Alpine SkiingFemale alpine skiing
Getty Images
Like all the years of these times, but also at different times, Lindsey Vonn's request is made to compete with men at the Lake Louise World Cup men's descent.
Saturday 30 September 2017 7 minutes reading time
This is also the official request of the US Federsci to the FIS that will have to deal with it in the autumn congress that will take place in Zurich from 3 to 7 October. We are not interested in what the federal council will do, we are interested in examining the positive and negative aspects of the US championship on the Canadian track in the November 25th descent reserved for men.
Among the positive aspects of Alpine skiing would undoubtedly be the great media space that would be given to this challenge, probably even in Italy. As in all the specialties of this sport in the men's field, competition is very high but the real characters as well as those who can win the World Cup are very few, and those few have a golden opportunity to exploit because of Marcel Hirscher's handicap starts with ankle fracture, which has been the only true offspring (and provocatively the only true polyvalent) of the male alpine skiing currently in circulation. Therefore Lindsey's presence at the starting gate is undoubtedly the main reason for the descent that will take place in less than two months.
It is clear that Lindsey's desire to compete against men at Lake Louise is no accident: he is undoubtedly his favorite track since he has won us 14 times downhill and 4 in superG. And here we come to the negative aspects of his desire. It is true that he could hardly win, and he could not even do so on other more demanding slopes such as Streif or Lauberhorn, for which he never asked to compete, but for her to do the tests and race with men would be a enormous advantage in view of the two female descents of the following week compared to all his opponents, that to race with men do not even think about it remotely. It is true that snow conditions can change from one day to the next but having already had the perception of the ground of a track that among other things knows centimeter by centimeter would give it a certain advantage.
Moreover, the regulation does not speak anywhere about the possibility for women to compete with men. For a very simple reason: that the physical and power difference between men and women is too large and it is assumed that the races, at least individual ones, are either male or only female. In other sports, we remember the challenges of men and women in tennis: in 1973, the 54-year-old Bobby Riggs played with the two best tennis players at that time, younger than about a quarter of a century: first beat Margaret Court and then lost with Billie Jean King: in the second case perhaps underestimated the match, having clearly won the first, but it is clear that the age difference played a crucial role. In 1992, Jimmy Connors, 40, was beaten by Martina Navratilova, 36, while disadvantaged by the rules of the game: he had only one service available and Martina's strikes were also considered good in the corridor as well as in double.
Different speech in the sports of the mind, where the physical component is much less important: in chess, for example, women can play with men in any tournament, even in the chess games, every two years, there is the Open tournament , where they can play men and women together, and only women. Yet one woman has reached the highest levels, the Hungarian Judit Polgár, the third of three chess-chess sisters shaped by her father, who since childhood played only tournaments against men and snubbed the feminine ones and thus, the only woman in history, has exceeded 2700 Elo points, which represent the highest excellence for a chess player.
In short, it is difficult for a sportsman to do better than the strongest male colleagues or even just to reach their level. Also, for the reasons we have said, Lindsey Vonn's presence at the Lake Louise descent would be a major handicap for his opponents. But there is no doubt that his challenge, if realized, would represent an epochal event in the history of alpine skiing and sport in general.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Social media engagement
Ultimi in Sport invernali
Infortunio al ginocchio per Gritti ed è out anche Buio: l'Italia si affida a Zamboni per le finali di Predaia
La stagione dello sci d'erba vivrà il culmine tra sabato e domenica in Trentino con la tappa conclusiva di Coppa del Mondo. Sul tracciato di casa, Filippo Zamboni proverà ancora ad insidiare Knapp per la generale, anche se il distacco è enorme, guidando una nazionale priva di due big: i convocati.
2