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Post Olympics: What's Next?............................ Related item Not Ready for the 2000 Olympics? ............................ |
Although the headlines clamored "Women Shine in 1996 Olympics," or dubbed 1996 the "Year of the Women," there are those among us who might tell you the Olympian women's "15 minutes of fame" (thank you, Andy Warhol) is just about over. Since the closing ceremonies in Atlanta, coverage of women athletes has waned and the media seems to have just about forgotten the women of Atlanta. Many people, like Smith athletic director Lynn Oberbillig, are wondering what's next. "I'm very interested in whether this women's moment in the Olympics was a one-shot deal, or what the ramifications will be for the future," Oberbillig says. "How can we ride this wave to a higher level? What's next for women in sports, and how can the Olympic momentum help create that?" Nike Just Does ItIt goes without saying that the faculty and staff at Smith take women in sports very seriously. Don Siegel, professor of exercise and sport studies (ESS), has helped launched the Power of Play project with a $50,000 grant from Nike, Inc. Part of the money will fund, for the next two years, innovative research by ESS graduate students Kirsten Wallace '94 and Christine Voigt. They will look at sports involvement and the development of self-esteem in pre-adolescent and adolescent girls. "This concept has been looked at in the sports model more with boys than with girls, and virtually nothing has been done with pre-adolescent females," Siegel says of the proposed research. "It could be a very important age to see what the importance of sports is in these girls' lives." Studies show that the effect of athletics upon the lives of women and girls who play sports is indeed positive. They do better in school and they are healthier as well. But existing data also reveal that many girls drop out of sports by the age of 13, Siegel says. The conventional female role, he says, "is not the role of an athlete." In other words, being aggressive, diving for a ball on the basketball court while the boys are watching, makes many girls self-conscious. "We need to see how we can change that," says Siegel. In addition to funding the two-year research project, the grant will help pay for three clinics for coaches of girls' and women's sports, and 10 sports days designed to give young girls in the local community a chance to play a sport they might not have tried before. A proposal for a two-week summer camp geared to disadvantaged elementary schoolaged girls also is being considered. For its part, Smith is providing the coaching staff, facilities, research fellows and a project director. Sport director for the Smith College/Nike Power of Play project is Marilyn Bradley '88. She holds a master's degree from Smith in exercise and sport studies and has coached 13 years of field hockey and softball at the middle school and high school level. As Bradley sees it, each one of the 10 sports days is a way to give girls a positive experience with a sport they might otherwise be afraid to try. Because Smith coaches will be the sports day leaders, and their varsity athletes will be the clinicians, Bradley also sees a way to give the girls who already enjoy athletics an opportunity to see Smith students modeling a positive experience with a sport. "We want girls to know that playing sports can be a quality part of a lifelong experience," says Bradley. "And of sports, they can say: 'It's fun to play,' 'I can get strong and be healthy,' 'I can learn to count on people. We are a team.'" A kick-off reception for the entire project gets things going in November. The first sports day, also in November, is a clinic focusing on track and field. A field hockey day is scheduled for December. Eight more sports days and the coaches' clinics will follow over the next two years.
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