November 50th, 1984 | Tina Takahashi is ranked first in Canada and fifth in the world in her sport. Her international ranking high, Takahashi is understandably anxious to compete in the most prestigious of by JULIE SCOTT reprinted from the CHARLATAN by CANADIAN UNIVERSITY PRESS all athletic meets--the Olympics. But to introduce her event to the Olympics would take and all-out battle with the International Olympic Com- mittee, the games’ governing body. Takahashi’s sport is judo--a male- oriented sport involving full body contact. At a meeting this past summer in Los Angeles, the IOC again turned down Judo Canada’s. request for a woman’s judo event at the 1988 Olympics, citing ‘financial reasons’. “This sounds like a pretty feeble excuse to me,’’ says Takahashi. Since the judo mats and officials are already there for the men’s events, she continues, it would cost little extra to add a women’s event. Takahashi is one of many female athletes coming up against barriers in the male-dominated sporting world. Widely held sexual stereotypes are frustrating women trying to pursue athletic excellence. While it may now be socially acceptable for women to compete in non-traditional sports such as soccer and basketball, women are still denied equal opportunity in athletics. Sports administrators, most of them men, decided rhythmic gymnastics and syn- chronized swimming were appropriate for women by including them in the 1984 Summer Olympics. The problem women face is unequal opportunity in national and interna- tional competitions., Until the 1984 Summer Olympics women could not compete in the marathon run. ‘The fighting it took to get this event shouldn’t have been necessary,’’ says Dianne Palmason, administrative in- tern with the Canadian Track and Field Association, ‘‘It should be a given that women participate just like men.’’ At the Canada games there are fewer events open to women than men because a large number of events, such as judo or the decathalon, are exclusively male. Under pressure to increase women’s events, the Canada Games Council has added mostly stereotypically female sports such as synchronized swimming. Non-traditional women’s sports are ignored. ‘‘What’s happening is we’re taking two steps forward and one step back,’’ says Lynne Tyler. ‘‘The wo- men’s rugby teams are out there but the. spotlight is on entertainment sports like rhythmic gymnastics.’’ * Sue Holloway, a silver and bronze medalist in kayaking at the 1984 Olympics, says the largest obstacle for women kayakers is the lack of events open to women. ‘‘In kayaking women still don’t compete in as many events as men,’’ she says. ‘’The people who organize regattas (meets) are unpre- pared to make a full slate of women’s events. Sport pistol Olympic gold medalist Linda Thom is angered by the lack of women’s events. at the Commonwealth _ Games. ‘‘We. automatically assume THE OTHERPRESS — men In Sports WoRoDY’s : (esi INTERESTED) Ny WORODY, is WOMAN - that the -games would encourage female teams, but chauvinism exists here,’’ says Thom. ‘’The organizers are dragging their asses.’’ One reason for the glaring inequal- ities women face in. sports is the rampant attitude that women’s sports do’ not count. Media coverage of ' female sports typifies this attitude. As Sue Holloway points out, ‘‘women athletes aren’t high profile. They’re usually covered on page four of the sports section.’’ Roger Theriault; the public relations person ' for the Carelton women’s basketball team, says local news- papers give the team virtually no coverage. ‘‘The men’s team gets a better break since it attracts a larger crowd and gets more media atten- tion.’ Linda Sadler, Carleton women’s field hockey coach, sees a catch-22 situation for women’s teams. Few people know about field hockey so few spectators show up, unlike football games which attract hordes of people. “The crowd can help the team win and once it wins, it gets more support,”’ says Sadler. Until this cycle is set in motion, field hockey will remain a low profile sport. Another attitude which hinders wo- men is the rigid view of what is ‘female’ in sports. Again, the media is a prime culprit of this sexual stereo- typing. “You've Come Along Way, La- dies’’, a film documenting women in sports, has beautiful footage of female athletes--unfortunately it trivializes their performances by capturing them °¢ in sexual poses and not sweating a drop while working out. ‘’This is not the real image of women in sports,”’ says Lynne Tyler. ‘‘It’s a sanitized version.’” : The Jane Fonda jump and bounce fitness craze epitomizes the ‘female’ sport society condones. Rather than promoting female fitness as a personal endeavour which shapes the body and mind, this fitness movement stresses - fitness as a way of molding the female body into a socially desirabe shape. The danger of the Flashdance fitness craze are the attitudes of some of the women who. don their colour co-ordinated leotards, tights, leg i BSTER ULTRA Six Locations 1122 - 5th Ave., New Westminster 2409 St. Johns St., Port Moody 5633 - 176th St., Cloverdale 2686 Langdon St., Clearbrook Woodgrove Centre, Nanaimo 1651 Lougheed Highway Hwy., Port Coquitlam page 17 warmers and headbands to do jumping jacks to the thump-thump of ‘‘Beat 1s “‘Some women get into these pro- grammes because they want to look a certain way, not because they want to feel a certain way,’’ says Palmason. Sexual stereotypes and discrimina- tory attitudes are so ingrained the goal of equality in sports may be unreach- able. ‘‘At the rate we’re going, it will take a hundred years before any real change comes about,’’ says Tyler. This is why some people are calling for action now. ‘‘We can’t wait for the younger generation because it will just pick up the attitudes of the older generation,’” says Palmason. ‘‘The problem of women in sports calls for more active efforts.’’ Linda Thom’s solution rests with « women athletes themselves. She says the formula for success is the single- minded pursuit of excellence with a positive attitude. When Thom aims her gun at the target during competition, she thinks positively and not about all the discrimination she faces. “It’s when you think negative thoughts that accidents happen,’’ says Thom ‘‘It’s like walking on a narrow beam. If the beam is three feet off the ground you can walk across it no problem. If it’s 100 feet off the ground you'd think yourself crazy to try. What you have to do is discard all distrac- tions and aim for that goal.’’ Gtadests 10% discount specials Weekly specials 524-3677} 931-4541 574-7401 § 853-5970 § 390-2524 § 941-4067 $