Interesting NYTimes article

An interesting article by Michael Sokolove is appearing in the May 11th NYTimes magazine. The article is adapted from his book, "Warrior Girls: Protecting Our Daughters Against the Injury Epidemic in Women’s Sports." I wonder if the timing of the story has anything to do with the Eight Belles controversy.


Here's an excerpt:

By Janelle’s and her mother’s count, her club team, with 18 players, had suffered eight A.C.L. tears — eight — during her high-school years: Janelle’s two, another player’s two and four other girls with one each. A high-school teammate one class above Janelle endured chronic ankle problems and, according to a Miami Herald article, six ankle operations — three in each leg — over the course of her four years on the varsity soccer team...

Girls and boys diverge in their physical abilities as they enter puberty and move through adolescence. Higher levels of testosterone allow boys to add muscle and, even without much effort on their part, get stronger. In turn, they become less flexible. Girls, as their estrogen levels increase, tend to add fat rather than muscle. They must train rigorously to get significantly stronger. The influence of estrogen makes girls’ ligaments lax, and they outperform boys in tests of overall body flexibility — a performance advantage in many sports, but also an injury risk when not accompanied by sufficient muscle to keep joints in stable, safe positions. Girls tend to run differently than boys — in a less-flexed, more-upright posture — which may put them at greater risk when changing directions and landing from jumps. Because of their wider hips, they are more likely to be knock-kneed — yet another suspected risk factor.

Interesting stuff, supported by a few empirical observations I've had in the sport trainer's room during college and high school. At the higher levels, the girl swimmers were absolute work horses (with the bandaging and icebags to prove it), and literally worked themselves to the point of tears. While most of the guys worked their brains out too, there were a fair share of natural athletes, especially sprinters, who could dog it for the majority of practice without seeing the difference in their times. And their seemed to be less of a psychological toll, but thats another issue in and of itself.

Clearly , we have to reevaluate our conception of "equality" so that we can recognize concrete differences between without stymieing opportunity. The article also makes some excellent points about athletics during the teenage years; males and females should diversify their interests to avoid the repetitive motion that leads to strains and tears.