The result, she surmised, is a talent pool that produces faster results than the men’s talent pool. They’re educated, they’re smart, they work hard. They’re putting off having kids, putting off getting a job, most of them have a master’s degree, even a PhD. Women, generally, if they decide to something they are going to do it right the first time so they’re not kind of like, eh, I’ll kind of work at this, work at that, take a lackadaisical approach. I think some of the women, we get started later, but we’re also more focused when we do it. She said that because women’s lives have different circumstances, they approach sports differently. Then without missing a beat she offered a novel answer. Katie paused at first and remarked that it was a question she had not really thought of before and didn’t know if she knew the answer to it. National Champion, if her success and the success of American women in cyclo-cross bears any similarities to the success of women’s soccer in international competitions. The U.S., by contrast, has strong women’s teams in these sports but relatively weak men’s teams.ĭo the same forces shape the outcomes for both of these sports?Īt the press conference, I asked Compton, the 2012-2013 World Cup points winner and U.S. In both sports, the strongest men’s national teams are not accompanied by the strongest women’s national teams. Women’s cyclo-cross has something in common with women’s soccer. men are tied for eighth, earning just a single silver medal in 2007. The elite men claim 25 more world championship medals (59) than second place France (34). Surprising-because the men absolutely dominate the sport. Surprisingly, the Belgian women have won only a lonely bronze medal in any women’s UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championship. women placed second overall in the team competition with Katie Compton claiming her third world championship silver medal. women have the fourth highest medal total in women’s elite cyclo-cross. The first women’s cyclo-cross world championship was held in 2000 and won by a German rider Hanka Kupfernagel. national soccer team that dominated the competition in 1990 and continues to be one of the top national teams in the world. Most European and South American soccer nations did not encourage women’s soccer, Germany being the notable exception. This was not the case in countries with strong men’s soccer teams and a culture that viewed soccer as a masculine sport not fit for women. When FIFA finally got around to holding a women’s tournament, the sea change in U.S. men have struggled at times to remain relevant is that the United States enacted regulations like Title IX and invested in facilities like the University of Louisville’s “boat house.” women dominating a sport in which the U.S. men's team, still outclassed by European and South American national soccer teams, only dreams about. women accomplished something that the U.S. women’s soccer team won the first FIFA World Cup tournament for women.
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