Women Boxers Go Olympic

From ESPN:

Women's boxing is an Olympic sport for the first time, with 36 fighters in three weight classes competing to make history with its first medals. A sport long derided as a sideshow by elitists has been hotly competitive for several years, and the debut Olympic tournament is expected to bring worldwide attention and cachet to boxing, which has slipped into secondary status after decades as a main Olympic event.

Boxing joined the Olympic program in St. Louis in 1904, but was the only Summer Games sport without a female analogue until 2009, when the IOC added a women's competition to the London program. Supporters had argued for the addition for several years.

FIFA's Lydia Nsekera

From the Citizen:

Burundi's Lydia Nsekera has entered the history books after becoming the first woman co-opted onto FIFA's Executive Committee last week.

Nsekera, 45, is the only woman in charge of a national federation thanks to her role as president of the Burundi Football Federation (FFB) and was already a member of FIFA committees for women's football, the women's World Cup and the organising committee for Olympic football tournaments.

This latest appointment is just the next step in Nsekera's groundbreaking career.

Her rise to prominence has been remarkable -- she took over the running of a garage left to her by her husband after his death in 2003 before breaking into the "terribly macho" world of Burundian football.

AFL: All-Girl Umpires in SA League

From the Southern Times Messenger:

THE first all-female umpiring panel will soon hit the ground for a Southern Football League game to help raise the profile of women umpires.

Eight young women will umpire the A-grade match between Port Noarlunga and Aldinga on Saturday, August 14, in a first for South Australian footy at this level.  One of the organisers is ump Steph Morrison, 21, from the Combined Southern Leagues Football Umpires Panel.

“We were out with girls having a movie night when we got into discussing how we could promote female umpires and we decided to start with our local leagues,” Morrison, of Glengowrie, said.

Last month, she was invited to be part of an umpiring team that made history in the Barossa Light & Gawler Football Association when all but the two goal umpires were women.

Morrison said the group had come up with the idea of an all-female panel early in the season but decided to hold off until the SFL’s White Ribbon round.

Ladies, shake hands and come out fighting!

Yes, women's boxing is to make its debut at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

More from IPS News:

Thanks to Clint Eastwood's blockbuster film 'Million Dollar Baby', his heroine Hilary Swank helped raise significantly the profile of women who climb into the boxing ring.

And, when Muhammad Ali's daughter Laila took up her father's cloak, she lit up a whole new generation of boxing fans around the world, especially when she battled the daughter of her father's great adversary, Joe Frazier.

But the sport has grown worldwide following a concerted drive by the International Boxing Association. Fans of women entering the ring note that there are now more than 500,000 licensed women boxers in 120 countries.

Campaigners for women's sport and fitness celebrated the welcome into the Olympic fold as acknowledgment of the justice of their long hard fight for equality, while boxing authorities hailed the decision as "proving" that concerns about competitiveness and health issues have been once and for all discounted.

But, as there is with men's boxing, the medical profession and those against boxing, in general have come out in uproar over the decision by the IOC.

From Frank Warren @ the Sun:

The Olympics are going to be a fantastic occasion for London and the UK, a celebration of competition and friendship for both the athletes and the public.

Women's boxing will be part of it. I appreciate their efforts and good luck to them - but I won't be watching.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver

The New York Times notes the passing of this amazing woman:

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a member of one of the most prominent families in American politics and a trailblazer in the effort to improve the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, died early Tuesday morning at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Mass. She was 88.

A sister of President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy and the mother-in-law of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Mrs. Shriver never held elective office. Yet she was no stranger to Capitol Hill, and some view her work on behalf of the developmentally challenged, including the founding of the Special Olympics, as the most lasting of the Kennedy family’s contributions.

The first Special Olympics brought together 1,000 athletes from 26 states and Canada for competition. In December 1968, Special Olympics Inc. was established as a nonprofit charitable organization. Since then, the program has grown to almost three million athletes in more than 180 countries.

Iraq: Women Wrestling Team

From Sam Dagher @ New York Times:

It doesn’t happen much in the Arab world, but a coach here decided in January to start an all-female wrestling team, the first ever in Iraq. The wrestlers love it and already dream of competing in the Olympics.

But there are many in this town south of Baghdad, which like much of Iraq is religious, conservative and governed largely by tribal tradition, who want the dozen girls and young women on the team to stop wrestling immediately. One tribesman has said they should be “slaughtered” if they continue. A Shiite cleric says the team should be banned because wrestling can lead to promiscuity and “transgressions” against Islam.

As a result of the pressure, four wrestlers have quit. But the rest, for the moment empowered by the post-invasion promise of greater democracy and equality, are defying the threats.

But it is the women who have touched a nerve, perhaps partly because of their ambitions. Three other teams were set up in Iraq after Diwaniya’s was formed with the backing of Iraq’s wrestling federation. In June, all the teams took part in a championship, which the Diwaniya team won, qualifying for an Asian tournament in September in freestyle wrestling.

Muslim Women and Sport

From Google News:

In red-and-white uniforms which cover all but their hands and face, Saudi women pioneers with their basketballs and footballs are puncturing strict religious taboos.

Jeddah United train four times a week away from the prying eyes of men.

Yet just playing basketball is revolutionary in Saudi Arabia, where an ultra-conservative version of Islam means women can't go out in public without guardians, can not drive, and can't even attend men's sports events.

Formed last year in the port city of Jeddah, the team is made up of mostly women from well-off families, some like the founder and team captain Lina al-Maina graduates of US schools, where they picked up a liking for the game.

The two women see their passions as breaking through the country's strict taboo on women's sports.

Abdallah hopes King's United will "serve as the seeds for a national team."

Alice "Lefty" Hohlmayer

From the Examiner:

"She collected a hit off of the legendary Satchel Paige. She's traveled to Japan with Joe DiMaggio and dined with Penny Marshall. Ohio State University calls her one of the finest and most versatile athletes to ever play for the Buckeyes.

At $800 a season, she was the highest paid rookie to ever come through the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, memorialized in the 1992 film "A League of Their Own."

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League emerged in the spring of 1943 after World War II had forced most minor league teams into obscurity and taken many quality players away from the major league clubs.

The league was three seasons into its existence before Hohlmayer even heard of it. While at Ohio State, she played nearly every club sport the Buckeyes offered - soccer, field hockey, badminton, archery, volleyball, basketball and softball.

It was at a national softball tournament in Cleveland in 1945 that Hohlmayer's athletic career took an unexpected turn."

Web Links
All American Girls Baseball League - wikipedia
A League of Their Own - wikipedia

Role Reversal??

Here's an entertaining story of role reversal.

Indian cricketing hero Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been provided an all-female body guard - to protect him from his horde of female fans!

Now please, I am not making light of the women providing this valuable service, but it does make a change from the typical "male" bodyguard type scenarios that we are all familiar with.

From The Times of India:
"India's ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is now well and truly in the big league. For, no longer is the "privilege" of being watched over by female guards the preserve of the odd royalty and, even more spectacularly, the Libyan strongman, Col Muammar Gaddafi. Mahi, routinely mobbed by a legion of admirers, now has a posse of women cops to protect him in Ranchi.

Dhoni, who has a particularly hysterical female following, now runs the risk of becoming the darling of women constables deployed to escort him and shoo away girls trying to hug and fall over him.

For constables of the Jharkhand Armed Police, lady luck couldn't have flashed a more winsome smile. Fresh from training, they were delighted to learn that their first assignment was to escort Dhoni wherever he went. Blushing and giggling, they were a welcome departure from the usual grim-faced constables purveying Dhoni's Mecon colony bungalow."


From the New Zealand Herald:
"The decision to give Dhoni, India's limited-overs cricket captain, the new security detail comes after two recent incidents in which female fans tried to throw themselves on the heartthrob player, Ranchi police chief M S Bhatia said. Bhatia said the female police had been given special training to protect Dhoni from unwanted advances. He has already been given "Z-class" security - the highest level - from the state, usually reserved for the prime minister and other senior political figures."


From BBC News:
" "Dhoni has a Z-plus security cover [the highest level provided by the state]. Yet it is difficult to keep the female fans away," senior police officer Manvinder Singh Bhatia told the BBC. "So we decided to deploy women commandos for his security as they can do the job with ease," he said. Another police officer said, "The next three weeks that he is here we will ensure that he does not have to face any kind of embarrassment like the one in Calcutta."

For the 15-odd women commandos from the Jharkhand Armed Police constabulary who have been entrusted with the task of keeping Dhoni's boisterous female fans away, this is an unusual posting. Trained rigorously in warfare and ambush techniques, they say they never thought they would be deployed to keep an eye on the state's most eligible and sought-after bachelor. "

Female Afghan Olympian

I recently came across this story regarding the only female athlete on the Afghan Olympic Team - who has gone missing.

From The Star Online:
"The only female athlete on Afghanistan’s team for the Beijing Olympics has gone missing from a training camp in Italy and apparently is seeking political asylum in Norway. Mehboba Ahdyar, a 19-year-old runner who competes in the 800 metres and 1,500 metres, hasn’t been heard from since leaving the training centre in Formia last week. The IOC has had no word from Ahdyar and is in contact with Afghanistan’s national Olympic committee and the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Afghanistan was banned from the 2000 Sydney Olympics because the Taliban regime in power at the time barred women from taking part in the games. The 2004 Athens Games marked the first time Afghan women competed in the Olympics, with Robina Muqimyar running in the 100m heats and Friba Razayee competing in judo."


From myTelus:
"In Kabul, the deputy chairman of the Afghan Olympic body, Sayed Mahmoud Zia Dashti, said Ahdyar had a leg injury and was receiving treatment in Italy.

"I can confirm that she has injured her leg and that she will not participate in the Beijing Olympics and that her family in Italy is taking care of her," he said.

There had been fears that Ahdyar's disappearance could be linked to death threats from Muslim extremists in Afghanistan opposed to women running in the Olympics."


From Time:
"Mehbooba Andyar's choice to compete in a head scarf and full-length, body-covering running suit could not spare her from Taliban taunts and threats. The Afghan middle-distance runner nonetheless trekked on and was on the verge of realizing her Olympic dream. But now Andyar — slated to be the only female Afghan athlete at the Beijing Games — has gone missing from her training site just weeks before the opening ceremonies.

Andyar has not contacted any Afghan or international track-and-field authorities since disappearing Friday from a training facility in Formia, Italy, 106 miles (170 km) south of Rome, where she and other international athletes were based in June. Italian police are investigating the disappearance, though there are no signs of foul play."


From the Sydney Morning Herald:
"The IOC has had no word from Ahdyar and is in contact with Afghanistan's national Olympic committee and the International Association of Athletics Federations.

"The IOC accepts that athletes sometimes feel they have to make hard choices to improve their lives," International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said today. "It would appear this is what has happened in this case." "


This report also featured in:
ESPN ~~~ The Independent ~~~ Times Online ~~~ Gulf News


The last word is with The Independent who reported that:
"Ms Ahadgar herself brought the uncertainty to an end when she phoned her family in a poor quarter of Kabul to tell them that she was on her way to claim political asylum in Norway.

But there was always a lively possibility that she would seize the opportunity presented by her Schengen visa to escape from the grinding poverty of Afghanistan for good. To try to dissuade Ms Ahadgar from vanishing, the head of the Afghan Olympic Federation reportedly threatened to throw her family in jail if she did not return to Afghanistan. Now she has called his bluff."

Let us forget for one moment the politics behind the story, and hope that wherever she is, this young lady is alive and well.