Is Aly Raisman Right? 'There is No Such Thing As a 'Girl Sport'
Olympian gymnast Aly Raisman, disappointed at dropping of boys' gymnastics official competitions in Massachusetts, tweets: "There is absolutely no such thing as a 'girl sport.' Is she right?
Aly Raisman had heard about plans to drop competitive boys' gymnastics in Massachusetts and she was not pleased. "Extremely disappointing that boys gymnastics is being dropped by MIAA. This quote upsets me," the gold-medaling gymnast from Needham tweeted on Sunday. Then she posted the quote from the Boston Globe story from Massachusetts interscholastic Athletic Association spokesman Paul Wetzel to which she was referring: "It’s a girls’ sport," said Wetzel, referring to the lopsided [gymnastics] participation rates. "When was the last time you watched boys’ gymnastics? They don’t get on the cover of the Wheaties box. They don’t get the endorsements." Raisman's next tweet: There is absolutely no such thing as a "girl sport" #ridiculous …
In this Article:
Doug Davison
12:19 pm on Thursday, January 31, 2013
Is the MIAA shifting to a position of determining which sports will be played by which sexes based on popularity? If so, I would expect them to stop sanctioning a significant number of womens' sports. The number of female sports that make the Wheaties box can be counted on one hand. What a ridiculous thing to say. The fact that an official of the MIAA would refer to any sport as a "girls' sport" … more ›