May 13,2000
What a wonderful story (SportsThursday, New York Times Thursday, May 25, 2000), about the 20 year old Tae kwon competitor Esther Kim who gave up her chance of being chosen for the American Olympic Team when she refused to fight her friend Kay Poe who had beaten her before, in the final round of the flyweight competition at the Olympic Trials because Poe had dislocated her knee in a semi-final match. Kim told her father that she could not live with herself beating someone who was so badly injured. She was quoted as saying "It felt like the only right thing to do. It hurt , but winning a gold medal isn't everything. There are other ways to be a champion. If I don't have a gold medal around my neck, it's in my heart."
On Saturday I.O.C. President Juan Antonio Samaranch invited Kim for an all expense paid trip to the 2000 Sydney Olympics because of " her selfless act of sportsmanship."
An I.O.C.spokesman said that "We are very proud of her and the spirit of fair play she demonstrated."
"It felt like the only right thing to do. There are other ways to be a champion"
It reminded GSW of our own U.S. National Team and why they are so loved and respected as role models.
What do you think about her decision? Would you have been so unselfish?
Send your opinions to us at WOMENSOC@aol.com.
May 13, 2000 "Recruiting Stories" Part I, Part II, and future articles in the Recruitng Series and the upcoming companion series, Choices, are a wake-up call for college bound players and parents. The personal experiences chronicled in these two series are real and the message is clear -- It's YOUR future. Choose a path that works for YOU -- your circumstances, your goals, and your dreams. Don't just let the future happen, take control!
Letters from GSW and WSW readers and countless interviews with elite youth soccer and college level players emphasize the importance of knowing the pros and cons of various playing options before before making any long term commitments or major decisions about your club, high school, or college soccer playing environment. "Choices" will introduce you to the experiences of current and former youth players and teams from the U.S and around the world. There will be advice and opinions from coaches at the club, high school, college, and the ODP/National team environment.
Not everyone agrees. "Choices" and "Recruiting Stories" will be controversial. Opinions expressed during interviews are not necessarily those of the GSW and WSW staff. We invite you to express your views in Letters to the Editor, the GSW Message Board or email Shasta@ipa.net
Take care and Keep the Ball Rolling! --- Shasta
Hey GSW Readers!
April 1, 2000
A big test for any U.S. Soccer member with a conflict of interest, as M.L.S. applies to run a Division 1 professional women's league.
On Thursday Don Garber, the Commissioner for Major League Soccer, said that they (M.L.S.) are great believers in women's soccer and feel that they have the experience, resources and operational expertise to effectively create and manage a professional women's soccer league.
continued.... Most of the many letters received by WSW point out that it is not in the best interests of the M.S.L. for a women's professional league to be successful, and that it is in their interest to control it. From both our mail from around the world and our correspondents' reports, it is clear that under the WUSA proposal the league would rapidly become the elite women's professional league of the world. Already the interest from national team level players in the top soccer nations is immense, and the number of letters received from companies that want to information about how they can support it grow daily.
Please e-mail us with your opinion about this next critical stage of women's soccer.
It was expected that a men's professional league that is declining in fan support would be looking a life rope, but the two entities are quite different. Women's soccer is the top American team sport for women, the men's games nearer the bottom of men's team sports. The women have through their accomplishments (two World Cups, and an Olympic Gold Medal) earned the right to their own league, not one that is part of a male dominated and focussed organization.
Girls finally get a World Championship
Thanks to the persistent requests for several years from the UEFA women's teams FIFA is finally moving the girls game a notch closer to equality with the boys. Still a long way to go. It has not been easy for the women's programs in Europe, and it still disappointing to see the male bias in the official publications of UEFA (UEFA flash, and Bulletin Officiel) where it has been difficult to find much mention of the women's game even during the World Cup '99. The December 1999 edition had but six words "and in the two women's competitions" added as an afterthought in the message from their president. In the same edition Iceland was the only Federation that wrote about their women's results and program. It appears that the problem stems from the passive resistance still present in many of the UEFA member Federations in accepting the existence and growth of the women's game.
Does your high school athletic program offer support and facilities for girl athletes equal to those provided for the boys?
When the new U.S. National Team Head Coach April Heinrichs said in her first press conference January, 18, 2000, Ò Without Title Nine I wouldn't of had the opportunity to play college sports.Ó it reminded us that we have been concerned for many years that although Title IX became law in 1972, mandating that comparable support be given to boys and girls in athletic programs, it effect has been in effect mainly at the college level. An excellently researched special report The Gender Gap (also available on www.ajc.com 12/12-12/19, 1999) by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, exposing the lack of Title IX compliance in Georgia's high schools made us wonder whether this was only a problem in the football controlled southern states. Our mail suggested otherwise. The lack of opportunity to participate at the same level as the boys in high school athletics, such as soccer, can mean that a college athletic scholarship is unattainable or diminished thus resulting in a huge financial, educational and fitness loss for the girl student athlete.
Girls' Soccer World is surveying the status of Title IX in athletic programs in High Schools across the United States, and ask your help in sending us information about the presence or lack of gender equity in high schools in your state.
ATHLETIC
EXPERIENCE VITAL TO BOTH SEXES
Reader letters:
Gender Equity in Indiana
E-mail us: womensoc@aol.com
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