Shannon Miller, the women’s long-time head hockey coach at University
of Minnesota – Duluth ,
was recently told she would not be returning to coach next year. Not because she had done anything wrong. Or because she was a bad coach. She was fired because UMD needed to cut
expenses from their athletic program, and, apparently, Miller is paid too
much. Miller has won five NCAA
championships with UMD, coached the Canadian women’s hockey team at the 1998
Olympics, and has a near .700 overall record.
Miller’s termination sends the message UMD does not care and
does not respect women’s athletics. Can you imagine a successful men’s athletic
team coach being cut for being paid too much?
Unthinkable, whether the men’s team is like almost all NCAA teams and
costs the school money or maybe breaks even, or if it is one of the 22 NCAA football
teams that actually turns a profit in the 2009-2010 season (NCAA report).
While feminists have generally won the understanding women
are capable of being athletic, women’s sports are still highly contested. Battles continue over the capabilities of
women. For example, the women’s marathon
was only added to the Olympics in 1984 and the women’s steeplechase wasn’t added
until 2004. Arguments and lawsuits continue over how many resources should be
allocated to women’s sports. Even though
Title IX has promised to give women’s athletics the same amount of resources in
federally funded educational institutions as men, in college sports women
receive 43% of participation opportunities, 45% of scholarship dollars, 38% of
operating dollars, and 33% of recruitment spending (Women's Sports Foundation). Almost nothing is done to
force schools to do more. Female
athletics are also contested on how much respect and dignity we give to female
athletes. Many people refuse to watch
girls and women play sports, stereotype female athletes, and hold them in much
less regard than their male counterparts.
In many ways, female athletes are treated well in cross
country and track at the high school, collegiate, and professional level. Women and men often practice at the same time,
and competitions are held together. Many
of the usual complaints about supporting women’s athletics would sound
especially hallow when directed at cross country or track. Whether you’re
watching Ajee Wilson win the 800m at the USATF Outdoor National Track
Championships last summer in 1:58.70 or Duane Solomon win in 1:44.30, they are
both running extremely fast. Also, track
is very qualitative. Fans of many other
sports may be under the illusion they would be so much better than the women
participating, especially with a little practice. With running, people generally have a sense
of their abilities. Are you capable of
running a 4:20 mile? No?
Then it’s a bit harder to downplay the efforts and abilities of the
women competing.
Yet, female runners still have to struggle for equal resources,
recognition, and respect. While I was an
athlete at the University of Minnesota ,
the women’s cross country and track teams had a lot of success. We won six Big-Ten championships and produced
a national champion and many All-Americans.
Our accomplishments didn’t stop the men’s team coaches from mocking us or
from head wrestling coach J. Robinson filing a suit claiming Title IX was
discriminatory towards men. Sid Hartman,
a legendary Twin Cities sports columnist for the Star Tribune most ignored “non-revenue”
sports, but when he did occasionally talk about running at Minnesota, it was
only about the men’s side.
I have worked part-time at running stores throughout college
and my professional career. While some
people are very supportive and respectful of my aspirations, if they find out
I’m a professional runner, all too often I get the message my dreams are
unimportant. Yesterday, I was helping a
young man while his father watched. When
Matt Tebo, assistant manager of the store sat down with us, I thought the dad
was going to combust with his excitement over asking Matt about his PR’s,
training under Wetmore at the University
of Colorado , and the book, “Running
with the Buffalos.” After awhile, Matt
tried to usher me into this conversation by telling the dad I was also a very
talented runner. The dad asked where I
had ran, then turned back to Matt and continued asking him questions. As the father and son left the store, the dad
told us how much he appreciated getting to talk to role models for his
son. Now, Matt Tebo is a very cool dude,
and he is full of good advice for running, but what about the professional
runner sitting next to him? If the dad
wanted good role models for his son, what about talking to me, or asking about
Matt’s wife Jessica, who is a local superstar in the running community for
winning the most titles in NCAA running history while at Seattle Pacific
University and posted a top 40 in
the world 5k time last year?
Some people may think, so what? Who cares if a dad didn’t care about you, or
a different team’s coach thought you were a joke? But it is a big deal, especially over time. Disrespectful and sexist attitudes make it
okay for female athletes to be mocked, for their accomplishments to be ignored,
and their athletic events to be unattended.
These attitudes permit women’s athletic programs to be woefully
under-funded, celebrated women’s coaches to be fired for no good reason, and
for your son to miss out on an excellent role model.
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