On women, mongrel, and the Olympics

I think The Guardian is pretty spot on with this article. 

These Olympics have been the most exciting I can recall - notwithstanding Mark Todd and Charisma's second consecutive gold at Seoul, a moment that I watched over, and over, and over again until it must've driven my poor parents mad.  There's loads of reasons these games have been so awesome: I'm more invested cos I've got more countries to support now - not only did my beloved New Zealand have a record Olympics with 13 medals, but I've proudly worn my Mexican flag and danced in the street when Mexico won the football, I've cheered for Argentina, and of course I couldn't go past TeamUSA. We also shouldn't overlook the fact that I'm temporarily not working, so have the time to spend an afternoon casually watching a basketball game. But the main reason I'm more engaged this time round is that I've been watching more than just the horsies; in the past four years I've changed the way I approach physical fitness and that's changed what I'm interested in watching. I can now proudly claim to be a passionate (kick-)boxer, so I've got a renewed enthusiasm for watching sports like that, and I intensely admire, for example, weightlifters. 

Earlier today, I passed a woman on the street whose (arguably slightly naff for a tshirt) shirt read: "a fit woman is a powerful woman", and I believe it. I've never been happier or felt better than when I was boxing 3 times a week. Four years ago I would never, in a million years, have picked boxing as my exercise of choice, but it's physically demanding, totally empowering, and relieves stress in a way that yoga simply can't. I liked it when my trainer complemented me on hard hits. I like the aggression, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.  

And so maybe that's been the coolest thing about these games for me. These have been an ace Olympics for women. I love that women were allowed to compete in boxing for the first time in these Olympics. I love that these women do everything to showcase the physicality, and the mongrel, that Jamie Ridge and co did their very best to undermine. (As an aside, what a joke.) I love that Saudi Arabian women were allowed to compete at all in these Olympics. I love that 66% of Team USA's gold medals were won by women - again, including in traditionally male-dominated sports like boxing. This was an Olympics for the ladies, and the Guardian is spot on that for the last 16 days, the females dominating our media have been powerful, athletic women. Like, actual role models. Hold the phone.  

So the last couple of weeks have been quite a ride. But I guess what worries me is that tomorrow, some vacuous celebrity will do something unremarkable and, with the Olympics over and without actual achievement to fill the news, the female Olympian role model will once again be replaced by a Kardashian. Women's sport will go back to enjoying the 5% of airtime it does outside of the Olympics. And we'll forget that for two weeks, it was really cool to celebrate ladies like this.

Does this mean we have to wait another 4 years until we can revel in female athleticism, and celebrate strong, powerful female achievement? I hope not.