Why do the Olympics segregate by gender, but not by race?

[cheezus]

I was just watching some post water-polo filler on the CBC, and they were talking about one of their athletes who was instrumental in getting her sport into the Olympics - Women's trap shooting. Now there are separate men's and women's divisions.

Um, excuse me, but why is this necessary? Men are just naturally that much better at shooting a clay pigeon? The rifle is just SO heavy, and men gain that much of an advantage?

Why are there two categories?

Sure, there are some sports where the men are a magnitude better than the women. Take basketball, for instance. It's only fair to have a separate team for women, as they would end up being excluded if it were mixed gender.

Then again, how many white guys are there on our basketball team? It seems as though the black players are better, and the white guys are being excluded. Does that mean that there should be separate division for white guys?

I honestly can't come up with a good answer for this, thus I leave it to you guys.

[troublemaker]

1. The shooting sports are segregated so women don't win them all

For whatever reason, women are the best target shooters. There are theories, but nobody knows for sure why. You'll notice that men and women shoot at different distances so the results cannot be compared head-to-head.

But just because women are good at something doesn't mean it shouldn't be segregated! If so, that would suggest integrating other sports, and we really don't want to see gender integrated boxing and basketball.

[cheezus]

2. WHY don't we want to see gender integrated boxing and basketball?

that's what I'm confused about.

[devlin radiset]

4. sex integrated boxing would probably result in

a lot of badly injured women...

[NewJeffCT]

8. well, to be honest

I'm a huge supporter of women's athletics (it's an unwritten requirement if you live in Connecticut)... but, to be honest, if basketball & many other sports were integrated, women would not be involved in the top level competitions.

The US women's olympic basketball team would struggle to beat a good boy's high school team. I used to follow & report on high school basketball closely and a few Olympics' ago, the US women's olympic hoop team lost to a pick-up team of high school boys. Granted, one of those kids eventually went on to become a pretty good player at St. John's, but these kids were not even the best of the best high schoolers.

[Chovexani]

3. I'm not sure

But I wanted to chime in to say I LOVE your avatar. That guy and Smoove B. are my favorite Onion columnists. :)

[Vladimir]

5. I think the difference is that

white guys can play basketball as well as black guys (witness Yugoslavia, Argentina, Greece, Latvia etc.) but women are quite simply physically disadvantaged. Whereas with something like shooting, you are right, it makes no sense. Or indeed any number of other sports...

[skygazer]

6. Some things aren't segregated

In the equestrian events (which they never televise - grrr...), men and women compete equally. I honestly can't think of any other in which they do but at least those of us who ride horses are equal opportunity (well, to a point. Come to think of it, you don't see too many black and hispanic riders out there. :( )

[Caution]

7. Ask Rush Limbaugh...

sheesh, they dont separate by race because people are people. In most of the "timed" and "strength" events there is a disparate level of competition between men and women (though that gap is closing).

I would agree that there are many sports where the gender gap makes no sense whatsoever (shooting, diving, gymnastics among others) and should probably be abolished, however quite a bit of history stands in the way of this, additionally by providing for a gender gap, there are many additional medals given out which provides for a greater opportunity to provide for press coverage of any given sport, and which provides more opportunity for the athletes to sustain a living after the Olympics. There are pros and cons here. While many male and female athletes may know that the gender gap in many events is meaningless, they also know that by closing that gap, opportunity to excel becomes more limited.

[kiahzero]

12. Gymnastics?

There are different EVENTS for men and women in gymnastics, so how can you say that "the gender gap makes no sense."

[Caution]

17. Yes there are, but it is hard to justify

without seeing a woman try the event or vice-versa. I havent seen this and have no idea one way or the other what the requirements here are.

Another poster mentioned the rings for men, but I disagree, I know enough women who can easily lift their own bodyweight to wonder why this is a gender separated event.

I'm not an expert of gender specifics in sports so I may be wrong in my assessment there, but I'd be surprised if there was a woman who trained at it for as long as the men do and who had natural strength who couldn't pull this off.

[troublemaker]

13. Gymnastics?

I don't want to see women on the rings or men on the balance beam. Actually, I would be interested to SEE it, out of curiosity, but not as Olympic competition. I doubt any woman in the world can do the most basic NCAA level rings routine. I also suspect that no man could do a lot of the balance beam stuff due to hip structure and center of gravity issues, but I am less certain of that.

[UdoKier]

9. Post water polo filler?

I thought the water polo was filler...

Honestly, there are WAY too many sports in the olympics now.

[Vladimir]

11. Water polo

is one of the most physically demanding sports out there. Now curling and beach vollyeball, that's filler...

[UdoKier]

15. I'm sure it is. They look very athletic. That doesn't make it good TV.

ZZZzzz- zzz-zzzz

[Vladimir]

16. I quite enjoy it myself

but then I grew up by the coast so anything involving water gets me going...

[Ravenseye]

10. Why Not Have it for different Sizes?

Using race is not the answer.

Why not just have Basketball Height 6'6"+ and Height 6 to 6'6" and under 6'

They do it in boxing for weight with different dvisions for different sized people, so the little squirts can do something, otherwise all boxing would be beheamoths. Should it be the same for other sports that are pretty much size dependent?

and get rid of anything with 'artistry' or any kind of 'creative' merit. I can buy synchronized diving, maybe....but the girls gymnastics stuff on the floor....*sigh*...just have em do lots of tumbles and jumps. thats the good stuff...they run and do a really cool tumble flip jump etc. then they just wave their arms and prance for 30 seconds. Judge them on their athletic skill.

Yes sometimes you have to have Judges for technical merit competitions, but deciding artistic aspects is just bunk. I know alot of people disagree with me, but thats just how I feel.

[troublemaker]

14. Height is not the issue in basketball, it's jumping ability

Spud Webb at 5'5" won the NBA slam dunk competition one year, while 6'8" women in the WNBA cannot dunk at all.