Women had to fight for their right to practice sports in competition. I have published a whole series of posts, The long and arduous road of women to the Olympics, devoted to their struggle for recognition. They had to fight tooth and nail during long decades before being, reluctantly, accepted as equal.
De Coubertin was, from the outset, strongly opposed to female sport. For him "...the Olympic Games must be reserved for men". He argued that seeing women competing was "inappropriate". And he added that "the limited physical abilities of women made them ‘incapable’ of producing records in a highly competitive form of sport". And he had some crazy argument in favour of his opposition to female sports:
Would separate events be held for women, or would meets be held all together, without distinction as to sex, regardless of whether the competition is among individuals or teams? The second of these approaches would be logical, since the dogma of the equality of the sexes tends to expand. Yet this assumes the existence of co-ed clubs. There are hardly any such clubs now, with the exception of tennis and swimming. Even with co-ed clubs, ninety-five times out of a hundred, elimination rounds favour the men.
There you have it: women should not practice sports because men are stronger! This insidious idea that women are weaker than men survives till today. I have explained in several works of mine that women are not as strong as men, presenting quantitative arguments, but this should never be interpreted as a weakness. It is just an anatomical and physiological difference and it is taken into account precisely by having separate events for men and women (something that transgender and DSD athletes are trying to spoil, but, don't get me started on this point).
For de Coubertin, the Olympic Games were the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism, with the applause of women as a reward. De Coubertin was just the first in a long list of misogynist old twaddlers who opposed female sports using spurious, most often downright dishonest, arguments to support their point of view. Some of these arguments survive even today. You can see my article in the "Long and arduous" series for a technical discussion.
But in this post I will focus on the words of A. Brundage (who holds a prominent place in my Gallery of Shame). In a private correspondence he wrote:
"I think it is quite well known that I am lukewarm on most of the events for women for a number of reasons which I will not bother to expound because I probably will be out voted anyway. I think women's event should be confined to those appropriate for women; swimming, tennis, figure skating and fencing but certainly not shot putting".
I must confess that the last words of Brundage's statement have been bothering me since I ever read them. While female athletes are becoming more and more graceful as years go by this does not appear to be true for shot putters. There are several lithesome champions in the other three throws but shot putters appear, as a whole, slightly overweight. (The same can be said for most men throwers as well, but, of course, nobody cares about the looks of men).
Brundage's argument has been gnawing at my mind but I was hating the idea to concede it. And then, while following the European U20 2023 championships I found the rare gem. Nina Chioma Ndubuisi is a german junior shot putter, a spinner. (This is somewhat astonishing, because Germany has been the last bastion of the gliding style, but I guess that Ndubuisi's physique is more suitable for spinning).
She won the competition with 17.97 m, more than 1 m further than the second ranked and 2.5 m than the third. You can appreciate her style below. Being light allows her a great speed in the circle and she does not have to lower her throwing angle in order to preserve speed. (Of course, her performance is very far from the 20.54 m U20 world record, but the latter is held by the GDR thrower A. Kumbernuss from the good old, pre-doping control, days).
How will Ndubuisi evolve over the time? Will she decide to put on some weight in order to build more muscle and become a 20 m thrower? Nobody knows. But it remains that she is today the almost unique example of a slim champion female shot putter. And one counter-example suffices in order to demolish Brundage's argument. So I am happy that he was proven wrong even in this.
Now, don't get me wrong. This article should not be interpreted as a veiled criticism of the female shot putters who have a few extra kilos. First, the beauty ideals have seriously evolved since the time of de Coubertin and Brundage. And, second, all women athletes today, including shot putters, care about their looks and strive to look attractive. Unless they are doing their best to look ugly, for provocation, like R. Saunders.
My point, in this article is that nobody is allowed to tell women what they can and what they cannot do (and not only in sports). My only regret, in athletics, is that women picked up race-walking. But, then, I have the exact same feelings for men, so the parity is perfect.
(In case you wonder about the title of this post, I plagiarised, as I do from time to time, the title of a science-fiction story. This time it's "Thus we frustrate Charlemagne", by R.A. Lafferty).
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