There is a perfect opportunity presenting itself at the Paris Olympics right now. Men are beating up women in the boxing events. At least some of the women are bowing out of their fights, correctly fearing for their lives.
Why don’t the women organize an alternate boxing tournament (Herlympic Boxing?), featuring the women who qualified for the Olympics? It’s just a matter of funding.
Surely there are enough people out there with (1) deep pockets and (2) a sense of outrage who would be willing to donate to something like this. Some of the countries who sent the athletes to Paris might pony up. And, of course, advertising would help pay for it. Since the rewards would be only medals, and a chance to compete — how old school would that be! — there might even be money to be made on the deal by investors.
Let a handful men fight it out for medals in Women’s Olympic Boxing. Who will care? What will such a medal be worth, exactly?
All of which is to say, when politics metastasizes into sports, it’s time for the sports to surgically remove the politics by going private.
And when this proves to be a viable route forward, perhaps we can apply the same reasoning to sports in schools. And to schools themselves.
