Sunday, July 22, 2012

2012 Team USA Has More Female Olympians Than Men

It's fitting that in this 40th anniversary year for the groundbreaking Title IX law , for the first time ever the United States will send an Olympic team to the Games with more female competitors on it than their male counterparts.  We transfolks were hoping we'd get a man on it, but he fell just short of making his Olympic dream happen.

But this post is all about the sporting ladies. Out of the 530 people that will march into London's Olympic Stadium for Friday's opening ceremonies in their Made in China Ralph Lauren gear, 269 will be women and 261 will be men.

To highlight what US Olympic CEO Scott Blackmun called a 'true testament to the impact of Title IX', the oldest and youngest US Olympians are also women.  54-year-old equestrian rider Karen O'Connor will be the oldest US Olympian while the youngest is 15-year-old swimmer Katie Ledecky. 

The USA sporting girl power will be evident as American women are medal threats in both team and individual competitions from our world number one ranked basketball and soccer squads to gymnastics, volleyball, athletics.and other sports on the Olympic program.

And yeah, just thought I'd remind you peeps my favorite tennis playing siblings Serena and Venus Williams will be back on British soil playing in the Olympic tennis singles and doubles competitions that will be contested at 'Williams'-don starting July 28-August 5   The Williams Sisters are the defending 2008 Olympic doubles gold medalists and 2012 Wimbledon doubles champs
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The FIBA number one world champion ranked USA women's b-ballers are seeking their fifth consecutive gold medal and start Group A play on July 28 against Croatia.

The USA women's soccer squad is seeking its third consecutive Olympic gold after their heartbreaking penalty kick shootout loss to Japan in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup final in Germany with play starting on July 25 versus France.

We even have US women competing in the first ever women Olympic boxing competition.   One I will have my eye on during the upcoming games is my Houston area homegirl Marlen Esparza from Pasadena, who is a medal favorite and Cover Girl makeup spokesmodel in the inaugural women's boxing flyweight competition.

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