More Olympics coverage, including what to watch today
U.S. women outperforming their male counterparts
There is a gender problem in the United States. There is no equality in the Olympics. Our men just aren’t as good as our women. Maybe there needs to be some kind of male-favoring legislation, like a Title IX for guys. Call it Revenge of the Handmaid’s Tale.
OK, enough of the hyperbole and general distortion of life as we know it. But, for the fourth Olympics in a row the American women are generally outperforming the men. After Wednesday’s shocking (a word that still doesn’t quite capture it) U.S. gold in women’s cross-country skiing, the women had nine medals to the men’s five.
Add to that the women gaining a silver in the bobsled, a sport in which the men have not won a medal at these Games, and the women’s speedskating team pursuit squad winning its first medal in 16 years, a bronze, and it was a pretty good day for the U.S. women. Need it be mentioned that the U.S. men speedskaters have also not won a medal?
Of course, the medals number is constantly being revised, especially earlier today, when you have the women’s guaranteed medal in women’s hockey and the men’s performance in the freestyle halfpipe. And there is always the uncertainty of the Alpine events, in which the U.S. men again have not won a single medal.
If you go back to 1972, the year that Title IX was introduced, at the tragic Munich Games, the U.S. women won 23 medals. The men had 71.
Two years ago in Rio, the women won 61 medals and the men 55. In 2014, Sochi was a push at 13 each. In the 2012 London Games, the women crushed, 58 to 44. Vancouver in 2010 was the last Games where the men were dominant, 24 to 12.
Now the population of the U.S. is real close to 50-50, shading ever so slightly to more women. The states with the lowest percentages of women residents are the cold-weather states of Alaska, Wyoming and North Dakota, which could be considered incontrovertible evidence that women really are smarter than men.
Title IX really was the turning point in this country. Sure, it’s not like colleges suddenly added women’s cross-country, bobsled and speedskating to their inventory of sports. But many of the more traditional sports can feed passion for competition and success that lead to some of these Olympic sports.
The women’s gold in crosscountry and bronze in speedskating were surprises during a Games in which the U.S. has been languishing. Now that might be changing.
The U.S. has but one event left on the list of sports in which it has never won a medal of any kind: biathlon.
Now, the particulars of Wednesday’s success. CROSS-COUNTRY GOLD: There is little doubt that if you had asked Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall before the race if they would have taken a bronze in the cross-country team sprint they would have said yes. But, as the stars aligned and Diggins started heading up the final hill, she decided to give up on bronze and thought she had a shot at gold. She was right. Using
drafting techniques similar to NASCAR, she was able to get up at the last push and win the firstever U.S. women’s cross-country medal.
It was a 42-year drought for the U.S. Previously, Bill Koch was the only American to ever medal in cross-country with a silver in 1976 at Innsbruck.
Oh, yeah, Norway won the men’s sprint.
BOBSLED SILVER: The U.S. sled of Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs had the gold medal in hand with one more pair to come down, Mariama Jamanka and Lisa Buckwitz of Germany. But Germany edged out the Americans by 0.07 seconds, the second-closest finish in women’s Olympic bobsled history. It was the 18th bobsled medal overall won by Germany, but only the second for German women.
Jamie Greubel Poser and Aja Evans of the U.S. finished a respectable fifth. SPEEDSKATING BRONZE: The U.S. women’s speedskating team won its first medal in 16 years when it took third in the team women’s pursuit. It employed its “Go for the bronze” strategy, which was hailed in a U.S. Olympic Committee media advisory in the team figure skating, by resting its best 1,000-meter skater, Britany Bowe, in the semifinal against the Netherlands. Carlijn Schoutens was substituted for Bowe, joining Heather Bergsma and Mia Manganello. But Bowe was there for the bronze final against Canada. The U.S. team took a big early lead but started to fade with two laps to go. However, Manganello was able to hold on for the bronze. Japan beat the Netherlands for the gold.
The Dutch had looked unbeatable at the start of the Games’ speedskating competition. And now they are, by their standards, in collapse. Norway, which is cleaning up in these Games, won the men’s team pursuit, first by beating the Netherlands in the semifinals and then South Korea in the finals. The U.S. finished eighth of eight teams.
IN PROGRESS: The U.S. men’s curling team has to win one of its last two matches to guarantee a medal. It qualified for the semifinals in third by beating Britain 10-4. The Americans play Canada today and a win gets them into the gold-medal match while a loss means a trip to the bronze-medal match. The U.S. women finished eighth with a 9-6 loss to Sweden.