Monday hangover: Let's all wag our fingers at women's hockey

Holy hockeyballs, media people. Enough with the contrived outrage over the weekend’s Olympic arse-whoopings in women’s ice hockey. If you haven’t heard by now, Canada opened tournament play in Vancouver by throttling Slovakia 18-0 on Saturday, and the U.S. followed suit with a similar 12-1 rout of China on Sunday.

Predictably, columnists from around the globe quickly piled on both teams for, well, piling on their hapless opponents. They also took turns lambasting Olympic officials for the sport’s lack of a mercy rule, for ignoring the disparity between the haves and have-nots, etc., etc. Hell, some even called for the sport’s removal from future Olympiads.

As far as we’re concerned, embarrassments like the ones suffered by the Slovaks and Chinese are part of the price we all pay for living in the Title IX era. Olympic organizers and college presidents now face the same intense pressure from women’s groups — field competitive sports that are anything but competitive, or risk facing the wrath of these groups for fostering “gender inequality”. IOC officials invariably react the same way NCAA officials do: they sanction women’s events that have no business being on the field. Instead of letting these sports grow organically in participation and competition, organizers ram them down people’s throats before these events have truly had the opportunity to sprout on their own.

Shannon Bahrke

Maybe there will come a day when there are more than a couple hundred hockey-playing women in China, or a few dozen softball players in Belgium. Maybe not. But to blame what happened this weekend on anyone other than the self-interest groups who continue to prop up these not-ready-for-primetime sports is laughable. To be clear, we’re not anti-women’s sports. We just humbly suggest that Olympic officials would be better off concentrating on marketing the plethora of winter sports that have legitimate participation and passionate interest among women around the world (and there are many — skiing, snowboarding, skating, etc.). Let the rest be given an opportunity to grow on their own — away from the glare of Olympic scrutiny — or wither away.

On with today’s poopapalooza! (brought to you by America’s lovely pink-haired bronze medalist in moguls, Shannon Bahrke) …

• So how’s NBC making out with that whole Olympic thing this time around? (USA Today)
• Fat guy on a little plane, fat guy on a little plane (E!Online)
• More adult hijinx at a Chuck E. Cheese (Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial-Appeal)
• More evidence that foosball is indeed the work of the devil (Al.com)
• Norwegian curlers draw fashion inspiration from John Daly. Never a good sign (CTV)
• A two-hour-plus pothole delay is definitely NOT what NASCAR needed to soothe its dwindling ratings (ESPN)
• “Family Guy” took a crack at Sarah Palin this week … /*yawn/ (Gawker)
• It’s a fine line between brilliant and stupid, if you’re a Kentucky fan ( (That Fan)

And finally, a whole bevy o’ entertaining vids from the weekend that was …