Cassie Campbell, captain of Canada's Olympic gold medal-winning
women's hockey team, said yesterday at the Western Fair Sports Centre the
less-than-perfect side of hockey is creeping into the girls' game as it becomes
more popular.
Laura Billings, Pioneer
Press Columnist I still recall the hammering I got about
a column praising the U.S. Women’s World Cup soccer champs and wondering if
the widespread enthusiasm for their victory was a sign that women’s sports
had finally come of age.
Hundreds of e-mails poured in, most of them from men, arguing that
the event’s record-breaking audience was due to nothing but media “hype”;
that watching women athletes of any stripe was like “watching grass grow”;
that women’s teams would never find the support of a loyal fan base.
One father whose daughter played left wing on her squirt hockey
team even treated me to a 20-paragraph treatise on the biological differences
that make it impossible for women to understand the “war-like aspects” of
sports.
Well, we’ve come a long way, baby.
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