John Caldwell wrote an article for FasterSkier.com recently that's interesting to read. I started to write a blog commenting on the comments at the bottom of the article but then I remembered that you can make a Simpson's Avatar of yourself on the Simpson's Movie website so I did that instead and put my avatar up as my facebook picture.
Usually I think I have my priorities straightened out and my time-management skills finely honed, but sometimes I clearly do not.
I was bemused by J.Caldwell's article. Aside from being scoffed at: "The US sent 12 skiers to compete at Sapporo and here are the finish places along with the number of finishers in the order of the events: Ladies' individual sprint-- 22,24/71; Men's individual sprint-- 5,21,31,47/78. Ladies' team sprint--11/18, did not qualify for the finals." Hey! that number 24 right there is me, and I'm that 11 too! I'm not just a number... I'm a person!
I am relieved, however, to know that he has two more parts to his series. They're going to have to be really long though since it takes 10 put-ups to counteract each put-down (wisdom from third grade).
I will say that I think that Colin R. has the best comment so far, he makes one point and makes it succinctly.
Usually I think I have my priorities straightened out and my time-management skills finely honed, but sometimes I clearly do not.
I was bemused by J.Caldwell's article. Aside from being scoffed at: "The US sent 12 skiers to compete at Sapporo and here are the finish places along with the number of finishers in the order of the events: Ladies' individual sprint-- 22,24/71; Men's individual sprint-- 5,21,31,47/78. Ladies' team sprint--11/18, did not qualify for the finals." Hey! that number 24 right there is me, and I'm that 11 too! I'm not just a number... I'm a person!
I am relieved, however, to know that he has two more parts to his series. They're going to have to be really long though since it takes 10 put-ups to counteract each put-down (wisdom from third grade).
I will say that I think that Colin R. has the best comment so far, he makes one point and makes it succinctly.
Labels: faster skier
posted by LAV at 20:23
5 Comments:
Hey, thanks for the shout out!
I'll be interested to see what John has to say going forward, but it seemed as though his first article was mainly criticizing the current USST for cherry-picking data to make things seem better than they are, and then turning around and doing the exact same thing to make things seem worse than they are.
I don't know jack about elite skier development, but I do know a little about hypocrisy :)
Laura, I like your blog and your thoughts and insights on xc skiing. I appreciate that as an elite US skier you take the time to communicate to others what your life is like. No one else does this like you! You are very cool (and no doubt very smart)!
Something I don’t get though … and I’d appreciate your thoughts on this: You read fasterskier comments and the posts (like those on Mr. Caldwell’s article) are 100% male. Why is this? What’s with women xc skiers in this country? Why don’t women jump into and get engaged with public discussions on xc skiing? Women have an equal ownership of the sport of xc skiing in this country. Women xc skiers are in general smarter than male xc skiers … so why don’t women speak up? Especially on fasterskier?
ak girls-
Your questions could be prompts for a phd thesis. One could easily while away a good four years trying to come up with a sufficient answer.
Peeling back the first layer of the onion only I would say:
-FasterSkier is a public forum and women are raised to belong in the private sphere and men to belong in the public sphere.
-Women don't have an equal ownership in skiing. Not only are the fasterskier comments by men, the coaches are men, the wax techs are men, the industry reps are men... and a lot of the posters are coaches or work in the ski industry (Axelrod, Brown, Jerome, Gusev, Harvey, maybe some more).
-and after your comment here Carol Newell did comment so you loose the clout of saying 100%
-At least you NOTICED because if you noticed and are asking questions then other people are noticing and asking the same questions. And that's the first step.
maybe it’s time for us girls to break out of this sphere, take ownership of our share of the xc world and start kicking some ass ….
agreed!
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