Conclusion

After keeping and writing in my very first blog for the entire semester I found it very useful. I enjoyed writing in the blog on a weekly basis. It was helpful to reflect on the different topics we discussed. It made me realize what I actually learned and what it meant to me. It was interesting how I could relate a lot of the topics to my life. When I learn in other classes I don't really think about how it can apply to my life experiences. Most teachers want to apply the material to the classroom. I think it made different topics stick longer which actually made them easier to learn.

I really enjoyed the topics we covered. We were able to discuss athletes and topics from all over the world. This gave me a different perspective on the sporting world and the impact one athlete/sport/topic can have on the global level. My favorite topics we covered were about athletes and debatable topics. I liked discussing and learning more about Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, David Beckham, and Michael Jordan. These athletes are global icons and talking about how they had an impact on the whole world is fascinating. I liked topics such as woman coaches, athletes with disabilities, and Olympic bidding because it led to great group discussions in the classroom.

My favorite part of the class was easily the guest speakers. We had three come into class and talk about a different aspect of sport globalization. They both had great knowledge on different sports and parts of the world. Dr. Cho had great stories from Korea. The fact that he lived there so long and got an education before he came to America made him have a great insight on sport globally. Dr. Meek had a very good European take on global sports. He's seen different sports all over the world. He also had great stories.

The thing I liked least about class was covering topics on different sports. I already knew about rugby and cricket. While these are very popular sports around the world not very many people care about them in the United States. I know this sounds narrowminded but I believe there could have been better topics covered than these. I would have liked to see more guest speakers.

Is there a place for Transgender in sports?

Transgender is a very controversial topic. Some people don't even like to discuss the "touchy" subject, but it is something that needs to be handled in the sports world. As we discussed in class there are guidelines a transgender must follow in order to participate legally. They must go through two years of hormonal injections and have the sex surgery.

As in the case with Richard Raskind he played professional woman's tennis after  previously being a man. He was the age of 41 and did very well. He did so well that people started to question him. I believe he had an unfair advantage. By todays bylaws he would not be able to compete. I found it interesting that he agreed later in his life that when he played, he had an advantage. He was very humble and did not want to take credit for being a pioneer. He had a really good third person view on his life and what he went through

Kye Allums is a transgender man who plays woman basketball. She does not take any different hormones or anything radical like that. She just believes she should be a man. She doesn't have any advantage or disadvantage in her sport. I do not think her press conference to come out was necessary though. Simply coming out for her friends, family, and coaches would have been enough. I'm not telling her to hide it from the media or if people ask, but to put it out there like she did was too much.

Women Coaches

I don't think a woman could ever succeed as a head coach for a contact sport. I don't think a woman could relate to a brutal sport such as football or rugby. They have not been through the two a-days, hitting drills, and all of the mental pain football bring. There is too much physical contact and pain that I don't believe a man would respect a female enough to listen to her. I don't think the girl (Holly) could even  be a successful coach. She wasn't good at all. If I were on her team I don't know if I could respect her. She wasn't in shape which to me means that she doesn't care how well she does. Just because she loves football doesn't mean she loves to play it. She could just pass out water or something on the sideline.When I wrestled in high school there was a girl who wanted to be on the team my Junior year. She didn't try at all and said everything was too hard.She complained a lot and didn't take it serious. It really made me mad. When we would live wrestle I would go really hard to show her how it really is during a match. It wasn't just rolling around on mats like she thought it was. She ended up quitting after a few weeks.

I think the only way that a woman could ever ever coach a full contact sport is if she was really successful at a high level, such as college. She would have to be an all-American and then she could probably coach high school and maybe a D-II -III college. I don't see any large universities taking a chance on a woman anytime soon.

With this being said, I have been coached by a woman. She was our head coach for the guys and girls cross country team. She was a Division I college runner and was also the head coach for the track team. Everyone respected her as a coach and it wasn't an issue that she was a woman. I think that it didn't matter that she was a woman because it was a non physical sport. She could relate to running and everything that goes along with the training and races, because she went through it.

Athletes with disabilities

Oscar Pistorius is South African sprint track runner. His nick name is "blade runner" and he is the fastest man with no legs. Pistorius has raced against able-bodied athletes on the international level and beat them. The IAAF ruled that Pistorius had an unfair advantage by using prosthetic legs and could not compete in sanctioned events. This was later over-turned based that the IAAF didn't have sufficient proof. Oscar did not qualify for the Olympics in 2008 but won 3 gold medals in the Paralympics.  

Oscar is the athlete with a disability that I have heard of most over the last five years. There were many stories on ESPN about him not being eligible for the Olympics. I think he does have a slight edge though. He doesn't have lower legs which means no fatigue and his blade legs are more resilient and absorb a lot of pressure.

When I was in high school I wrestled a kid with one leg two or three times. He had a really big upper body and his arms were larger than anyone else in our weight class. When we wrestled he crawled on his knee and hands. He was actually pretty quick and with the strength he had made him a decent wrestler. I had to adapt to wrestle him and learn how to beat him the way he wrestled.

Olympic Bidding

The process to bring the Olympics to a specific country is a huge process that can mean billions of dollars being poured into your economy. It can take years to put together a bid that is worth enough to be put in contention with other countries. Governments spend a lot of money developing a plan to even get a nomination.
We spent class time trying to develop a plan for our chosen country to get the chance to host the Olympics. There were so many factors and different aspects of our country to highlight, it was difficult to put together a representation good enough in that time. The binders Dr. Spencer let us use showed projects from former graduate students. I feel like this would be a fun project to actually do. I'm sure they had a month to work on it though.
The Olympics are my favorite sporting activity to watch. I love seeing the best athletes in the world compete against each other. There are so many different events that are not mainstream that are broad casted during the Olympics. My first memory of the Olympics was watching Apolo Anton Ohno in the 2002 games held in Salt Lake City.

Tiger Woods

I enjoy discussing current topics like Tiger Woods. He just finished up playing in the Presidents Cup held in Australia. He played well all week and actually clinched the cup for the Americans. While he is still not back to his form he was three years ago, this is a big step forward for the struggling Tiger.

Tiger has not been the same player, or viewed as the same person since the scandal that happened two years ago. He hasn't won a tournement since. Tiger has been through a lot and everyone is expecting him to still be the same golfer he was then. I don't think someone can go through everything he did and even be the same person after, let alone the same golfer. Golf is such a mental sport and it takes a while to get your head straight after something so life changing.

I'm rooting for Tiger to come back. It may take longer than everyone expects, but eventually I believe he will dominate again. I saw him golf over the  summer at the Firestone Inviational in Akron. He did not play well, but he still had the biggest following. It's always interesting to see an athelete with as much auroa as Tiger Woods.

Globalizing American Sports with International Stars

America has always had global athletes in our biggest sports. The best athletes in the world normally have always came to America to play baseball, football, and basketball. Soccer stars are exported from America to Europe where the best clubs and players are, and once Canada finds something worth value, they try to hold on to it forever. The latter two are the starting point of why David Beckham and Wayne Gretzky coming to the U.S. to compete had a huge impact on culture and their respective sport.

Wayne Gretzky was traded to the L.A. kings at the height of his popularity. He was a multiple Stanley Cup champion and was already one of the best hockey players ever. This was a shock to everyone in the hockey world. He was going from the best team, to one of the worst. His fans in Edmonton felt like their whole team was traded to L.A. Canada felt like they lost a member of royalty and the whole city of L.A. had hockey fever when he came over. Gretzky put the spot light on professional hockey in America in a huge way. Youth numbers rose, attendance rose, and sheer interest in the sport rose.

I can relate to Gretzky leaving Canada from when the Browns left and went to Baltimore. Cleveland was a football city and their prized posession was taken away from them. Even though the Browns weren't as good as Gretsky, it still meant a lot to the fans.

David Beckham took advatage of his celebrity stature and came to America. He was past his prime in his soccer carrer. He came to L.A. to bring attention to soccer. His attempt wasn't a failure, but it didn't take off like it could have. I think if Beckham wasn't injured, and in his prime, soccer would have taken off like crazy. When Beckham traveled, more people did go out to see him. However, he was injured a lot and didn't get as many touches as fans wanted to see. He wasn't the great striker that he once was. On his new team, he wasn' even the best player. I never got to see him play, but would have loved to when he was at the top of his game.