Word: woman
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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McGrath's experience in the New York City marathon underlines the thesis of our story. In 1976, running the 26.2-mile course in 3 hr. 46 min., she was the 22nd woman to finish. That year 88 women started in the race. Last year 260 started, and 68 finished in 3 hr. 45 min. or less. Something is happening out there. Fast...
...base. She pulls a Reds cap down over her hair, punches her glove, drops her red-jacketed arms down to rest on red pants, and waits for the action. Kim has but a single ambition: to play for her beloved Reds. When a male onlooker points out that no woman has ever played big league baseball, Kim's face, a mass of strawberry freckles, is a study in defiant dismissal...
...they were supposed to stand out in the hall, quaking in their tennis shoes. The penalty for daring to take part was to be labeled unfeminine, a social deviant. What is considered healthy psychological development in a man?aggressiveness, independence, ambition, courage, competitiveness?was viewed as unhealthy in a woman. Yet it is precisely those qualities that are found in every athlete, male or female. Whatever it is that works for little boys also works for little girls...
Nature certainly designed women better than men for sport in one basic way. "A man's scrotum is much more vulnerable than a woman's ovaries," says Dr. John Marshall, director of sports medicine at Manhattan's Hospital for Special Surgery and the trainer for Billie Jean King. "A woman's ovaries sit inside a great big sac of fluid-beautifully protected." A woman's breasts are also not easily damaged. Scotching an old myth, Marshall says: "There's no evidence that trauma to the breasts is a precursor of cancer...
Then there is the canard that a woman's menstrual cycle inhibits peak performance. World and Olympic records, however, have been set by women who were having their periods. Nor does exertion disrupt the cycle for most women athletes. Says one world-class runner: "I'm so regular, it's ridiculous." However, some women undergoing hard training do stop menstruating for months at a time. This cessation of the cycle, called amenorrhea, occurs in about 45% of women who run over 65 miles a week-as well as in dancers, ice skaters and gymnasts. Many experts link...