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Phil (email@hidden) thought you would be interested in this article from http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Editorial on Hayley

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>From globeandmail.com, Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Hayley's wall





 From Abby Hoffman to Justine Blainey to Hayley Wickenheiser, Canadian girls and women have battled for decades for the right to compete at the highest level possible in hockey. Alas, barriers still remain. Ms. Wickenheiser, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound (1.8-metre, 76-kilogram) forward known as the Wayne Gretzky of women's hockey, was on the verge of signing with a professional men's team in Italy. The Italian Ice Hockey Federation said no. Why, said the federation, doesn't she play with her own kind?


This is discrimination, pure and simple. Ms. Wickenheiser is the best women's player in the world, according to a Globe and Mail poll of women's hockey experts conducted at the Salt Lake Olympics. Is she good enough? The coach of the Merano Eagles, Paul Theriault, who knows a thing or two about hockey (he coached Mr. Gretzky as a junior), apparently thinks she can make the grade in Italian hockey, a less physical game than the North American version. And Bobby Clarke, the Philadelphia Flyers' general manager, was so impressed that he brought her to his team's week-long prospects camp four years ago, when she was 19, to help her improve her game.


The federation's decision runs counter to sport's core values. Sport is about excellence. The arena purports to be a true meritocracy.


Ms. Hoffman, who went on to become a Canadian Olympian and director-general of Sport Canada, proved her merit as a nine-year-old in 1956, cutting her hair short and disguising herself as a boy -- "Ab" -- and joining a team in the Toronto Hockey League. She played defence so well she made the all-star team, at which point the league had a look at her birth certificate and found that she was not Ab but Abigail. After the season, the league barred her and other girls from playing. So much for merit.


In the mid-1980s, Justine Blainey of Toronto fought for the right of girls to play on boys' teams, as long as the girls had enough ability. Even the Ontario Human Rights Code allowed boys' teams to exclude girls, but Ms. Blainey persuaded Ontario's highest court to declare that provision discriminatory.


The Italian federation insists Ms. Wickenheiser can play in a women's league. Yet if a professional women's league exists, she is unaware of it. The federation is denying her a right to earn a living based not on her ability but on her sex, of which it has a stereotyped view. What happens, it asked, if fights break out? If goons try to frighten her?


As Howie Meeker might say, that's hockey. Either she can make it or she can't. The unofficial code in hockey is that big players don't beat up on small ones, and goons don't fight finesse players. It seems a logical extension that the men won't pummel the woman. Anyway, if hockey required players to pass a fighting test, Saku Koivu, Dave Keon and many other terrific small players would have been watching Hockey Night in Canada instead of skating out as the first star.


Would allowing the best women athletes to compete against the men harm women's sports -- the professional basketball league, the golf or tennis tours? Perhaps, though Ms. Wickenheiser's ultimate goal is to return to the women's Olympic team and help the women's game raise its level of competition. In any event, an individual's right to compete at the highest level surely trumps the need for professional endeavours to protect themselves.


How tragic that Ms. Wickenheiser, who was a young girl when Justine Blainey fought her battle, is finding the climate in 2002 no less hostile.






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