Fallon Fights Next Friday

Next Friday March 21 our WMMA fighting sister Fallon Fox will enter the cage and get busy at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago as part of a big 50th XFO fight card

As part of the "Biggest Night in XFO History", the 3-1 'Queen of Swords' will do battle against the 1-0 Heather Bassett. 

Fallon is hoping that many of you in the Chicagoland area and especially the TBLG community will come out and support her and I hope you will do so for those of us in the national community who would like to be there but can't.

It'll be at the UIC Pavilion at 525 S. Racine Ave.for those of you in the Chicago metro area who want to attend the fight with the action starting at 6 PM CDT.

As we get closer to that date, I'll remind 'errbody' to get those warm thoughts and best wishes ready for our fave #girllike us WMMA warrior

Sochi Olympic Watch-USA vs Canada Round One

It's the Clash of the Women's Hockey Titans in the USA vs Canada to determine who gets out of Group A with the number one seed.

Both teams and their fanbases in this intense rivalry badly want to win every time they face each other.

And a certain Canadian is still talking trash about her fave hockey team.   Maple Leaf Forever my anus!

The USA beat Finland 3-1 in their opening match and pasted Switzerland in a 9-0 scoring explosion two days ago.   The Canadians beat Finland 3-0 in a game that was closer than the score indicated and knocked out Switzerland 5-0.

Both have clinched semifinal berths and are expected to have their usual golden showdown on February 20 barring an upset. 

USA! USA! USA! 

Fallon's Fighting In Chicago Soon!

In case you're wondering what the heck our MMA fighting sister is up to, she's been busy training for an upcoming fight in Chicago.

The 'Queen of Swords' is busy getting back in shape and honing her skills for an upcoming March 21 bout in the Windy City against 1-0 Heather Bassett 

The bout will be part of XFO 50, set to take place Friday, March 21, at the UIC Pavilion at 525 S. Racine Ave.for thosee of you in the Chicago metro area who want to attend the fight.  It's being billed as the "Biggest Night in XFO History" and the action starts at 6 PM CST.

And Fallon is excited to be a part of it. 

"I am so incredibly excited [to get] back in the cage, especially since this will be XFO MMA's 10th anniversary show," Fox said in a Windy City Times interview. "There's going to be lots of great fights on this card, including many of my teammates from the Chicagoland area fighting also, or cheering me on."

"This time I'll have the luxury of having my hometown fans and teammates behind me," said Fox, who added that she wants a strong LGBT fan base at the fight. "XFO MMA is an LGBT-friendly organization. I've been to many of their fights and always come away from them pleased, so this should be a good event for everyone who shows [up]."

If you live in the area, please consider doing exactly that.  

Women Finally Get To Fly At Sochi

From the ski jump hills that is.

Since the 1998 Nagano Games female ski jumpers around the world have been petitioning the IOC and FIS, the International Ski Federation to add women's ski jumping to the Olympic program.

In 2010 a group of 15 ski jumpers that included women's world champ Lindsey Van filed a discrimination suit against the Vancouver Organizing Committee that went to the British Columbia Supreme Court.   The suit was unsuccessful, but in April 2011 women's ski jumping was finally added to the Sochi Olympic program and a women's World Cup ski jumping championship competition started..

So now, 90 years after ski jumping made its Olympic debut at the 1924 Winter Games for the men, women finally get their opportunity to do the same in Sochi.

But what a lot of women ski jumpers suspect was the reason for the far too long time lag in adding women's ski jumping was the Victorian attitudes of predominately male FIS federation heads that ski jumping would damage the reproductive health capacity of the female competitors combined with the macho culture of international ski jumping.

And yes, that attitude recently reared its head when Russian men's ski jump coach Alexander Arefyev was quoted in a recent Izvestia newspaper interview that he is not an advocate of women's ski jumping because of the sport’s injury risks and saying women’s purpose is to have children and do housework.

Even though the first Olympic competition is taking place during these Sochi games after an over ten year battle, women jumpers are only getting to compete in one event on the normal (K95) hill.   They will not have a competition on the large (K125) hill or a team competition in these games like the men will get to do.

But that's a fight for another Olympiad.  It'll just be fun to see women's sporting history happen on February 11.

Four African-American Women Make 2014 US Olympic Bobsled Team

The US men's and women's bobsled teams were named yesterday by the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation for the Sochi Games.  One of the interesting to note facts about the women's bobsled team is that it will have four African-American women on it. 

Lolo Jones did make it onto the women's team as one of the three push athletes along with fellow Olympic sprinter Lauryn Williams and Aja Evans. 

The US bobsled team drivers will be Jamie Greubel, Elana Meyers and sister Jazmine Fenlator.   

Jones and Williams by making the team also made a little sporting history by becoming the ninth and tenth Americans to make a Winter and Summer Olympics team.  Williams was a 100m silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Games and won gold in the 4x100m relay at the 2012 London Games.   

Jones will be in search of the Olympic medal that keeps eluding her.  She was on her way to victory in the 100m hurdles at the 2008 Beijing when she clipped the last one and fell.   In London she finished fourth and after being asked to try out for bobsled team made it and medaled in her first World Cup race.
  
So hopefully the Olympic medal will finally happen for her in Sochi.  She and the other US women want to keep the tradition going of a US women's sled collecting a medal in every Olympiad since the women's Olympic bobsled competition started in 2002.

The four African-American bobsled women in Jones, Evans, Williams and Fenlator will be trying to join Vonetta Flowers as African-American winter Olympic bobsled medalists.

If she does so, Fenlator would be the first to do so as a bobsled driver.

So I'll definitely be tuned in when the women's bobsled competition starts February 18-19 to see how the Team USA women do in Sochi.  
 

2014 Williams Watch- Out Of The Doubles

It's wait until next year for any shot at capturing another Australian Open doubles crown for my fave tennis playing siblings.   Due to a leg injury suffered by Venus, she and Little Sis were forced to withdraw from the 2014 Aussie Open doubles tournament.

But the news is still all good for Serena in her march to the Australian Open singles title.   She spent another scorching afternoon at Rod Laver Arena, taking 80 minutes to knock off Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.

It's sets up her fourth round match with Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, with the winner moving on to the quarterfinals to take on the winner of the Casey Dellacqua-Eugenie Bouchard match  . 

When Does Finishing In Third Place NOT Get You An Olympic Spot?

The various trials and selection processes to assemble our US Olympic team are happening as you read this in preparation for Team USA to go for gold in Sochi next month.

In many cases the criteria has been clearly laid our for every Olympic hopeful to know.  Perform at the trials and finish in the top three and you make the team.  In other sports the federation will select the athletes who go like in hockey or the bobsled and luge team.

So what many people are asking is how does a figure skater who finished fourth at the 2010 Vancouver Games, but didn't fall during her more difficult routine at the US Figure Skating National Championships and finishes third get bumped off the Olympic team by someone who finished fourth during the same event in Boston, has no Olympic experience and fell twice during her program?

And yeah, I'm going there.  How do you explain that snubbing US Figure Skating Association, when the skater who finished third was Asian but the one who cratered is a blonde haired blue eyed white female who has been the focus of NBC's pre-Olympic marketing of the games and spoken out against the anti-LGBT laws in Russia?

Can you say vanillacentric privilege?   Thought you could.  

That's the question many people, and especially those of us who are non-white are asking in the wake of 20 year old Mirai Nagasu being passed over by the US Figure Skating Association and named an alternate on the team in favor of Ashley Wagner, the skater who fell twice during last weekend's US Championships that determined who would make the Sochi Olympic squad. 

Unlike the US Track and Field trials and other sports, where the first three people across the line at the trials regardless of past performance make the squad, USA figure skating takes past performances into account and gives them an unspecified weight in the selection process.

Did vanillacentric privilege and bias become one of those unspecified factors that influenced the process?

Wagner was the two time defending US champion entering the TD Garden before that event.  She was a fourth-place finisher at the 2012 world championships and the fifth-place holder at the 2013 worlds.  But she cratered badly during this event and even admitted the pressure got to her.

So if Wagner can't handle the pressure of the US Championships that determined who makes the US Olympic skating team going to Sochi, what makes her and the US Figure Skating Association think that she'll do any better when the pressure is ramped up several more notches and she's in the Iceberg Skating Arena at Sochi with medals on the line.having to compete against defending Olympic champion Kim Yu-Na of South Korea and defending Vancouver Games silver medalist Mao Asada of Japan?  

Meanwhile Nagasu arrives in Boston without a coach, people gave her no chance of making the Olympic team, but when the pressure was on she performed when Ashley Wagner didn't.  As a matter of fact she was the only person out of the top four that didn't fall during this competition.   That says a lot about the mental toughness of Nagasu.

But barring an injury to the other three, Nagasu will not get the opportunity to go for the medal that eluded her in Vancouver four years ago. 

And once again, a bitter lesson of American society gets harshly taught to its non-white residents.  No matter how good the person of color is or they earn their spot through their performance, merit  and hard work, whiteness will find a way to take it from them, hand it to a white person who didn't earn it and then try to justify and spin the reason they did so.

And FYI, here were the scores for the final night of competition.

1. Gracie Gold 211.69
2. Polina Edmunds 193.63
3. Mirai Nagasu 190.74
4. Ashley Wagner 182.74
 
If Wagner couldn't handle the pressure last weekend, that's nothing compared to the pressure and scrutiny that will be on her from now until the Sochi Games are over. 

Wagner has to prove to casual fans who feel like Nagasu was screwed (and I'm in that camp) that she belongs on the team.  There's also a lot of people that will be tuned in February 19-20 ready to pounce if she falls on her pretty behind once again and fails to make the Olympic medal podium.

I have a feeling karma will be making an appearance in Sochi wearing figure skates.

  

2014 Williams Watch-Good News, Bad News Tennis Day Down Under

The 2014 edition of the Australian Open has started, and both my fave tennis playing siblings had their opening round matches with different results.  

Serena only took 57 minutes to blitz Australian Ashleigh Barty 6-2, 6-1 at Rod Laver Arena and punch her ticket to a second round match with Serbia's Vesna Dolonc.

Unfortunately Venus will not be joining her number one seeded little sister in the second round of the Australian Open singles tournament.

She had a tough opening round assignment at Margaret Court Arena facing 22nd seeded Ekaterina Makarova.  After splitting the first two sets, Venus was up 3-0 in the third until Makarova won five straight games to get control of the set and eventually the match.  

Venus fell 6-2, 4-6, 4-6 to end her attempt to win her first ever Australian Open singles crown. 

That's not the end of her tennis at Melbourne Park.  She and Serena are entered in the women's doubles tourney, and they start first round doubles play against the duo of Kristina Mladenovic of France and Flavia Pennetta of Italy
   

2014 Williams Watch-Chasing Grand Slam Titles Down Under

The 2014 edition of the Australian Open gets cranked up later tonight my time (January 13 there) and my fave tennis playing siblings are Down Under to handle their Grand Slam tennis playing business in Melbourne.

Hopefully by the time this tournament concludes January 26 Aussie time, they will be taking homes some trophies and a couple of nice seven figure checks.

Serena hopes to win her sixth Australian Open women's singles title and first since 2010.  If the world's number one player and the tournament's number one seed is successful in doing so, she would pick up Grand Slam singles title number 18 to tie her with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova on he all time list.

Little Sis opens her quest for that sixth Australian Open singles title with her first round match against Australia's Ashleigh Barty.

Unseeded Venus is also playing singles in this tournament.  She opens up her quest for her first ever Australian Open singles title with a tough first round match against 22nd seeded Ekaterina Makarova of Russia.  

Big Sis made it to the finals of the 2003 Australian Open but lost to Serena in a three set battle 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 4-6.    

And yes, the Williams sisters are entered in the doubles tournament.   They are seeking their fifth Australian Open doubles title and their first since 2010.  As usual they are unseeded, but that hasn't stopped them from walking away with Grand Slam double crowns before.

They open up their Aussie Open doubles play against the US duo of Madison Keys and Alison Riske.

So as usual, I'll be keeping an eye on my fave tennis playing siblings this year throughout this grand slam tournament Down Under and the others as this year progresses.

Good luck ladies!

Houston Dash Lineup Starting To Take Shape

One of the things we Houston sports fans will get to look forward to in 2014 is the April 12 start of the inaugural season of our new team in the National Women's Soccer League, the Houston Dash.

The NWSL has been set up as the top echelon women's pro soccer league in North America and is supported by the national soccer federations of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

It has the ultimate goal of building a elite level league for the top women's national players of Canada, Mexico and the USA to play in when they are not competing for their national clubs in the Olympics or the FIFA Women's World Cup.

The Dash are the new expansion kids on the NWSL block, and as the sister organization of the MLS Houston Dynamo, will play their home games at BBVA Compass Stadium.  Retired Houston Dynamo legend Brian Ching was named the Managing Director of the team on December 23. 


Randy Waldrum, the former coach of Notre Dame's women's team, was subsequently hired to become the first head coach of the Houston Dash on January 3.   Waldrum led Notre Dame to two NCAA titles in 2004 and 2010 and was the NCAA runner up in 1999, 2006 and 2008.

Three players were initially assigned to the Dash by national team allocation.   Forward Melissa Tancredi from Canada, defender Whitney Engen from the USA and midfielder Teresa Noyola from Mexico.  Melissa Tancredi was subsequently traded to the Chicago Red Stars on January 6 for fellow Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod.  

The Dash get the opportunity today to select their core roster players for their inaugural season today.  The NWSL expansion draft is taking place as I post this in which the Dash will be allowed to select up to ten unprotected players from the existing eight NWSL club.

On January 17 the 2014 NWSL Collegiate Draft will take place in Philadelphia.   The Dash will have the second overall election in the first round, and the first picks in the second, third and fourth rounds.

There are rumors that Alex Morgan, who lives here in Houston, is interested in playing for the Dash.  However, she is one of the protected players on the NWSL champion Portland Thorns and there is no way they are letting her go to the Dash if that rumor is true without some major compensation. 

Knowing the Dynamo temperament, they will probably build the Dash in their image.  They will build the club through the draft, make key trades that improve the club like the Erin McLeod for Tancredi swap is evidence of, and when they can afford it, get a free agent that fits with their style of play. 

Hope they choose wisely and looking forward to watching the Dash play at BBVA Compass Stadium this spring and summer.  Not expecting a miracle since they are an expansion club, but if they make the NWSL playoffs this year, cool.   

Mexican Trans Woman Being Denied Opportunity To Play Soccer

Soccer (or football to the rest of the world) is the world's most popular sport and is called 'the beautiful game' by its fans. 

But what is happening to 44 year old Mexican transwoman Miranda Itzayana is anything but beautiful.

Prior to transition, she played for the first division Mexican League team Pumas and others from 1985-1992.   She wanted to play the sport again and in June 2012 after showing documentation verifying her feminine identity, Itzayana joined the Mexican Women's League team Jaguars Aldana.  

Initially she was told there was no problem with her playing in the league, but pressure mounted as opposing teams wanted her thrown out of the league for 'playing like a man'.  Itzayana was also subjected to homophobic and transphobic slurs while playing matches.  

In February during a Mexican Women's League meeting the league and her team bowed to pressure and baseless accusations from opposing teams by not allowing Itzayana to play.  The league after that meeting subsequently enacted a 'women born women' policy to keep her out in violation of the IOC Stockholm Accords that FIFA and national soccer federations follow that allow trans athletes to compete.  

Jaguars Aldana, fearing being barred from the Mexican Women's League, threatened to expel Itzayana from the team if she complained publicly about her unjust treatment.    Upset about the discriminatory treatment she was receiving, she decided to take her case to the Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination in Mexico City (COPRED).

The COPRED commissioner ruled in her favor and ordered that Itzayana be reinstated, allowed to play in the next tounament and the discriminatory league rule be changed to allow her participation. 

FIFA has had an ongoing 'Say No To Racism' campaign in which we see the banner held up by players of both teams during every World Cup Men's and Women's tournament and other major confederation tournaments in international soccer.  We'll see it again later this summer in Brazil. 

But as I wrote back in 2011 and Jazz, Aeris Houlihan and Miranda Itzayana can tell you from painful experience, FIFA needs to immediately embark upon a campaign to eradicate transphobia and homophobia
from the sport, too.

Houston Has A New Women's Pro Soccer Team!

Another team joins our lineup of professional sports franchises in the Houston area and will start play in April.   Even cooler is the fact they are a women's professional spots team. 

They are the Houston Dash, our new expansion team in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) that started play earlier this year.

“We are thrilled to have our very own NWSL franchise here in Houston,” said Houston Dynamo president Chris Canetti in a statement. “It is an important addition to our sports landscape and will bring added value to our community.”

The NWSL has been set up as the top echelon women's pro soccer league in North America and is supported by the national soccer federations of the United States, Canada, and Mexico with the goal of building a elite level league for their top national players to play in when they are not competing in the Olympics or the FIFA Women's World Cup.

it also has the goal of building the women's game in these nations and developing talented players for future national teams in Canada, Mexico and the US. 

The NWSL's originating eight teams are the Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, Portland Thorns FC, Seattle Reign FC, Sky Blue FC (New Jersey), Washington Spirit and the Western New York Flash (Rochester, NY). 

The NWSL features 23 members of the US women's national team, including stars of the team that won the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, including: Heather O'Reilly (Boston Breakers); Amy LePeilbet and Shannon Boxx (Chicago Red Stars); Nicole Barnhart, Amy Rodriguez, Becky Sauerbrunn and Lauren Holiday (FC Kansas City); Rachel Buehler, Alex Morgan and Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns FC); Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo and Sydney Leroux (Seattle Reign FC); Kelley O'Hara and Christie Rampone (Sky Blue FC); Ali Krieger (Washington Spirit); and Carli Lloyd and Abby Wambach (Western New York Flash).

The NWSL's Canadian national team stars include Diana Matheson (Washington Spirit); Desiree Scott and Lauren Sesselmann (FC Kansas City); and Christine Sinclair (Portland Thorns FC).

The NWSL players from Mexico's national women's team includes Maribel Dominguez (Chicago Red Stars); Renae Cuellar (Washington Spirit); Teresa Noyola (FC Kansas City); and Monica Ocampo (Sky Blue FC).

In the inaugural NWSL Championship game the Portland Thorns defeated the top seeded Western New York Flash 2-0 in Rochester.

But back to talking about the Houston Dash.    

The Dash are the NWSL's first ever expansion club and are the second in the league after the Thorns supported by an MLS club.   The Dash are owned by the same group that owns the Houston Dynamo

The Dash will train at the Dynamo's complex and play their 12 home games at BBVA Compass Stadium.

They are currently looking to hire their head coach and unveil their uniforms for the upcoming 2014 season later.

As for the inaugural season roster of the Houston Dash, the 18-20 woman roster for the inaugural team will be filled by allocation of players from the U.S., Canada and Mexico national teams, the expansion draft, the January 17 NWSL collegiate draft, and other discovery signings.

The only thing I wish they'd done is given the fans an opportunity to choose the nickname, but I can understand the Dynamo brass reluctance to do so after the Houston 1836 drama. 

Should be fun to watch a women's pro sports team here in H-town for the first time since the Houston Comets (sniff sniff) departed the scene and looking forward to checking out some of their games when I can.

 

British Transwoman Barred From Playing Women's Soccer By FA

Jazz spent two years fighting the US Soccer Federation for a policy that would allow her and other trans kids to play soccer in this country. 

Now come word from across The Pond of a British transwoman who is not being allowed to play on a women's team there despite having documentation confirming her gender identity, hormone levels in feminine range and her teammates and opposing players having no objections to her being in the league.

32 year old Aeris Houlihan is facing a two year wait to play competitive soccer because the FA policy is pegged to the FIFA rules and the IOC Stockholm Consensus, which mandates surgical intervention and two years of being on HRT before being allowed to play in the gender you present.   She's not due to have SRS until March.

'It's not like I want to play for Barcelona, I just want to play for my local club.' - See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/trans-woman-told-fa-she-can-only-play-mens-football101213#sthash.xzmMW90U.dpuf

The story starts in June, when Houlihan applied to the FA (The English Football Association) so she could play for her local team in Leeds, the Middleton Park Ladies FC.   She was asked to provide a doctor's letter verifying her feminine hormone levels which she complied with.

After providing that letter, she heard nothing from FA until October, and it was at that time she was informed that she couldn't play for her local team and would be unable to appeal the decision. 

'It's not like I want to play for Barcelona.   All I want to do is play for my local club," Houlihan said in an interview with the Daily Mail. "The FA didn't even bother to look at my hormones levels or my blood test results, which are the same as any other woman's.  They are blind and need to look at the results in front of them."

Houlihan's club is supporting her in her fight to play her favorite sport.

"We support the fact she would like to play on a Ladies team as she is now legally a woman, she has a British passport, and she should be allowed to compete as a woman just as she is allowed to live as a woman in her everyday life," the Middleton Park FC said in a statement.

The resistance that Houlihan is running into is in stark contrast to what the FA website states.

"An individual's sexual orientation or gender identity should never be a barrier to participating in, and enjoying, our national sport."

Looks like that is exactly what is happening in this case.  Her gender identity has become a barrier to her being able to participate in their national sport.

Renee, Sochi Olympic Hockey Is Coming!

I know you and other Canadian women's hockey fans are still crying in your Timmy's after you lost the IIHF women's ice hockey championship to us for the fifth time in seven years.

What was even sweeter about this IIHF title win was it happened in Canada and in your nation's capital. 

It may be your game, but y'all got your butts kicked on your home soil in your nation's capital in the IIHF final.  And we didn't even need overtime this time to beat you.3-2.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

Just sounds so good rolling off my tongue along with the words '2013 IIHF Women's Hockey World Champions.'
  
So now let's get to talking about the next major international women's ice hockey tournament, and it's going down in Sochi during the Olympic Games.   Yeah the Russian women claim they'll be motivated to prevent a USA-Canada Olympic final, and to be honest they have some recent positive results to back up those woof tickets they're trying to sell to the peeps back home.   They did take a bronze medal back home to Mother Russia from Ottawa, but we know who the real women's hockey powers are according to the 2013 IIHF Women's World Rankings that the (ahem) USA sits on top of..

The Olympics are a mere two months away from starting, and the hockey competition will start at the Shayba Arena on February 8. 

Unfortunately we'll be in the same preliminary Group A with Finland and Switzerland while the host Russians will be in Group B with Germany, Japan and Sweden.

But circle February 12 on your calendar because that's the night the USA and Canada meet in the final game Group A play.  If both teams play the way they normally do, that game will probably decide who wins Group A and who gets the runner up spot.

Yeah yeah, big deal that Canada has won the last three women's Olympic gold medals, but you didn't win the first ever one in the 1998 Nagano Games.  

And yes, all winning streaks must come to an end.

 

Lolo's One Step Closer To Going To Sochi

I love Lolo Jones and still feel for her when I see that video of her hitting that second to last hurdle on her way to what looked like a legacy cementing gold medal performance in the 100m hurdles final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and failing to place. 

She gracefully handled that tremendous disappointment and busted her butt to make the Olympic team again in 2012 only to finish in fourth place in London behind her silver and bronze medal winning teammates Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells in the 100m women's hurdle final won in Olympic record time by Australia's Sally Pearson.

At age 31 Lolo Jones is still chasing Olympic gold, although at a different time of year and in a different event.  This is the second year that Jones has competed in bobsled as a push athlete, and she and fellow sprinter Lauryn Williams were recently named to the nine member USA Women's Bobsled team for the upcoming FIBT World Cup event later today in Calgary.  

She has also added 30 pounds to her previously 130 pound frame in order to help her in her quest to make the USA Bobsled team bound for Sochi. 

Jones and Williams will be joining Emily Azevedo, Katie Eberling, Aja Evans and Kristi Koplin as sled pushers, with Elana Meyers, Jamie Greubel and Jazmine Fenlator serving as drivers.

Depending on the results in this World Cup event the USA could qualify as many as three two woman sleds for Sochi.  The team will also be named in mid to late January, so this is an opportunity for Jones to make one last impression on the powers that be in the US Bobsled and Skeleton Federation before that selection happens. 

In case you're wondering about the prospects for Jones should she make the team of medaling in Sochi, there is a precedent for a track athlete crossing over into the sport and experiencing success in it.

After several failed attempts to make the US Olympic track team Vonetta Flowers at the urging of her husband tried and embraced the sport.  In the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games she and her driver Jill Bakken won gold in the inaugural two women bobsled event.  With the win Flowers made history by becoming the first African descended athlete ever to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.  Two years later Flowers would earn a bronze medal at the FIBT World Championships at Konigsee, Germany.

During Jones' rookie season on the FIBT World Cup circuit she did medal in three races.  So she does have an excellent chance at making this team, attempting to match Vonetta Flowers and getting that Olympc gold medal that has eluded her so far in the Summer Games.

    

2015 Women's World Cup Details

I wrote a post back in 2011 discussing the FIFA announcement that the 2015 Women's World Cup would be held in the Great White North. 

And yeah Renee (and 'errbody' else in Canada), I can't wait for the USA women to beat Canada again like they did in the 2012 London Olympics women's semis and the June friendly in Toronto.

But for that to happen, the USA women not only have to qualify, we have to hope we don't end up in Group A with them or on the same side of the bracket.

More details have come out since that May 2011 post.   The dates for the FIFA Women's World Cup will be June 6 to July 5 with the cities hosting matches being Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal and Moncton.  Toronto decided not to bid because they will be busy hosting the 2015 Pan American Games that summer and Halifax took itself out of the running for match hosting duties in March 2012.

The great thing about this upcoming FIFA women's tournament is that due to the increased interest in women's soccer around the world, the number of teams in this tournament has been expanded from 16 to 24.  

The only team is qualified right now are the host Canadians, and FIFA determined in a June 11 meeting last summer how the other 23 tournament qualifying berths will be allocated to the various confederations.

The AFC (Asia) gets 5 (up from 3), CAF (Africa) gets 3 (up from 2), CONCACAF (North/Central America, Caribbean) gets 3.5 plus the host slot  (up from 2.5), CONMEBOL (South America) gets 2.5 slots (up from 2) and Oceania keeps their single slot.  The big winner was UEFA (Europe) which got 8 slots, up from the 4.5+1 they had in 2011)

Qualification started in the AFC on May 21, the CAF on February 13 and in UEFA on April 4.  CONCACAF, Oceania and CONMEBOL have yet to get the qualification party started.

One of the teams we know won't be in Canada is North Korea, which has been banned for the 2015 Women's World Cup by FIFA.   Several North Korean players tested positive for performance enhancing drugs during the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany to draw the ban.  

Once the qualification period ends, the draw to fill out the six tournament groups will take place.   Canada is already slotted into Group A, so it is at that time we'll discover the other three teams that will be in their group and how the other five groups will shake out.

The FIFA Women's World Cup Final will be held at BC Place in Vancouver on July 5, with the semifinals on June 30 and July 1 in Montreal and Edmonton.  The Third Place playoff match will take place July 4 in Edmonton.

So which teams will be the last ones standing in Vancouver two years from now? 

Will there be a heartwarming run to the 2015 title by an underdog nation like there was for the Nadeshiko Japan in 2011?  Will Sweden now that former USA coach Pia Sundhage has returned to her homeland to coach the national team make a title run?   Will the Canadians and Christine Sinclair be fired up enough to turn their bronze Olympic medal, home fan support and national pride into a home soil FIFA world championship run? 

Can Marta finally lead the Brazilians to their first world title?   Will the French women finally break through after frustrating semifinal losses in 2011 to the USA and the 2012 Olympics to Japan?  What will the Three Lionesses of England do now that after 15 years of running thangs Hope Powell is no longer patrolling their sidelines?  Will an African team finally get to the knockout round?

Will the power teams like the USA and Germany shake off their respective disappointing 2011 tournament results and resume their dominance of the international women's game? 

And how much Hateraid will Canada have for striker Sydney Leroux who grew up there but plays for Team USA?

It's going to be fun watching this dramatic feminine sporting story play out two summers from now.

Fallon Fox Fights For A CFA Title Tonight!

It's been a long hard and at times bumpy road for her to get to this point, but later tonight at the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables, FL unbeaten Fallon Fox (3-0) will take on Ashlee Evans-Smith (1-0)  for the CFA featherweight title.

This championship match will be broadcast on AXS-TV and the winner will not only claim the championship of the CFA tourney but take home $20,000.

If AXS-TV posts the video of it to YouTube, I'll get it up on the blog as quickly as possible.

Y'all know I'm rooting for the 'Queen of Swords' in this one and I hope she emerges from this WMMA battle victorious.  

best of luck tonight, Fallon!

40th Anniversary of 'The Battle Of The Sexes' Tennis Match

There was a huge tennis match that took place in my hometown on September 20, 1973 that had major implications for women's sports. 

40 years ago Billie Jean King in front of what is still the largest crowd to ever witness a tennis match in the United States, beat 55 year old Bobby Riggs at the Astrodome in front of 30, 472 people and a worldwide television audience of 90 million people. (50 million in the US who watched the ABC-TV broadcast with Howard Cosell as the lead announcer). 

Unfortunately the broadcast was blacked out here in Houston at the time and I had to see the tape delay later.   

What led up to this seriously hyped tennis match was Bobby Riggs flapping his gums and denigrating the game of women's tennis.   He claimed it was inferior to the men's game (oink, oink), his 55 year old self could beat the top ranked women's player in the world and challenged Billie Jean King to a match. 

When the then 29 year old King declined to take him on, then 30 year old Australian Margaret Court, the top ranked women's player at the time accepted the challenge.  They played the US televised match on May 13, 1973 (which happened to be Mother's Day) in Ramona, CA.  Riggs used lobs and drop shots to keep Court off balance and beat her in straight sets 6-2, 6-1.

It's also alleged that Court considered the match an exhibition and didn't take it seriously, but the male dominated media sure did. .The win over Margaret Court got Riggs on the covers of Sports Illustrated and Time magazines and he resumed his male chauvinist taunting of all female tennis players.  

After founding the Women's Tennis Association in June, King accepted a lucrative offer to play a winner take all best three of five set nationally televised match at the Astrodome that was dubbed by promoters as 'The Battle of The Sexes'.

And yes, the young TransGriot took the opportunity to put her allowance where her mouth in terms of my belief that King would win.  I made a few bets with my skeptical male classmates who believed Riggs' hype. 
 
On that September night before the match started King entered the Dome Cleopatra-style carried by four bodybuilders and Riggs followed in a rickshaw pulled by scantily clad models. The exchanged gifts, with Riggs giving her a large Sugar Daddy sucker and King presenting him with a piglet before they began playing the  match.

King had also prepared herself to counter the drop shot tactics Riggs used to great effect against Court.

Instead of her usual aggressive style of play, she stayed at the baseline and gave Riggs a taste of his own tennis medicine. She made him run all over the court and forced him to change tactics to a serve and volley style of game. 

King beat him in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 to claim the $100,000 prize for winning the match and defended the honor of professional women's tennis players everywhere.  

And the next day at school I collected the money I won with Billie Jean King's victory


King's win in addition to being profitable for teenage me also gave women's tennis the critical early credibility it needed and has used to grow the sport.   Women's tennis grew from that point to eventually garner its own television contracts and see women players like King, Chris Evert and countless others earning six and seven figure amounts in prize money.  They later won the battle to secure equal prize money for female tennis players.

And that happened in the wake of a tennis match played at the Astrodome. 

'Game Face' Documentary

While catching up on all the backlogged messages I had on Facebook because of Computer Prime being in the shop, was excited to see I had one from Fallon Fox. 

She not only thanked me for my unwavering support of her back when she was getting all that Hateraid for coming out as a trans WMMA athlete, but sent me a link to a still in production documentary featuring her entitled Game Face that also has another of my fave people in Kye Allums in it.

Game Face tells the coming out stories of TBLG athletes before and after doing so and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished work when it comes out (pun intended).

Good luck 'Queen of Swords' in your upcoming October 12 CFA featherweight championship bout against Ashlee Evans-Smith and know I and your trans family will always be in your corner.

I'm also looking forward to meeting you in the near future.  

Here's the Game Face trailer featuring Fallon

Fallon Fox Going For The CFA Featherweight Title October 12

We now know the date that Fallon Fox will be back in MMA action and taking on Ashlee Evans-Smith for the Championship Fighting Alliance featherweight tournament title.

That championship bout for our fave MMA girl like us is scheduled to take place October 12 in Coral Gables, FL.  It'll be the first bout for the 3-0 Queen of Swords since she beat Allanah Jones by submission in a semifinal match back in May. 

The winner of this October 12 bout not only gets the title, but the $20,000 grand prize that comes with it. Of course you know who I'm rooting for to win that fight. 

Go Queen of Swords!

And yeah, I expect the transphobic haters to make their appearance as the fight date with the 1-0 Evans-Smith gets closer. 

Hopefully for Fallon's sake there won't be as much drama and distractions in WMMA World and elsewhere surrounding this fight as there were in the runup to the last one.  I know she's in the gym working hard, focusing on her training and trying to get as close to being razor sharp as possible for this CFA featherweight championship bout.

Best of luck, Fallon and hope you walk out of the ring a champion and with a nice check in hand!