kelly kulick

When Kelly Kulick became the first woman to win a men's Professional Bowlers Association Tour title, Billie Jean King called it "a motivational and inspirational event for girls and women competing at all levels all around the world." Rick Reilly of ESPN went further, calling it the greatest moment in women's sports. According to Reilly, this is the first time in American history that a woman has defeated a field of male athletes in any ball sport.

Heather McLaughlin has been schooling me lately on gender and sport. Reading her prelim, I learned how the press described the first women's 800-meter race in the 1928 Olympics as “eleven wretched women fainting or delirious.” It was not until 1960 that women were again allowed to subject their putatively delicate constitutions to distances longer than 200 meters. Now some gender scholars are advocating greater opportunities for women to compete directly with men, as in the PBA competition won by Ms. Kulick.

Of course, this might affect how we view the events as well as the athletes. I suspect that many sports fans will minimize and devalue any event that includes women -- just as earnings may decline as women enter historically-male occupations or industries. David Whitley of Fanhouse offers an ideal-typical catch-22 argument along these lines:

How could a guy lose to a girl in an athletic event?
Simple, really.
Bowling isn't an athletic event.
Rule No. 1 in determining whether an activity is a sport: If the best female in the world can beat the best male in the world, it doesn't qualify.

Yeesh. Reading this makes me hope that Paula Radcliffe breaks the men's marathon record -- just to see Mr. Whitley tie himself in knots.