Agony on the slopes: Should women jump?
In the Globe & Mail, we were alerted to this article posted Feb 1, 2014 by Margaret Wente titled “Agony on the slopes: Should women jump?”
She talks about the anatomical differences between men and women as predisposing women to a higher number of injuries in ski jumping. Margaret Wente comments “But there’s another, darker side to this inspiring tale – one that isn’t discussed much. Female ski racers and jumpers pay a higher price than men because they’re hurt more. The most common major injury to elite skiers is ruined knees, and women wreck their knees twice as often as men do. ”
She concludes with “….But I cannot think we should encourage our daughters to emulate the heroics of the female ski-jump team, no matter how big a victory they symbolize for women’s rights. …. We need to be more honest with ourselves – and our daughters – about the limitations of the female body. Of course the girls can jump – there’s no doubt of that. Whether they should jump is another matter.”
Click here for the full opinion piece.
What do you think?
Here are a few extracts from the 101 comments (and counting) section:
“These are interesting arguments but oddly presented through the gender lens. The reasons presented for women not skiing could be used to keep men from boxing. Why is it ok to support a son in a pursuit that often results in brain injury but wrong to support a daughter who might injure her knee?”
“The “gender lens” is not odd because that is where the discrepancy lies. Women get hurt far more frequently. Not blondes. Not people with brown eyes or shorter than 5’6″. Not people from a particular region or using certain equipment.”
“Margaret Wente didn’t say we should prevent women from participating in these sports. Rather, she suggested that we should be cautious about encouraging them to participate. Given the likelihood and probable severity of injuries, it would be irresponsible not to ensure that these women know the risks.”
What do you think? Join in the discussion.
If I were to guess I would say the experts she has consulted are at the end of the woman’s story- they are surgeons. They fix things that are broken. They don’t ask why they just do the best they can to replace the broken part.
Clinically I can tell you ACL tears are often a symptom of poor strain/force transmission . Scientifically I can tell you oral contraceptives weaken connective tissue (that’s what the ACL is) and training, girls and women historically are not trained the same as boys and men. Women’s ACLs don’t break because they are women. We need to find out what contributing to this situation and correct it.
I’m talking about the difference between correlation and causation.