And yet, seeing the US women’s soccer team on the front page of The New York
Times sports section and the
women’s golf U.S. Open on the inside has given us a whole new micro-thrill. [LN2]With good reason: For the first time in years, the
Americans aren’t favored to win this World Cup (competition in women’s
international sports is heating up—drama!).
Yesterday, the U.S. team played Brazil, who has Marta, the Pele of women’s soccer. The game itself had ups and downs of the kind that have you muttering, no way. As in: no way did they just do that!
(And the quotes
afterward—from the players to the coach—were lump-in-your-throat inducing.
Really, go read them.)[LN3]
“Running low on hope and time, the Americans were surely beaten...” reported the Times, as well as the Detroit Free Press and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “And then, with one of the most thrilling goals in
U.S. history, they weren't.”
Not U.S. women’s sports history. In sports. Full stop.
Which means if you are 7- or 10- or 12-years-old, you no longer have to [LN4]imagine that something is available to you. You witness to it, from the actual women playing the sport to the front pages story in newspaper giving them their due.
That was today’s discovery. That there’s a difference between hearing what women could do and seeing what this very minute, they are doing. The difference between the girls we used to be and the girls right now, who can look at these women and think, “I can do what she did...and I can do it even
[LN1]I get confused on this phrase. It seems negative---like the girls won’t like the running and soccer. Maybe end the sentence at tracks?
[LN2]Maybe cut this—a litte insider baseball?
The Women’s World Cup story was by Jere Longman, who we have loved (as in L-O-V-E-D) for his passion for and commitment to women’s sports, but he was not alone. The AP’s story was picked up in the Detroit Free Press, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and elsewhere.
[LN3]Use parens to isolate thought so we don’t lose track of larger point. Hyperlink?
[LN4]Shortened this hear, because the graph was making the same point as the final graph. And the final graph is so strong, don’t want dilute it.
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