I love NFL football and am anxiously waiting to see if the Arizona Cardinals can live up to all the preseason hype. Will this be the year they finally win a Super Bowl? Can they stay healthy for the whole season? I love baseball, but this year I don’t have the Diamondbacks to root into the postseason (Man! Do the D-Backs ever stink.) I love tennis on the tube and would dearly love to see Serena win the Open this year. And I love golf over everything else. The Ryder Cup is a week of head games and international rivalry; The FedEx tournaments are a rich buildup to that very rich prize at the end; and the golf in this year’s Olympics should be a new way to watch golf team play. And all the other events in Rio.
These games in Brazil will be interesting to see not only for the events but also for the health issues (bad-ass mosquitoes and really foul water). I love the swimming events and I, along with millions of other fans, can’t wait to see if Michael Phelps can add to his medal totals. Hopefully, the water in the pools will be safe enough to swallow a bit. Will Simone Biles win gold in the women’s gymnastics? Which country will win the men’s and women’s golf titles? As if I wasn’t already confused about present-day sexuality, now I see that Caster Semenya, a female sprinter from South Africa, is in the spotlight for possibly being an intersex, that is, a hyperandrogenous hermaphrodite (Whew! That’s an alliterative tongue-twister.) It seems that an intersex female produces testosterone like a man, giving her masculine speed, endurance, and strength. What will the Olympic Committee do? Ban her? Put her in a separate category all by herself? We’ve come to a time when women can often compete with men in many sports: baseball, basketball, tennis, golf, soccer, even football. We’ve been watching American Ninja Warrior in which women compete with men on the same courses. No special easing up on the obstacles to accommodate their supposed feminine weakness. In basketball, couldn’t Diana Taurasi play on an NBA team? In tennis, couldn’t Serena Williams hold her own against most males? In golf, couldn’t Lexi Thompson and Lydia Ko make a living playing on the PGA? In soccer, couldn’t professional female soccer players be effective on a men’s soccer team? In baseball, Sarah Hudek pitches out of the bullpen for Bossier Parish Community College; Melissa Mayeux, a 16-year old French shortstop has been added to MLB’s international registration list of those who can be drafted by MLB teams. In football, Patricia Palinkas in 1970 was the holder on a field goal attempt with the Orlando Panthers; Shelby Osbourne plays cornerback for Campbellsville University; Julie Harshbarger made a field goal while playing in an indoor football league game; and Jen Welter is a running back in the Indoor Football League. These are no shrinking violets or weak pansies. These are women competing with men in male-dominated sports, and competing quite well. I say, forget this gender business and just go after it—men, women, gays, transgenders, intersexes, whatevers. May the best man or woman win.
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