The ladies of the US’s women’s hockey team are a stunning group of women—who will be going for the gold this Thursday against Canada–peppered with Ivy League grads, awesome moms, and career women (including two women who have opened their own hockey centers.) So, basically, ladies getting stuff done and then going and winning Olympic medals. Clearly awesome.
Despite this group of awesome women’s success on the ice and off, some are calling for their sport to be nixed from the Olympics altogether. Because the US and Canada have been the only two to show a competitive game (the example that stunned most critics was Canada’s pulverizing Slovakia last week 18-0), many are saying that there isn’t enough competition left in the sport and that makes it unfair or somehow boring.
It’s worth it to note as well that NBC’s lackluster coverage (another thing the critics are not pleased with) has pushed the sport almost entirely to MSNBC at hours when other, more popular sports are running on the basic channels. While this is almost certainly a ratings game, it seems extremely unfair: cut the unpopular sport from the Games (you know, the sport that only airs on cable on an unpopular channel.)
Whether it gets cancelled for future games or not, women’s hockey is, at the very least, here for the time being, and certainly worth watching. Click here (if you’re in the US) to check at what time and on what channel the game will be playing.
To read more about the US women’s hockey team, click here to check out their profiles on NBC.com.
[NYTimes’ Vancouver 2010 blog]
Image of US women’s hockey team (after their win over China last week) from TeamUSA.org
