The best womens team in the world wouldnt stand a chance against anything above a good U16 team. I played regional ODP for a season in HS as a defender, and scrimmaged against some of the top womens college teams which the national team gets its players from, and honestly as a 17 year old I think I could have marked any woman striker in the world from any team at that point. Theres just no way a girl can get space on, let alone get past, someone who is 6 4 and athletic. Girls cant switch directions anywhere close to how guys can, their bodies arent designed to, there is a reason why women suffer many more knee and ACL injuries than guys.

Men can run faster, turn and switch directions, have better lung capacity, can pass quicker and over longer distances, all this means they can play a much faster pace, and this makes it not close at all. Not to mention the idea of a girl shooting on a male keeper, and guy shooting on a female keeper. The guys team would win every ball in the air and score a million headers if they wanted to, not much a bunch of 5 5 to 5 7 defenders can do against people who are 6 feet tall and can jump higher in the first play.

Yeah the men's/women's soccer comparison carries over to basketball too. I had a male friend who was a practice player for the women's college team where I go to school and he said he would easily be an all-american in the women's game.

Is there a point in harping on these male/female inequalities in certain sports?

There's a reason they compete separately. One is bigger/stronger/faster than the other.

the only sports I can think off straight of the bat where they are equal are equestrian and archery(!!)

I was really surprised about how good the women are at archery

Correct, but that's not the reason why it's being cut from the Olympics; it's getting cut from the Olympics because the IOC assumed that enthusiasm for international baseball would come if it were included in the Olympics, and it never did.

In short, the Olympics don't need baseball and the baseball doesn't need the Olympics. Not to mention the fact that earlier in this thread there was a guy talking about how his European friends couldn't believe handball wasn't popular in the US, so your last sentence is a double-edged sword. Maybe the IOC didn't recognize baseball's widespread-edness, but that doesn't matter, since then they would just be doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

Also,

No, but expect some people to talk about it until the end of time anyway.

I watched the third round of the match between the Korean guy and the American guy. In two minutes, I counted the following:

* One punch from the Korean that shouldn't have registered, but did;
* One punch from the Korean that should have registered but didn't;
* About two punches from the American that should have registered but didn't, and
* One punch from the Korean that knocked the American over, that was registered as a point for the American (?!?)

While we're on the subject for cutting sports, should we have events that are hopelessly misjudged?

I think the point people were making is mostly about how much they suck and how bad it is to watch them play. Nothing more. If there's no point to that point then so be it. Its also not as obvious to some deluded people as you might think.

Owsley-Agree with most of your points but think you neglected to mention how much superior men are technically to top it all off. If you somehow could reduce a mans team to have similar physical attributes in regards to speed/strength and size to the women they would still destroy them. They would be far too technically superior, tactically aware and have too much spatial awareness for passing etc. I think this was the main point when talking about a women's team playing some U14's.

The boxing is hideous imo. Not only is the judging of scoring punches terrible but it forces the boxers to fight in this ******ed, spectator unfriendly counter punching kind of way.

I don't know if anyone else caught it, but CBC just did an excellent segment about what makes pools faster than others and why the one in Beijing is so fast. I doubt there's a video of it online already but if someone finds it later posting it here would help answer a lot of the questions from a few pages ago.

Yawn Synchronized diving and men's beach volleyball... get to the stuff that matters tonight.

I have been rather negative in this thread, criticizing women's soccer, boxing scoring rules, synchronized judging scoring, tennis' continued inclusion etc.

I would just like to clarify that I still <3 the Olympics .

Anyone got the swimming schedule handy for tonight?

aw damn .... talkin bout pandas, best story yet

edited to full start list- just change it to PM eastern standard time.

10:08am Men's 100m Freestyle -- Semifinals

10:14am Women's 200m Freestyle -- Final

10:21am Men's 200m Butterfly -- Final

10:34am Women's 200m Butterfly -- Semifinals

10:56am Men's 200m Breaststroke -- Semifinals

11:12am Women's 200m Individual Medley -- Final

11:19am Men's 4x200m Freestyle Relay -- Final


Will take top notch efforts by all but the US men could threaten to go under 7 minutes for the first time tonight.

Think it's due to these new bows. The men would have an advantage with the old fashioned bows.

just an fyi... cesar cielo who may not make the finals is the fastest short course yards swimmer in the 50 and 100 distance ever. great swim by Bernard. solid swim by Lezak.

i know nothing about swimming, what makes him the best ever? when you say "short course yards swimmer" does that differ from the event we just watched?

Actually, compound bows aren't allowed in the Olympics.

What's up with like 3 swimmers breaking the WR every race? Is it these new suits?

Another gold, another WR for Phelps, woot.

so good its not fair

This Phelps guy is pretty good at this swimming thing

Yeah, he's pretty good.

I wonder how much another race so soon takes out of him. They're acting like it's no big deal.

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