Toronto Star writer creates controversy; wants women's hockey removed from the Olympics
In an apparent act of career suicide, Rosie DiManno published an article today in the Toronto Star advocating for the removal of women's hockey from the Winter Olympics. DiManno believes that a lack of real competition in the women's tournament is reason enough to cancel it completely.
While it's true that the Canadian and American teams often dominate the tournament, it's not much different from the men's version. Sure, Russia, Sweden and Finland are able to compete with the North American teams, but there's always a blowout or two in the preliminary rounds. The same can be said for the World Juniors tournament, yet nobody is saying it should be cancelled.
Here's the problem. If women's hockey were to be removed, the incentive to improve for the other nations would be dramatically lessened. Women's hockey is growing, but it won't grow if people like DiManno get their way. The Olympic tournament is a massive source of inspiration for women around the world to hone their skills and push themselves towards excellence. The mere existence of the tournament helps to grow the game and improve the product. These women have worked every bit as hard as the men - even harder in some circumstances - and most of them have full time jobs besides hockey. They deserve to represent their countries as much as any other athlete.
Honestly, the premise of DiManno's article was so ridiculous it's difficult to formulate and articulate counter argument aside from a simple «how about no?». Luckily for everybody, the IOC has stated that the women's tournament will never be removed. Still, the fact that there are people out there who think that women's hockey is any less deserving than men's is extremely disappointing.
The Star article is linked below, but my advice is not to click it. It's a piece designed to generate clicks via outrage. It doesn't deserve the attention and definitely doesn't deserve the ad revenue.
