Three Times a Lady

23/10/09 23:13 Filed in: Women, Sports

COACH'S CORNER SEPTEMBER 23, 1998


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It is a sad fact that when a woman achieves athletic greatness, the praise and the whispers start in almost the same breath. You know the kind of whispers: the athlete is, you know, one of THOSE types. Or she took performance enhancing drugs. It is as if the more stunning the athletic achievement, the more important it becomes to diminish it, to tarnish it.

Thus, how typical it was that when the great Florence Griffith-Joyner passed on recently, so many commentators suggested, without a shred of evidence other than her brilliant running career itself, that her greatness was the product of performance enhancing drugs.

The unspoken assumption is, of course, that such fabulous athletic achievements could not have been accomplished by any woman unaided by steroids. Such specious nonsense tells us very little about Florence Griffith-Joyner's greatness, but speaks volumes about how little progress we have made in changing attitudes in the twenty five years since Title IX gave women a foot in the gymnasium door.

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Admittedly Florence Griffith-Joyner with her fab nails and gorgeous fashion sense was an anomaly among women athletes. Women athletes continue to pay the price for doing what they love. The culture gives us very little room. We are still made to feel like interlopers in the male sanctuary. Male athletes are worshipped. Women athletes are tolerated, and too easily internalize that cultural contempt. So we tend to be so serious and earnest about athletics, almost joyless sometimes. Too many feel they are up against it: be an athlete or be a woman. You choose.

Florence Griffith-Joyner was one of those rare women athletes who made no apologies to herself or anyone else for who she was. Sprinting was part of her soul and she radiated infectious joy when she ran, as if the happiness that running gave her could hardly be contained in one human being. This is the way all athletes feel when they step into their arena, unless someone takes it away: how good it was that she could model that irrepressible joy for us. Everything she was shouted, it is wonderful to be an athlete. Feel the joy in it. Feel the power of it.

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I speak from experience: genetics and gym time, not steroids, gave Flo Jo her powerful build. She was one of the most cut women since Linda Hamilton in Terminator II, and girl, she made it look fabulous. The lady had class, and power, and style, and she was totally at peace with who she was. As my daughter once said, self respect is the bomb.

So while the world's best sprinters fiercely fought with themselves in the 10 or 20 seconds of the fiery short sprints, Flo Jo glided by them like a skater on glass. There was an unspeakable joy in who she was, like she wore her soul on the outside as she moved. Give us all the courage to live our lives like that.

©Adrienne Larkin
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