Women in Sport
Women in sport have been limited in opportunities and limited in encouragement and limited by public opinion. I've seen changes that have helped more women become athletes at younger ages than ever before. I see young fit, athletic women enjoying that awesome feeling of being in the best shape of your life and competing with the joy this can bring. Giving women choices and encouraging women should not be a special thing. It should be as equal and open as it is for men. Ask yourself why shouldn't women be competitive and athletic? USAT and Ironman activities to support women in the sport are great, but still not quite enough.
I reflect on how things have changed as I have aged. It's been an interesting ride through several sports for me. In 9th grade in high school, I joined the gymnastics team. One of four choices for women in sports in my high school Gymnastics, Basketball, Volleyball or Track. I had always suffered from low blood sugar and I think perhaps I had some gluten or sugar issues because each day I'd get sick about 10 AM if I had eaten cereal, which was often. I wasn't very good at any sport and I was very skinny and uncoordinated. I often had trouble with my endurance. I was almost always last to be chosen for any team throughout grade school and high school. Gymnastics
However, gymnastics came around about the time I began to mature and over time I began to fill out and my metabolism began to normalize a bit with exercise. I was eating more protein and I was able to avoid cereal in the mornings as I could make my own choices for oatmeal or peanut butter toast. In Gymnastics I gained flexibility, strength, and tone. I was on the gym team in college for a couple of years but still not very good. Although, practice 4 days a week for 2 hours did a lot for my flexibility, strength, and tone and taught me how to be an athlete.
In that day and age, the years of 1972-1976, women were still not encouraged to be athletes and most exercises for women were diet and shape focused rather than endurance and fitness. I ended up with a very muscular physique that was not "in style" back then but I felt great and was interested in continuing to feel that way. In both high school and college, the women's gym teams had to use the periphery of the gym because the male basketball players were "more important" We rarely had the gym to ourselves. Women basketball players had to train at 5 AM because that was the only time the gym was available...read that the only time the men weren't using it.
In the next few years, I had to quit the team because my education required that I go out of town every other semester for cooperative education on the way to my masters in engineering. Once I left college I sought out ways to exercise again. I joined the local Y and coached the girl's gymnastics team for a time and began training to be a judge in gymnastics but lost interest because I was no longer able to do gymnastics myself.
Body Building
About that time I read a book by a woman named Lisa Lyon.
From Wikipedia: Born in Los Angeles, California in 1953. Lisa Lyon studied art at the University of California at Los Angeles. There she became accomplished in the Japanese art of fencing, kendo, but found herself lacking sufficient upper body strength so she began weight training. This eventually led her into bodybuilding.[1]
Lyon entered and won the first International Federation of BodyBuilders Women’s World Pro Bodybuilding Championship in Los Angeles on June 16, 1979. This was the only bodybuilding competition of her career. She appeared in many magazines and on television talk shows, promoting bodybuilding for women. She also wrote a book on weight training for women titled Lisa Lyon’s Body Magic (ISBN 0-553-01296-7), which was published in 1981.[1]
Her stats as taken on October 1980:[2] Bust 37A, Waist 24", Hips 35", Height 5' 4", Weight 120 lbs, Hair Color brunette. At the time, she could dead-lift 225 pounds, bench-press 120 pounds, and squat 265 pounds.[3]
In 1980, she was one of the only women in this sport. This type of physique received a LOT of negative reactions and when I began lifting I was advised that I would ruin my body and would become very unattractive as a result. I ignored this advice.
She wrote a book and I began to go to the weight room to lift weights from reading her books. I also tried to join the master swim group but was terrible. The best I did was swim breaststroke and at the first meet, I swallowed a ton of water and thought I was going to drown. That was the end of that endeavor. However, because of the gymnastics, I had a lot of upper body strength and weight lifting was easy. After I would lift I would stretch to keep my flexibility and one of the men in the weight room started talking to me. I turned out he was the martial arts instructor at the Y and he tried for months to get me involved in his classes. I resisted until he offered to teach me for free for a month if I would attend. I finally agreed.
Martial Arts
Once I began this sport a whole world opened up for me. The instructor was correct. I was a natural at this sport. I began to train seriously not long after while still lifting weights. As I got stronger and moved up through the ranks I was also competing more and more and winning almost all competitions I entered. I began to consider what was possible for me in the sport. I won the state championship in 1983. I was getting a lot of flack from all sides, my work, my family, and my friends who advised me that this sport was not a real sport, that I was ruining my body, etc. The idea at that time was still that women didn't sweat and I was training 2 hours every night after work coming home soaking wet from my own sweat. This was not "ladylike" I was one of 2 female instructors in the school and of the students, there were about 5% females.
This was not a place where women were flocking for classes.
In the 1980s women were dressing up in cute outfits and doing cardio light with Jane Fonda. I was beating up men and women every week in a ring. I took my championship and despite needing my blackbelt (I was one rank below black at that point) I went to the national championship with a borrowed black belt from the master. I didn't win but had I won I would not have been allowed to compete in the PanAm games anyway since the black belt was required. I was excited however and in 1983 the Olympic Committee was planning for Tae Kwon Do to be an exhibition sport in 1986. I was planning to train for the Olympics. I achieved my 1st-degree black belt and I began to box with a golden glove boxer and spent most of my waking hours training or competing. Then disaster struck. I fell through a catwalk at work because someone had left a part of the catwalk out leaving a hole for someone to step through. This injured my back L1, L2 and L3 were herniated and the pain became unbearable over time. I had to leave the sport.
I knew a guy in 1982 who was training for Kona Ironman. He did go and I was inspired and added Ironman to my list of things I wanted to do eventually. At the time I was otherwise focused, however, and in Ohio, I did know anyone else doing triathlons at that time.
Body Building again
I went back to bodybuilding and spent a lot of time at Gold's Gym; the local hyper male steroid pumped gym. ( I have a lifetime membership at Golds from those days) I had a partner for my training and she was about 5'4" and her body was pumped up pretty quickly. Turns out it's much harder to build muscles with longer limbs. I never competed in this sport but spent a couple years at this sport until the back pain caused me to leave it as well.
Yoga
After years as a tough competitor in sports that required hard effort, going to yoga seemed like nothing. But because the back pain had nearly sidelined any activity at all, yoga was my only possible choice. I was having trouble sitting for longer than 15 minutes and sleep was difficult. I would take quite a while to stand up from sitting and the pain was never completely gone. Another physical disaster struck me from my work next. I was poisoned by Nutrasweet at the factory and this caused me to have CFS. I was unable to work and went on disability. After feeling sorry for myself for about 5 for months, I decided to just do what I could. I went to a yoga class and after six weeks, the back pain was gone. I still had CFS with all the problems; migraines, constant fatigue, loss of appetite, mental confusion, dyslexia issues, light sensitivity, and depression. However, solving the back pain was a positive step. I went back to school for my doctorate (tough at any time but try it with severe CFS!) and didn't exercise for quite a few years. In fact, I got married, had a baby and started a very demanding new job, was the breadwinner for the family and put my husband through college. We moved to KY and I began teaching yoga at the YWCA, donating the payments back to the Y for 8 years.
When my daughter was about 6, I was feeling better and joined a local martial arts school
Martial Arts
Back in martial arts, I wanted to gain my 2nd degree. While I did manage to do this, I saw that competition in Tae Kwon Do had changed quite a bit from a focus on finesse, strategy and kicks to simply landing as many physically shocking punches as possible. I tried to compete but even when I won I was beaten up pretty badly and I realized I was not interested in the competition and couldn't sustain that level of damage to my body and function professionally any longer. I trained regularly and enjoyed it but the loss of competition was sad for me. The sport was still not a place for many women.
However the idea of what a woman's physique should be had changed. Healthy, fit and muscular women were gaining acceptance. Also, women's sports were becoming more interesting to the public. The Olympics with women in Tae Kwon Do had introduced really tough female athletes to the world and younger women wanted to be like them. Title IV was also beginning to have an effect with more women athletes graduating from college seeking ways to continue to be athletic.
Divorce and just exercising
Once I received my 2nd-degree black belt, life began to get really tough. Divorce and a new job took up a lot of my attention and I was unable to do more than about 1/2 hour every few days at the gym. This extended to long after the divorce and eventually a new job in Chicago.
Triathlon
In 2010, I saw a sign that offered to train me for the Chicago Triathlon if I would fundraise for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. I was overweight, stressed out, depressed and not entirely sure I could do it, but my brother had died of AIDS in 1986 and I wanted to honor his memory. I had figured the dream to do an ironman was long gone, but perhaps I could do a shorter one and honor him at the same time and say I had done it. That year I completed the OLY distance triathlon at 4:52. The old thrill of being an athlete and competing was awakened again that year. I knew I had found something I could have fun with and I could pursue it at my fitness level. I began the journey in triathlon, yet another sport dominated by men. I had several bad experiences along the way. I went to a computrainer site to train and was ignored and although I asked for help I got none. I left without training. I tried to join a cycling ride and was left behind within four blocks, never saw the group again and finally figured out how to get home disappointed and upset. I went for a ride with friends, all male, who met a younger woman along the way, took off with her and left me in the middle of an unfamiliar area and it took me an hour to figure out how to get back to my car. I was upset and disappointed and angry even though I had a good ride. I became a coach and worked with other coaches but often with male coaches, anything I say is either over-ridden with mansplaining or corrected in public. I quit contributing to teaching/coaching groups with other male coaches.
Now more athletes are competing later in age. Triathlon is probably one of the best sports around (besides swimming) that attracts athletes in their 70s and 80s. I'm seeing many male athletes in the 70+ age group when I compete, who are competitive and do very well. I see many more women 60+ these days as well. Waves of 25-30 for age groups of 60+ or 50+ are common. Some male 70+ athletes compete in nationals who are faster than I have ever been in these races. I like to see what age group I'd be competitive with at nationals. Often they are over 75+ before I'd be competitive at 63.
Check out the link in this title. Women are competing into their 70s and 80s in small numbers but they are role models for me like Lisa Lyon was during my 20s. They promote the idea that how you age is a choice. It's not necessary to feel bad or be unfit. However, most women over 50 have not had a chance to ever be an athlete in their lives. Lack of opportunity and social pressures have limited their interest and access. Even intrepid women can be discouraged from joining a sport by unwelcome behaviors I shared above. How we encourage women is important. Making the sport accessible and providing support for novices that express interest is very important. Most males have done some kind of sport most of their lives. This is not true for women. We can't just open the door, we have to offer a helping hand as well.
That's why I prefer to coach older women. I want to share my experiences and make them feel they can be athletes, will be successful and are encouraged to continue when the going gets tough. I know women can do well. One thing most women are familiar with is persevering through adversity and pain. That to me is the makings of an endurance athlete.
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