[PW] Male/female competition

[Lois Aleta Fundis]

Michael Hart wrote:
> You try just imagining 5G loads in the turns for hours on end,
>   
for five hundred miles or so, at speeds often exceeding 200 mph
> then see if you still need to ask that question, not to think
> of the unbelieveable eye to hand and foot coordination. . . .
>
> Oh. . .and don't forget the loss of several pounds of sweat.
>
>   
In marathons and other road races, men and women both often run at the 
same time, although their times are reported separately.

The National Spelling Bee, in which both boys and girls compete, was 
covered on ESPN or ESPN2 for several years, until this year when it ran 
on the main network, ABC. Since ESPN covers sports, if it covers the 
Spelling Bee, that appears to mean that Spelling Bees are a sport. (When 
I first saw it on ESPN2, I sat up, stared, and yelled at the TV: "It's a 
sport! It's a sport! It's on ESPN! It's a sport! They've *finally* 
discovered a sport I'm good at!" ) This would also make poker a sport, 
since I see it often on ESPN and Fox Sports, late at night. (Though I'm 
not sure I agree with their choice of poker games: I still doubt Texas 
hold-em is as fierce a sport as five-card stud.) And there are women in 
many of those games.

And several years ago C-SPAN used to carry the newscast from Russia 
(with translation into English, of course). I was watching one night 
when it came to the sports segment -- which was about chess. I waited, 
but that was it. All of it, the *whole* sports segment, was about chess. 
Now, this was Russia (and I think it may have been in winter, when 
there's not much to do outside in Russia), and I don't recall seeing any 
major chess championships featuring women but I don't see why they 
shouldn't if a woman is good enough and competitive enough.

Also, if the Spelling Bee is a sport, maybe the Naitonal Geographic Bee 
is, too -- though it's televised on PBS, not known for sports coverage 
-- and a girl won that this year, too.

--
Lois Fundis	lfundis at weir.net or lfundis at verizon.net