Graphic Source: Greenstreet

Some women athletes complain that they are not recognized for their abilities, but only for their looks. I tested this theory by doing a search on Google and entering “women athletes”. The search was conducted on October 5, 2008 and might change by the time you read this article, but I have to admit that the women were right. The very first website on the list was “Sorapedia: Top Most Beautiful Women Athletes in Beijing Olympic 2008”. I have to say that this did surprise me. Women who discussed this, claimed that this site was first on Google's list because so many men went to it and that pushed the site's rating into first place. In all fairness the second site on the list was, “10 Greatest women athletes”. The point is not lost on me however.

Here is one of the problems, while there are some really great women athletes out there, some of the games that women play are tailored for women and have different rules even though they are supposedly the same ones that the men compete in. Right off the top of my head I can't help but think about women's boxing and women's hockey. Because of the changes made to those sports, they are far easier than the male equivalent. I have to tell you the truth, I never did understand why if women are playing each other in hockey, most of the hitting was taken out. It isn't like they are playing with much bigger men. These rule changes in hockey tend to make the game not quite as interesting to the male audience and that is approximately half of those who would be in attendance. Look how boxing has been changed for women, the rounds are 2 minutes instead of 3. Their chest area has to be protected changing the dynamic of the sport.

Graphic Source: Greenstreet

As we all know, there are some sports that are either identical or practically identical that women compete in. Who could ever forget one of the best performances of any Olympic team in the history of the sport? It was by two women, Keri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor. It was their 108^th consecutive victory, no mean feat in itself. They were the only team to win gold in back to back Olympic Games. As far as I was concerned, what they did ranked right up there with the great wins of Michael Phelps. These women might have even been able to beat all of the men's teams. The big difference between the women and men were that most of the men's teams served much harder and the men were much taller. While the women wouldn't be able to serve that hard, they were much more agile than the men and were able to save some incredible shots. That team truly impressed me.

Many people believe that Jackie Joyner-Kersee was the greatest of all the women athletes. One woman stated that, "You could see that she loved everything she did and that she invested every ounce of strength she had in it," Sports Illustrated picked her as the greatest woman athlete of the 20^th century. When she was 10 years old, legislation was passed that mandated equal access to sports for men and women in this country. The legislation was known as Title IX. She showed her talent in the Olympics by winning three gold, one silver and two bronze medals over 4 Olympic games. If we look at the rest of the list of great women athletes we see Babe Didrikson Zaharias as number 2, Billie Jean King as number 3, Sonja Henie as number 4, with Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert as numbers 5 and 6. All of these women accomplished great things in the world of sports.

Graphic Source: Greenstreet

So how good were these women athletes when we compare them to men? In 1996, while recovering from a hamstring injury, Jackie Joyner-Kersee was able to jump a record distance of 22 feet 11 ¾ inches in the Summer Olympics. The current men's record is held by Mike Powell and is 8.95 meters or 29.36 feet, but we are comparing an Olympic record with a World record. The women's world record is 7.52 meters which is about 24.67 feet and was accomplished by Galena Chistyakova of Russia in 1988. You can see that because of the height difference between men and women, this is one sport that has to remain divided by sex. Figure skating teams made up of both women and men have competed for years and this is one area where women and men are pretty evenly matched with the edge, if there is one, going to the women for grace.

One sport where I always thought that women could hold their own against men is curling. That is the sport where you see people sliding “a rock” down the ice and using a broom to clear the ice in front of it to make it go further. It is like shuffleboard on ice, but with much larger and heavier pieces. The game is more skill than anything else and I think that the advantage a man has of being bigger and usually stronger, is not anywhere as important as accuracy. I would love to see the Olympic teams made up of both women and men on the same team in this sport. Curling is a game that originated in Scotland and usually has two or four person teams competing against each other. Another game where I believe women could compete against men is pool. I haven't seen it in the Olympics yet, but who knows, it could become an Olympic sport.

There is no doubt that some women could beat some men in Marathon running, but again, probably because of the size differential between men and women and the more muscular structure of men, the women's marathon record and men's marathon record is very different. Paula Radcliffe set the Marathon record for women in 2003. Her run was 2 hours 15 minutes and 25 seconds. In 2007 Haile Gebrselassie set the men's record at 2 hours 4 minutes and 26 seconds. If we go back to the #499th greatest men's Marathon, the winner ran at 2 hours 8 minutes and 57 seconds.

I believe that women should compete against men in some sports. If there is no physical danger to them by men, why not? I bet that most women would welcome this chance with open arms.