redfiona99: (Default)
The Eurosport commentators have stopped doing it so much now that Austria are less dominant in ... everything alpine and most things ski jumping but I still get significantly miffed when if the Austrian team do something, it's because their mean and evil but when someone else, particularly the Americans and Norwegians, do the same thing, it's fine. For example, when an Austrian is replaced by one of the juniors it's because the ski federation are impatient. When the Norwegians do it, it's because they have strength in depth.

It's not that the various Austrian winter sports federations are nice. They're not. They're stubborn, baby-eating fiends who haven't heard of patience and believe nothing other than first place is worth it. It's just that that is true of all the winter sports federations of any country. Normally, if they show patience, it's a sign that there's no depth, no young 'uns coming up.

Also, when do the commentators expect the teams to blood in the young ones? Or are you supposed to let athletes carry on floating on a wave of past glories until they retire?

Most annoying.

(I should be more zen because they have been being really nice about Hirscher, but they've only been this nice about him since he's retired. They also seem to be unwilling to recognise the awesome that is Michaela Schiffrin.)
redfiona99: (Default)
I begin with a warning that there is bad language in this post, because the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Caster Semenya’s appeal against the IAAF’s new testosterone rule is egregious bullshit.

Let’s begin with the obvious. If they felt that there needed to be a rule change, the IAAF, the governing body for athletics, could have changed the rules without naming the athlete involved. Choosing to name her has led to the intimate medical details of a young woman being published across the world’s media. That’s a pretty shitty thing to do and Caster Semenya is dealing with it with a level of grace under fire that most of us would fail to achieve.

And the rule is obviously targeted at her. The IAAF have made a new testosterone limit that only applies to athletics events of distances from 400 m to 1609 m (1 mile). These are the events in which Semenya races. It does not include shorter distances, where athletes regularly fail drugs test for anabolic steroids, because they’re useful for sprints. But apparently the IAAF doesn’t care about that. It also doesn’t care about introducing these limits to the throwing events in the field, where so many champions have tested positive for anabolic steroids. No, the only events they choose to put this limit on are ones that Semenya might run in. Including the 400 m makes that obvious. Because she doesn’t normally run it, but she has run it. They’ve literally only chosen events she might run in. Because it’s not about fucking fairness, it’s about punishing Semenya for a quirk of her birth.

The IAAF claim they’ve chosen these events because there aren’t enough athletes with DSD in the other events (1). Which pretty much proves they’re lying about why they’re doing it. If it was about protecting female sports, they’d introduce this stupid rule across the board to safeguard those events in the future. But they’ve only introduced it in the one set of events where an athlete with a DSD has been successful. It does suggest that DSDs are not the advantage the IAAF are saying they are. They are not protecting sport, they are punishing Semenya for her successes.

It’s interesting to see what the IAAF choose to regard as an unfair physiological advantage. We’re all mutants. How do you decide what is an unfair advantage, and what is not?

People with advantageous mutations and physical properties are found throughout sport. Murali’s elbow in the cricket, Andy Roddick’s shoulder in tennis, Mia Hamm’s ability to sweat less than anyone else and Michael Phelps’s reduced lactic acid production (2,3).

(section removed by the legal department)

If Caster Semenya was American, there wouldn’t be a rule change, she’d be on Ellen being praised for her bravery.

I want to focus on the different way in which Semenya and Phelps have been treated. Semenya is being hounded for her ability to train harder and to run faster than her competitors. Phelps was lauded for the results he got, because he could train harder and swim faster than his competitors. He was never expected to take lactic acid injections to make him perform like “a normal man”.

Why are some performance advantages alright, and others not?

I don’t have an answer for that, but I would love to know what the IAAF’s answer to the question would be, because as it stands, they have created a very poor rule for reasons that make no sense.

References:

1 - https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/apr/30/caster-semenya-runners-discrimination-case
2 - Game On: How the Pressure to Win at All Costs Endangers Youth Sports, and What Parents Can Do About It by Tom Farrey
3 - https://www.smh.com.au/sport/is-it-a-genetic-flaw-that-makes-phelps-the-greatest-20080816-gdsqwk.html
redfiona99: (Default)
(In which I have similar problems to [personal profile] ioplokon but about women's cycling.)

There is no women's Tour de France. I wish there was. I am 100% behind most of the many and varied attempts to get one.

But the whole "x amateur women are riding it to try and get one" that's getting all the media attention this year strikes me as the worst possible way.

Partly this is the media's fault. The first week of the Tour is the one with all the boring flat stages, so the media look for anything they can to write about. And this is an interesting thing to write about.

Unfortunately, it means that they aren't covering the Giro Rosa*. Given the Giro is the only one of the grand tours that actually has a women's race, this is frustrating. Especially as it was such a good race. Annemiek van Vleuten is just amazing.

Compare the coverage of the amateur race with the coverage of La Course, where the the UCI Pro women's teams race the most interesting stage of the Tour in the morning before the men. La Course is down to one stage which is annoying but hopefully the joy of crowd might convince them to give it a second stage again.

Also, see, I told you van Vleuten was amazing.

Another annoying thing is the amount of face time Skoda are getting for backing the amateur race. If you've got that much money, Skoda, you can fund a goddamn women's pro tour race! (Sorry!)

The other thing that annoyed me was the people who were up in arms about the lack of women's Tour but were willing to ignore the Giro Rosa. It could be because the media don't cover the Giro Rosa so people don't know about it. Or it could be people just enjoy getting enraged without doing some background research.

I think we're more likely to get a women's Tour if we makes the most of the excellent riders we have now. That wil make it clear to sponsors that they can get recognition and sales money (or possibly tax write-offs) by sponsoring them or a race. This involves building on the successes of the Giro Rosa, and races like it. To an extent, we are getting there, just look at the number of UCI pro women's teams. Also look at how many of them attached to men's teams, suggesting a more stable funding stream.

Build from what we've got works better than build from nothing.

*The pink thing isn't pinkification, it's the colour of the original race sponsors so the men's jersey is also the pink jersey.
redfiona99: (Default)
The minute Serena Williams announced that she was pregnant, various journalists dusted down their "is this the end of (famous sportswoman)'s career" articles.

This is annoying for a variety of reasons.

The first is that it really is always the same article, with just the name of the sportswoman and the sport changed.

The second is that, if Serena chooses to come back, it's not the end of her career. Sportswomen can, do and have achieved after having children. For instance, Olympic silver in the heptathlon, generally regarded as the most physically demanding of the athletics disciplines. Or you know, being the Flying Housewife.

But I suppose they don't play tennis. Like oh, Kim Clijsters, who won the US Open after giving birth, and she's not the physical force that Serena is.

Those are sport or related reasons. The remainder of the reasons are more society based.
The social construct of "the perfect mother" appears to exist only to make all mothers feel bad. (Any mothers reading this, you are amazing.) The perfect mother, she does not and cannot exist.

More than that, the extreme self-sacrifice that this ridiculous construct demands, that a mother no longer has her own life outside that of the identity of mother isn't safe or healthy for the mother, her children or any attendant partners.

Reporters and journalists are intelligent people and shouldn't be buying into it or propagating it.

There's also this weird idea that Serena (or any other woman) will be so overcome by the awesomeness of having a child that she will not be interested in pursuing her career. I don't have children, but my mother would like to tell you that this is nonsense. I have her permission to quote her.

The interesting double standard is that it's assumed that no man would be so distracted by having children that he'd want to stop his career. There's no "will Murray stop playing tennis now that there's a second mini Murray on the way?" articles. If kids are so all-consumingly awesome, you'd think both parents would be affected.

Every woman's choice is different, and it is her choice.

I realise journalists have to fill up the column inches so how to earn their pay. Maybe next time though write about a British (change nationality as applicable) junior that's doing good rather than digging out the old "is this the end of (famous sportswoman)'s career" article again.
redfiona99: (football)
Several months ago, I ranted about Sky Drama. I must now rant about BT Sports.

Basically, BT are trying to outmanouvre Sky Sports by paying way more than Sky can or will, therefore moving those sports off Sky and onto BT Vision.

The thing that gets me is that I'm supposed to be cheering this development. It's not as though I like the tentacles of Murdoch but having a competitor is doing nothing to drive costs down in this case, it just means sports fanatics are having to pay for BT Vision as well as Sky.

I wouldn't object too much but BT have kidnapped the MotoGP. While I know this season is going to be Marquez, Marquez, Marquez, I would at least like to see it. Especially as my beloved Espargaro boys are also getting some coverage. Due to DORNA going with BT Vision's offer, I am stuck with the ITV4 highlight, and they have the worst commentators.
redfiona99: (Thinking)
When you’re tempted to write that “why are there no women in science” article, could you maybe change it to “why are there so few women in science” or something, because as a female scientist (and by no means the only one), I’m starting to think you’ve not done any research, because there are a fair few of us out there.

Not enough, and certainly disproportionately fewer as you go up the hierarchy, and asking and discussing why that is will be of more use that asking why are there no women in science, when there’s actually quite a lot of us.
redfiona99: (Default)
1) I have now seen two episodes of Human Target. I like it when they make shows that cater to my whims.

Heroic, but not stupid, lead good guy. Decidedly shady secondary character, working for the good guys out of principle (oh Guerrero, my fondness for you is probably a bad thing) and Chi McBride's character, Winston, who is my favourite thing about the show. I think it's his look of exasperation at the other two. My favourite bit of the last episode I saw was that Winston spent most of it going either "this is a stupid plan" or "you, behave!" and then when he talks to the bad guy, it was quiet and measured and totally wrath of God.

2) Saw Inception again Spoilers for Inception and a warning for talk of death )

Other than that, it holds up on second viewing, even if the same things that perplexed me last time still perplex me.

By the by, what is the correct form if you spot a prompt on a community, totally misread it, get a fun idea, write it and then realise that the fic doesn't fit the prompt? Are you obliged to credit the prompt at all.

3) Wrestling

-How do we know Cole isn't lying about the whole mystery e-mail thing?

-Also, the whole Cole <3's the Miz thing. What?

-Not a question but hello Randy!

TV

Oct. 15th, 2010 03:25 pm
redfiona99: (Default)
Because my Mum wanted to watch Have I Got News For You as much as I did. She needs her weekly dose of poison dwarf/Ian Hislop.

After that, I convinced them to give Haven a go. It was generally approved of, so I might get the chance to watch more.

Then there was Enterprise, Stormfront part 2 in particular. Why is it always space Nazis? Why is it always Nazis in general? And why is it always British actors playing the Nazis?

(There's also the small matter of Reed saying England got over run and then not mentioning the other constituent parts of GB, which apparently are living in a land of rainbow unicorns throughout all this. Scotland, Wales and NI are also part of GB, idiot scriptwriters.)

And I am working on the next part of the 30 days of TV meme, I even know which pilot I have chosen, it's just explaining why that's taking the time.
redfiona99: (Default)
Most important thing first, Eid mubarak to those that celebrate, happy Thursday to those that don't.

~~~~

Writer's Block:

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Dream home would be a big studio flat in a capital city (Vienna or London by preference, but Berlin, Paris or New York are perfectly acceptible substitutes). It would have great ginormous bookshelves, carpets (I love wooden floors, but I tend to wear socks most of the time and the combo is not good) everywhere but the kitchen (lino) and the bathroom (tiles). There would be a bath with a shower. Furniture would be by Ikea. There would be a balcony. I'm not sure about the colour scheme, I'm torn between blues or browns.

~~~~~

TV meme: Day 21 - Favorite ship

Um, discounting Rogue/Gambit temporarily, since, despite my first exposure to them being the cartoons rather than the comics, they're a comics ship.

This leaves Ivanova/Marcus Cole, Noin/Zechs, Kira/Odo and Stuart and Vince. Like I said, I have a soft spot for kick-ass women, and absolute bar-stewards, why yes I'm looking at you Stuart Jones.

The Other Days )

~~~~

Actually, beyond my annoyance at the idiot preacher who I think may have missed the parable of the Good Samaritan and the bit about Love Thy Neighbour, I'm also annoyed as to how burning books comes under free speech. Now, it might just be me, but when I talk, things don't set alight. Obviously, I am missing out on a super-power.

TV

Aug. 17th, 2010 01:14 am
redfiona99: (Default)
Firstly, a bit of a rant about Sherlock fandom.

Yes, the *only* reason why anyone would not be interested in romantic relationships would be because their in denial about the sexuality. And certainly, if you're going to update a character who is described as follows by his dear biographer - "It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his." - then it only makes sense to make him gay, because *obviously* it's only women he doesn't want to romance.

Now, admittedly, this cheeses me off because I mostly abstain from romantic chaos because it disagrees with me, not because I am in any denial about my sexuality (I like sex, I like sex with men and women) or because I am a century out of date. It also annoys me because it reminds me a lot of various family members assuring me that I would grow out of this. I am now 25, I am not likely to be growing out of anything right now. If fandom would be so kind as to not join in with my now ex-Auntie, I'd be obliged.

(There will also be a rant about how no, just because Mark Gattis is gay, it doesn't oblige him to write only saintly gay characters, and that given that supervillains lie, Moriarty lying about his sexuality would not be that unexpected. But it gets long and swear-filled.)

~~~~

After that, on to happier things. TV meme time.

Day 13 - Favorite childhood show

Once again I'm going to cheat.

For those who don't know, from when I was about 5 till I was 18 (and okay, in a very basic sense, still now) I was brought up by my grandmother.

Every Friday, in order that their parents might get one evening's peace, my two cousins came over. That my grandmother could put up with three sugar-cranked 6-9 year olds is a sign of her awesome.

Along with having my beloved cousins with me, one of the other fantastic things was Friday night TV.

It would start with a Supermarionation show, Thunderbirds for preference but Captain Scarlet or Stingray are reasonably adequate replacements. I am very much the Blue Peter Tracy Island generation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U6eY3ZA5XQ


This was followed by an episode of Doctor Who. This was how I started my Whovian-ness.

(Absolute glee - someone has linked together all the continuity announcements for Doctor Who and the Daemons - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70QEdmtioUs so you can see what I mean by the collection of awesome.)

Following that, there'd be something in the 60s spy family. Man From UNCLE was always the favourite, and Ilya Kuryakin was, and still is, my favourite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXoSTox8IB4

Then we'd play games until bed time.

Saturday mornings started with the kids shows, either Going Live or Planet 9 or whatever the ITV one was called.

Then, and this was important, if we weren't already on ITV, we'd switch over for what is still my favourite cartoon ever, Batman: The Animated Series. Above and beyond anything else, I loved the art style, all art deco lines and sharp edges. The scripts and plot and everything else was equally awesome, but the art, dudes, the art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEx9r5enZsk

If we were very lucky, that would be followed by Zorro. See, I've always needed an RDA of sword-fighting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9z3pLJc7RY&feature=related

(Reasonably sure that's the right one, it's a lot better than it looks.)

The Other Days )

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