Relax, it's just a game.: The Canadian Hockey Association launches a brilliant ad campaign to combat boorish behaviour among hockey parents. Watch the ads online. (via Roy MacGregor's column in today's Globe and Mail)

posted by mcwetboy to hockey at 09:03 AM - 1 comment

The Olympics have gotten too big and need to shrink.: Dick Pound will argue this week that the IOC needs to "begin culling the events before we see gold medals being awarded in mall walking and spelling bees," as columnist Roy MacGregor puts it. While ballroom dancing, cheerleading and chess clamour for Olympic recognition, baseball, softball and modern pentathlon may be on the block. Realistically, which events should go?

posted by mcwetboy to other at 07:11 AM - 14 comments

"So why is it that sex still counts? Suzy Whaley recently qualified to become the first women to play in a Professional Golf Association Tour event. Tennis star Venus Williams's serves have been clocked at around 190 kilometres per hour, about the same as Andre Agassi's. And women can match men in long-distance running and swimming marathons." After four years of court challenges, Justine Blainey took her battle for the right to play on boys' hockey teams to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1987 -- and won. Now a married chiropractor with a daughter, Justine Blainey-Broker reflects on the gender gap in sports.

posted by mcwetboy to culture at 08:47 AM - 10 comments

"When female athletes are not being depicted as sex objects, they're often portrayed as too masculine, or—gasp—as lesbians.": That is, if they're getting any coverage at all; they usually don't unless there's some sex appeal going on (anyone for tennis?). Lisa Goldman, writing in the outstanding Ryerson Review of Journalism, looks at the Canadian media's reporting of women's sports, which she finds generally abysmal—except that CBC Sports makes a concerted effort to cover women, and now there's the digital specialty channel WTSN (which I've never seen).

posted by mcwetboy to culture at 08:49 PM - 15 comments