March 14, ESPN Classic will run an 11-hour marathon showcasing many of the pioneering women who led the march across the frontiers of equal prize money, equal access and equal opportunity.  Beginning with a documentary on Title IX and including the smackdown match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, the ESPN marathon will highlight some of the most significant moments in women’s sports history.  Profiles include Mia Hamm, Chris Evert, Bonnie Blair and FloJo.

On March 27, ESPN will air a one-hour special, “Her Story,” with Sports Center anchor Hannah Storm. The special focuses on fresh stories about young athletes including surfer Bethany Hamilton’s extraordinary comeback from a shark attack, as well as reporter Shelley Smith’s astute look at what it means to be a young Hispanic athlete. 

The ”Her Story” page on espn.com will include stories, columns, videos and links to all kinds of content from television, ESPN The Magazine and ESPNRISE.com. Readers and viewers also can help document the new history by submitting their own inspirational sports stories. The “My Story” section of the page lets anyone with a camera produce a short video clip about themselves, a coach, a teammate or a team. The winning clip will air on the “Her Story” television special on March 27.

Women’s History Content on ESPN

Date	Time (ET)	Program	Channel
March 8	9:00 a.m.	Outside the Lines: Girls and Concussions	ESPN
March 14	10:00 a.m.	On the Basis of Sex: The Battle of Title IX	Classic
Marathon	11:00 a.m.	Firestone IndyCar 300 at Japan – Danica Patrick’s first win	Classic
	1:00 p.m.	2004 PBA Banquet Open, Liz Johnson, 1st woman to reach final of PBA event	Classic
	2:00 p.m.	SportsCentury: Nancy Lopez	Classic
	2:30 p.m.	SportsCentury: Bonnie Blair	Classic
	3:00 p.m.	SportsCentury: Mia Hamm	Classic
	4:00 p.m.	SportsCentury: Florence Griffith-Joyner	Classic
	4:30 p.m.	SportsCentury: Chris Evert	Classic
	5:00 p.m.	1978 Wimbledon Final: Martina Navratilova vs Chris Evert	Classic
	7:00 p.m.	Reel Classics: When Billie Beat Bobby	Classic
March 27	8:00 p.m.	Her Story: Celebrating Women in Sports	ESPN

Kim Bain-Moore: First Lady of Fishing

Annika Sorenstam. Michelle Wie. Danica Patrick. Kim Bain-Moore? Like pioneering female athletes before her, Bain-Moore is making history by competing against the guys. And not without controversy.

Last weekend, Bain-Moore, a 28-year old angler from Australia, became the first woman to compete in the 39-year history of the Bassmaster Classic, the Super Bowl of pro bass fishing. The three-day tournament, which took place on Louisiana’s Red River, featured the top 37 anglers from the Bassmaster Elite Series, an 11-tournament circuit, plus qualifiers from other events.

Bain-Moore, who currently lives in Alabama, qualified as the 2008 angler of the year from the five-tournament Women’s Bassmaster Tour. A rookie on the WBT last year, she won the first tournament, finished no lower than sixth in the next three and won the season-ending WBT Championship to secure the year-end title and a place in history.

Women who have been fishing for 40-odd years and dreaming of the day when a sister could compete in the Bassmaster Classic celebrated Bain-Moore’s accomplishment. But many of the 50 male anglers she fished against in the Classic weren’t happy about her participation. They insist they have nothing personal against Bain-Moore; they just don’t think she deserved a shot at the $500,000 first prize.  With the biggest names in pro fishing competing for a crown known to lead to lucrative endorsement deals and instant fame,  it’s little wonder they didn’t want Bain-Moore crashing their party.

But bass fishing is an equal opportunity sport. The bass don’t know or care if it is Y or X at the end of the rod. Other than the toilet challenges women face, there’s no reason why one gender or another has an advantage.

Having infiltrated what has always been a good-old-boy network, Bain-Moore’s qualification for the Classic last October caused an instant media frenzy. Katie Couric with CBS Evening News, USA Today, Time Magazine, dozens of morning drive radio shows, major newspapers and about every outdoors magazine  have begged for her time. At times she even had to have a security escort. Bodyguards for a bass angler?

Even though Bain-Moore went into the Classic a long-shot, the attention never waned. She had a tough first day, landing two bass weighing three pounds, six ounces. Unable to make the cut and move on, Bain-Moore watched Californian Skeet Reese, one of the few guys on the tour who supported her, win the contest. But just fishing the Classic makes each angler a winner and the career boost for Bain-Moore, and women’s fishing, is incalcuable.

The 39th Bassmaster Classic will forever be the defining moment when the world that will drive the next era of sportfishing became aware that there is serious interest in women’s angling. And Bain-Moore served as a more than able ambassador. She got to wave the flag for the ladies and after embracing the experience and the challenge we have no doubt, she’ll be back.

For a behind-the-scenes look at Bain-Moore’s Classic journey, check out her ESPN blog.

Happy Anniversary, Tonya and Nancy

ESPN’s Sports Century video includes the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan figure skating incident as one of its most memorable sports moments of the 20th century.

Fifteen years ago,  on Feb. 23, 1994, the Harding-Kerrigan Olympic showdown on NBC caused nearly half of all television viewers to glue their eyes to their sets to watch the saga. It was the highest rated television program of the past quarter-century and it’s still the sixth highest-rated show in history.

It is not just Olympic historians who look back on that date for its unprecedented impact. Television shows (Seinfeld, The Simpsons), stage shows (Tonya & Nancy, The Rock Opera), songs (Tonya Twirls), have all been influenced by that evening’s women’s figure-skating short program in Lillehammer, Norway.

At the time (and to this day) the story was over-the-top and depressingly sad. Harding — a hardscrabble girl from Oregon, proud of her blue-collar skills as drag-racer and mechanic — burst onto the skating scene like some early-day slumdog millionaire. Living in a trailer park, Harding never wore the silver spoon of her skating peers but she was incredibly talented – only the second woman in the world and the first American woman to land a triple Axel. Streetwise and tough, she was an unlikely U.S. champion in 1991 and fourth-place finisher in the ‘92 Olympics.

Kerrigan –  elegant and highly sought for endorsements — was third in the ‘92 Olympics and had won the U.S. title in ‘93. She arrived at the ‘94 Olympic trials an obstacle in Harding’s path. In a plan hatched with her ex-husband, a Harding henchman jumped Kerrigan at practice and delivered a whack to her knee that took her out of the competition.

U.S. figure skating officials voted Kerrigan onto the Olympic team, anyway, then considered disciplinary action against Harding, who reponded with the threat of a $25 million lawsuit. Both backed down days before the Games, but the melodrama continued.

Harding arrived in Norway out of shape, and immediately crashed out of medal contention by slipping to 10th place after the short program, while Kerrigan held first place going into the long-program final.

During the long-program climax,  Harding quit a minute into her routine but begged the judges for a Mulligan because her skate lace had broken. She exited in eighth place while Russia’s Oksana Bauil, via a controversial 5-4 judges’ decision, edged Kerrigan for the gold.

Silver medalalist Kerrigan married her agent and is the mother of two boys and a girl. She appears in skating shows and acts as a skating commentator.

Harding? Always in trouble. Since the Kerrigan attacks, Harding has been regularly in the news, throwing hubcaps at boyfriends, being cited for drunk driving, serving time for tax evasion and appearing on Celebrity Boxing.

One of the worst train wrecks in sporting history? Probably. An anniversary worth celebrating? Not really.  But only something as weirdly true and impossibly real as the Harding-Kerrigan drama could remain newsworthy for 15 long years.

Peer sees no place for politics in tennis

Israeli tennis star Shahar Peer, refused a visa into the United Arab Emirates for the WTA Dubai Open, insists there is no place for politics in sport while recognizing it would not have been right to stop the tournament going ahead.

“While this is a very difficult moment for me personally and professionally, and the fact that the visa denial was issued at the last moment, I firmly believe that my fellow competitors should not be harmed the way I was,” Peer said in a statement released through the WTA Tour.

“They were in or on their way to Dubai and denying them the right to play in this year’s tournament at the last moment would not make the wrong right. In fact, it troubles me greatly that my doubles partner Anna-Lena Groenefeld from Germany will not be able to compete as we had planned,” Peer added.

Peer praised her fellow players and fans for a “tremendous outpouring of support and empathy over the UAE decision to deny me a visa” while stressing she wanted to see politics and sport kept strictly apart.

“There should be no place for politics or discrimination in professional tennis or indeed any sport,” she insisted.

“Going forward, I am confident that the Tour will take appropriate actions to ensure that this injustice is not allowed to occur in the future, and that the Tour will make sure I will not be further harmed in the short and long term.”

The WTA has said they may end the 17-year-old two million dollar event next year if the situation does not change.

Peer insisted on Thursday she wants to play in Dubai in 2010 despite the controversy stirred up by the UAE’s decision to deny her a visa for this year’s event.

In a dramatic development on Thursday, the UAE attempted to cool the controversy by announcing that Israeli doubles specialist Andy Ram would be granted a visa to play in the ATP event in Dubai next week.

Asked how she felt about Ram’s ability to play in Dubai, Peer said:

I welcome the decision just announced by the United Arab Emirates and the Dubai tournament to reverse a stance that until now has prevented Israeli athletes from competing in the UAE.

This is a great victory for the principle that all athletes should be treated equally and without discrimination, regardless of gender, religion, race or nationality. It is also a victory for sport as a whole, and the power of sport to bring people together.

Too bad organizers couldn’t come to their senses in time for Peer to compete.

It seems the whole incident is getting wrapped up in a neat bow with the WTA announcing that the Dubai event will receive a slap on the wrist for booting Peer from the draw.  But dig a little deeper and it seems a similar thing may have actually first happened last year with Ram. Did the ATP manage to hush up what this year became a PR nightmare on the women’s side?

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