When men play golf, for instance, everybody in the audience has to be quiet. One single word and the whole match is ruined. The golfer lines up his shot, gets ready to hit, and if one ailing grandma clears her throat the whole thing is ruined. The player flings his club into the lake and storms off in a huff, screaming, "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CONCENTRATE WITH ALL THIS NOISE?" Security guards hustle the old lady off the premises with a stern warning never to return.
Compare that to the women's gymnastics. It's actually louder during a performance than before or after. It's not the audience, either: it's the other members of the team. They continually, repeatedly scream miscellaneous stuff at the top of their lungs, and apparently the athletes are cool with it. One night it was all, "Aly! Aly! Go Aly!" It sounded like somebody was trying to give directions to a Chinese guy.
The balance beam, I'm sure, is a sport that demands complete concentration, but you wouldn't believe it with all the yelling. Before a woman does a particularly difficult move, her teammates yell, "YOU CAN DO IT! YOU GO, GIRL!" It must be so great to hear those words of encouragement. I guess that's why they're always smiling when they fall to the floor. Even then the yells continue, though now they're saying girlfriend still has a shot at the bronze despite snapping a femur on a judge.
With this in mind, it's hard to believe the Olympics used to be so sexist. For men the focus has always been on athleticism and brute strength, but for women the focus was on artistry. All of their events were set to music, including wrestling and pole-vaulting. I'll bet even Michael Phelps wouldn't have won 20 medals if he had to swim to "Rock Me Amadeus." In the gymnastics events, women were considered so delicate that they weren't even allowed to do tricks. Back then the team members in the audience had to scream out baking tips. "I KNOW YOU CAN'T DO A SOMERSAULT, GIRLFRIEND," a 1950s athlete would have offered, "SO HERE'S MY RECIPE FOR CLAMS CASINO!"
Luckily, that sexism is long gone. Now men and women are treated equally, even by TV commentators. While that might not mean anything to Pistorious, Phelps, Lochte, and Bolt, I'm sure it's a comfort to Gabby, Aly, Misty May, and McKayla, though I wouldn't touch their clams with a ten-foot pole.
