Keeping Score

Kuronya vs. USA Boxing and more

Something must be in the water over at the Boston Globe - because today they had a variety of  coverage of women's sports. The first was a cover story on Lisa Kuronya, who lives in Maine and won the 2006 USA Boxing Women's National Championship and the 2006 National Golden Gloves Championship. She is suing the US Amateur Boxing for gender discrimination and civil rights violations.

There is also a profile on Kristine Lilly, U.S. Women's Soccer veteran - the story also touches on the future of women's professional soccer.

And most of the pre-marathon coverage section was devoted to women runners - from the past to today's contenders. The print edition ran that great 1967 photo of Kathrine Switzer being tackled by two race officials (women weren't allowed to run then, and she entered with just her intials, they discovered her around mile 4).

And speaking of marathon - I sent all my best wishes to you folks running - it's going to be  a doozy with that wind!

Cross country coverage

As an ex-cross country runner, it was nice to see this piece in the New York Times today on the N.C.A.A. Division I cross-country championships. Johanna Nilsson, a junior at Northern Arizona, won the race.

True athletes

The New York Times has an audio slide show on 28 disabled war veterans (many fought in Iraq) who ran the N.Y.C. Marathon yesterday - all 28 finished. Some lost their limbs less than a year ago, and they ran a marathon! Go to this link and look for "Among the Finishers" - it's worth it.

A look back at the NYC marathon

The New York Times has a personal account written by Miki Gorman, who was the last American woman to win the New York City Marathon (in 1977!). In this account she remembers the first time she won the race in 1976.

Lots of gold medals but not much coverage

The U.S. track team - both men and women - have been raking in the gold medals at the world champsionships, but many Americans, including some media outlets, don't seem to care. Although when sprinter Lauryn Williams won the 100M last week, she did make the front page of a few sports sections. Track & Field is one sport where I think you see lack of coverage/exposure on television for both men and women equally - except when it's the Olypmics. The New York Times addresses this in the lead of "The U.S. Sets a Record by Winning 14 Golds" Christopher Clarey writes ...

"So much for a post-Olympic lull. With a vast majority of Americans paying no attention and with no live television coverage of these track and field world championships at home, the United States team responded with a record of 14 gold medals between the raindrops and baton drops in the Olympic stadium." (NYT, 8/15/05)

In Boston, we are lucky to have sports journalist John Powers - who covers Olympic sports like Track & Field, Gymastics, Skating - on a year round basis for the Boston Globe. He does so much more than write round-up pieces on events. He writes in-depth articles - sometimes profiles of athletes who are not household names - covering both men and women equally.  Here is his latest piece from the Track & Field World Championship.