People always talk about how sports are a way to bring people together, but there is no event that proves that more than the Olympic Games.
The Olympics bring together the most talented athletes from around the world in one place. It doesn’t matter their race, age or gender, all of these athletes have an equal shot to represent their country and take home the gold.
It is not like viewers are limited to one sport or a single day to watch the competition. With this year’s Winter Olympic Games being hosted over 17 days, it acted as the perfect time to start enjoying a sport or event that you might not watch on a regular basis.
I felt like this was the common discourse I heard while the Olympics were taking place this year. Some of my friends talked about how they had been watching the various events like curling, hockey and even bobsledding. Some made it a point that they were starting to watch more women’s competitions than men’s.
This is something I personally enjoy about the Olympic Games. It is an opportunity where women are able to display their athleticism and show that they are just as worthy to perform on that large a stage with their male counterparts.
One of the main reasons I enjoy watching the women’s competitions over the men’s is because of their history of bringing Team USA more medals home. It was reported by Yahoo Sports that Team USA’s women have out-medaled the men at three consecutive Winter Olympics.
The men’s team was also out-medaled in four consecutive Summer Olympics.
This year, the women were able to bring home six gold medals and 17 medals overall for the United States, while the men brought home four gold and only 12 medals overall.
During the current U.S. President, Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, he had the men’s U.S. hockey team in attendance. After they received their standing ovation, Trump mentioned how the women’s team would soon be coming to the White House, even though they already declined his backhanded invitation.
While inviting the U.S men’s team to the address over the phone, the President stated, “I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that. I do believe I would probably be impeached.”
This statement made it seem like he was inviting the U.S. women’s team because he had no choice but to do so unless he wanted to be removed from power.
What upsets me most about this is that our President’s statement completely undermines the hard work and effort the women’s team put in during the Olympics. Both hockey teams, men’s and women’s, went undefeated and brought home gold medals. The women’s team let in two goals in the entire tournament and scored 33. The men scored 25 and let in nine.
It’s not like either of the U.S. teams had an easy exit to the gold, as both teams went up against great Canadian teams that had PWHL and NHL stars backing their core. Anyone who watched these match-ups would be able to tell you how physical the level of play for all teams involved was and how stressful overtime was.
The women had to put in just as much work as the men did to bring home a gold medal for the U.S. but our President can’t seem to acknowledge that and completely discredits the team because they are women.
The Olympic Games are the one time when women are represented at the same level as men in the world of athletics. The International Olympic Committee even reported that this was the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games in history, with a record 47% female participation.
We need to acknowledge all athletes for their skills and accomplishments, regardless of things like race or gender. For a country that supposedly stands for equality for all, the people who live within and run this nation sure seem to have a lot to say when women are successful. Almost like they have to undermine women as a way to establish some weird power dynamic.
As a society, we can’t let this happen and need to highlight women whenever they succeed for the sole reason that they are succeeding in a society that has established parameters set to keep them from reaching that level of success.