Posted on 08/26/2008 7:45:12 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Olympics demonstrated again what competition, hard work and determination can produce, as numerous world records were shattered. American swimmer Michael Phelps and gymnast Nastia Liukin gave us much to cheer.
But U.S. athletes won in spite of Title IX regulations, which impose gender quotas on sports for institutions that receive any federal money. Title IX has crippled our national competitiveness.
Title IX regulations have forced educational institutions to eliminate men's teams until the number of men and women on sports teams is the same ratio as the number of men and women enrolled in academic classes. In the numerous colleges that are now 60 percent female in academic enrollment, Title IX requires that men's teams be eliminated until only 40 percent of the athletes are men.
Title IX quotas have caused the elimination of all but 19 men's college gymnastics teams. This deprives boys of the scholarship incentive to take up gymnastics as a sport in high school and takes away the competition needed to improve their skills in college.
The effect of this injustice hit us hard in Beijing. The Chinese (who are not restricted by feminist nonsense) destroyed our men's gymnastics team and won seven out of eight gold medals, while our men's gymnastics team failed to win a single gold medal in eight events.
Then there is men's freestyle wrestling, a sport that the United States had repeatedly dominated at the Olympics. Over the years, we had won a very high percentage of medals in wrestling.
But Title IX's gender quotas have forced the elimination of 467 wrestling teams from our colleges. This has nothing to do with lack of funding, since wrestling is one of the most inexpensive of sports, it's due to feminist ideology that demands eliminating macho sports in order to meet the foolish Title IX quotas.
The devastating outcome in the 2008 Olympics was predictable. America won only one medal, which was in men's freestyle wrestling's lightest-weight class, and that was won by the son of illegal aliens who did not wrestle in college.
The Americans who won in Beijing typically did so in spite of Title IX. Michael Phelps, who won eight gold medals (about one-fourth of all U.S. gold medals), trained privately and didn't compete on a college team.
Many men's swimming teams have been eliminated due to Title IX quotas, and future American winners will likely avoid college. Why bother attending college if you can't play the sport you love?
Historically, the United States dominated diving competitions just like swimming, but because diving has a small team size, many of these programs have been eliminated in favor of large-squad-size sports such as rowing. American men and women divers were repeatedly eliminated from contention for medals.
Title IX's gender quotas end up hurting women as much as men because they distort the availability of women's teams in college. Small-squad sports like women's gymnastics and fencing have been eliminated in favor of large-squad sports that lack the same intense dedication and interest.
Nastia Liukin, our star gymnast who won five medals, was born in Russia and trained at her family's private gymnastics club. She attended Southern Methodist University in 2007, and SMU is bragging on its Website about her Olympic achievements.
But SMU dropped its small women's gymnastics team and instead has a large women's rowing team, and so had nothing to offer Liukin. SMU is 55 percent women and has publicly announced that it wants to be 55 percent in women's athletes.
A glance through other U.S. medal winners reveals a high percentage of athletes who did not benefit from any school athletic program. Several Americans, for example, won medals in shooting even though virtually all schools have banned rifle or shooting teams to appease the liberals.
Kristin Armstrong won a gold medal for America in cycling, but she went to high school in Japan, where her military family was living. Now 35 years old, she is another self-made female athlete who apparently did not benefit from Title IX.
The cost of quotas is more than our defeat by the Chinese at the Olympics and a loss in U.S. competitiveness. Prior to Title IX quotas, both our male and female athletes went on to become community leaders and model citizens who inspired and motivated the next generation.
It wasn't helpful when our last female Olympic swimming star, Amanda Beard, posed nude for Playboy and then bombed this time. Today's aspiring athletes lack the great role models of the past, and Title IX is not working.
The George W. Bush administration kept in force the ridiculous quotas originated by the radical feminists in the Jimmy Carter administration. We wonder whether the next administration will learn the lesson of the 2008 Olympics or remain intimidated by the anti-male feminists.
Hogwash!
Title IX benefits women’s athletics at the expense of college football, which, in case nobody’s noticed, is not an Olympic sport.
We didn’t do well because we have too many kids who’d rather play video games than do anything at all involving a muscle.
The solution is to REQUIRE women to participate in organized sports in numbers sufficient to satisfy the law. If they don't care to participate, they should be sent elsewhere.
Nastia Liukin (as well as Shawn Johnson and few others on the USA gymnastics team) wouldn’t be able to compete for a college team regardless. They went pro and get endorsement money, which is against NCAA regulations.
Elite gymnasts have to decide pretty early if they want to go pro. If they do, they give up their NCAA eligibility.
I call BS. The Chinese won because the government bribed the athletes with houses for their families if they brought home gold. That was their incentive. We did great at the Olympics.
Americans used to dominate the sport of springboard diving, but in 2008, as far as I know, no American won so much as a bronze medal in a diving event. Perhaps the disappearance of diving boards due to high insurance rates generated by the threat of lawsuits may be a factor.
I never hear about men’s gymnastics anymore. There used to be several good college programs that produced Olympic gold medalists, but now all I hear about is college women’s gymnastics, which by the way does not help the Olympic effort since most women’s Olympic gymnasts are not old enough to go to college. Actually, I would like to see colleges train more Olympians, especially the University of Alabama. They shouldn’t sit by while Auburn Olympians win more medals than most countries. First things first, however. Get things back to normal by winning the Iron Bowl, then win some medals.
Do you think the loss of 500 wrestling programs (with x amount of college men per program not being able to partake in the sport because it was forced from the available sports due to Title IX) has absolutely NOTHING to do with our teams having fewer wrestlers to choose from?
You are wrong. It is NOT just college football that loses funds. Whole programs that do not have a female equivalent are eliminated because of Title IX.
Do you really understand the dynamics of Title IX? I think Phyllis Schlafly does.
American Football should be an Olympic sport, given the huge worldwide following it has been building over the years. However, I don’t think that the IOC would want a sport that we would dominate for the next few decades just by picking a random team from the ranks of NCAA teams and putting them in Team USA jerseys.
Title IX is a ridiculous quota system. The devasting side effects of Title IX have been well documented. The purpose of Title IX was to promote more athletic opportunities for women. The purpose has been ruined by the quotas. Eliminating mens sports does not provide additional opportunities for women. In general, women do not play athletics as much at the collegiate level. The left wants to apply Title IX to other areas such as math and science. For a variety of reasons, men and women have varied participation and aptitude in activities. Forcing equality is social engineering of the worst kind.
The left in this country is out of control. The left in other countries does not pursue these idiotic policies as gender quotas.
It's not that college football is not losing funds per se, rather the number of athletes who can participate in it. Football -- and to a lesser extent, basketball -- always has and still does pay the freight for all other collegiate sports. What Title IX has done is force colleges to fund and fill more female sports. And the only way that could be accomplished (with the funds produced by Football and Basketball) is to reduce the number of football players and to eliminate many men's sports. The whole process is absurd, and the article is spot on.
Yes, exactly.
Title IX is a piece of liberal wet dream legislation.
Personally, I think they should let women and men compete against each other directly. Just do it.
In that case, though, I am sure they would legislate something to require men to wear 200 lbs of weights to “level the playing field”.
Football and basketball are about the only college men’s team sports not noticeably hurt by Title IX. The truth is that major colleges are not going to give up their biggest money makers (football and men’s basketball programs) so they cut the other men’s sports to protect them and comply with the mandate. Men’s sports such as wrestling, gymnastics and soccer among many others were cut by colleges across the country and many women’s sports were added. Boys who have great talent in these sports have no place to play while girls with no discernable talent are offered scholarships to play sports that nobody cares about or watches just to keep the schools in compliance with Title IX. I see Title IX as just another liberal government mandate like affirmative action and all the rest. It sounds like a good idea on the surface, but in implementation it comes down to the government deciding who gets to play and who does not. I don’t think that is a good thing. The sports teams a college fields should be decided by the school and not by the government.
Title IX is one of the worst things to happen to college wrestling. My son, a wrestler, graduated from high school just after all the college wrestling programs disappeared. It was discouraging. Feminists suck.
Well, what can we do? The Conservatives are too passive about Title IX.
Well, what can we do? The Conservatives are too passive about Title IX.
About Amanda Beard...Her US swim team members picked her as the captain...I guess they do have some respect for her...
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