Down for the Count
Submitted by Boys and Schools Blog
I hate it when someone says, “no one cares about the medal count in the Olympics.” Of course people care about the medal count. Statistics and records are the essence of sports, after all. People, individually may or may not care about the medal count, but to say that no one does is patently untrue. And yet, it was one of the most popular sportswriter cliches of this past Olympics–was there a memo about it or something? Is it no longer “cool” to care about it? Is it somehow unenlightened?
Well, anyway, count-wise the US did pretty darned well, though some people will point to China’s higher number of gold medals or the disappointing performance of the US Track and Field team as evidence that the US Olympic team is facing some long-term worries. And I’ll agree with that–though not for the reasons you may think.
In fact, the biggest threat to the future of the US Olympic team doesn’t come from any of the more commonly visible issues–sure steroids will remain a problem, and the ebbs and flows of young talent have a way of distorting one’s perspective. The real problem is that the collegiate athletic systems that train so many athletes are slowly dwindling and disappearing. Partly, this is a resource problem, as the funds aren’t always available to support all of these activities. As sad as that is, it does at least have a logic to it. The more disturbing reason for the loss of some sports is due to a particular interpretation of Title IX–a federal law used to create gender equity in college athletics.
In some senses, the Olympics has been a way to see some of the triumphs of Title IX, as the strength and dominance of America’s female Olympians was impressive. But what many people are unaware of is the fact that in order to meet Title IX requirement that the ratio of male to female athletes must reflect the ratio of male to female students, some colleges choose the easier route of eliminating male sports rather than trying to increase female participation. (To be fair, there is only so much a school can do to increase female athletic participation. If, for whatever reason, there just aren’t as many female students interested in sports, then the college finds itself in a difficult position due to the way that the law is interpreted.) Regardless, the result is that sports like fencing, wrestling, rowing, and even men’s gymastics are the losers here. As are the young men and women–and possibly future Olympians–who might have excelled in that sport.
