| Soaring-stam
By Patryk Fournier May 23rd, 2005 |
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I'll be the first to admit that I'm just as guilty as the rest of the media is in the lack of coverage women's sports receives. I have nothing against women's sports; in fact I favour women's tennis to men's and would prefer to watch the Canadian women's soccer team over the men's any day of the week. Don't get me wrong, I also don't feel bad about panning women's sports especially when it comes to leagues like the WNBA, which is to the sports what Moncton, New Brunswick is to major concert venues. I'm not sure what's more baffling; the overreaction a basic basketball shot received when Lisa Leslie finally completed a slam-dunk after many failed attempts or why the Rolling Stones chose Moncton as a tour stop. Moncton? Really? Did they think this one through? If they think Moncton is one of those hidden Canadian gems like Whistler or Banff they're sadly in need of a better atlas. The reality of women's sports is that large-scale media attention is usually adorned on women that are marketable i.e. attractive. Danica Patrick, a rookie racecar driver in the IRL driving series has been receiving considerable attention lately for initially drawing the pole position for the upcoming Indy 500. Patrick isn't the first woman driver to come along but she's receiving more attention than her predecessors because she's young (23 yrs old), able to hold her own against the men and perhaps most importantly in women's sports, is attractive. LPGA golfer Natalie Gulbis rated by many as the unofficial hottie of the tour receives plenty of attention off the greens despite her lack of success on the course. The attention comes in the form of sponsorships, a high-profile relationship with Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger, and an upcoming reality show on the Golf Channel. This is nothing new because we watched Anna Kournikova write the blueprint for exploiting good looks. Lost in all of this is the actual attention that should be paid on the accomplishment of female athletes and perhaps no female athlete is more deserving of attention than LPGA golfer Annika Sorenstam.
Even in her own sport she's overshadowed by the aforementioned Gulbis and 15-year old phenom Michelle Wie despite the fact that she's winning on the tour in even more dominant fashion than Tiger Woods was able to do during his 2000 Tiger Slam year. To kick off the 2005 season Sorenstam has won 4 out of the 5 tournaments she's entered and dating back to the end of the 2004 season she has won 8 out of the last 11 tournaments she's played in. To put that in perspective, during Tiger's best year he posted victories in 9 out of the 20 tournaments he entered. And Annika's not just narrowly edging out her competition either, she's blowing the competition away; she won the Kraft Nabisco Championship by eight strokes and then topped that by winning the Chick-fil-A Charity Championship by ten strokes. Annika has mentioned many times in interviews that she sets specific personal goals for herself. Just 11 years into her career she's won 60 tournaments (28 off the all-time record), qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame, accomplished the career grand slam and competed on the PGA tour when she received a sponsor's exemption in 2003 at the Colonial and held her own by shooting a 71-74 before failing to make the cut. Her biggest unrealized goal to win all four majors in a single season may soon come to fruition (she's already won the first major). So you can see why Sorenstam competes against her own goals because she's faced with little competition on the tour. Perhaps in a sports world that has become saturated with parity, Sorenstam's dominance has become difficult to accept. I just know as a sports fan that I like being able to count on an athlete to show their best week-in and week-out.
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