Women's Hockey - Ban it from Olympics?

I’m not allowed to comment on this story.

I agree that “no checking” makes it harder to watch. But the goal by Jocelyn Lamerioux in yesterdays game vs China was super sweet. Would hate to not be able to see that kind of skill any more.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=4c9b8244-67c9-4925-9739-6f960a146e09.html#jocelyne+lamoureuxs+highlight+reel+goal

The Olympic Motto is “Citius, Altius, Fortius.” These three Latin words mean “Swifter, Higher, Stronger.”

The Olympic Creed reads:
 “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

The creed and motto are meant to spur the athletes to embrace the Olympic spirit and perform to the best of their abilities.

Jeff’s perspective hardly jives with the beauty of the Olympics!

Of course this should be eliminated from the olympics. I agree with the “Swifter, Higher, Stronger” stuff, as I think Jeff probably does. But in all seriousness, there is no competition. Does anyone who pays attention to mens hockey and knows what hockey is all about even watch this? There is no contact, there is competition, there is no reason to watch it.
American football is just as competitive as women’s ice hockey in the olympics. But it hasn’t been added to the olympics because there are not enough serious competitors.
These scores are outrageous and unsportsmanlike. Who beats a HOCKEY team by more than 10 goals? It’s like playing infants.
Women should reanalyze their rules. There is no contact, checking may add an element of better competition. I mean they aren’t playing guys? And that is what hockey is intended for. Or perhaps they should turn their sticks around and use the ends of their sticks if “it’s all about skills”. ???
Also are you all aware that the OLYMPIC rink at vancouver this year is NHL size? That means that Canada and the USA has a tremendous advantage since all the other teams practice on the INTERNATIONAL (olympic) size rink for their entire lives. It may not affect the men since there is contact in “men’s hockey”, but since “women’s hockey” has a different set of rules and there is no contact the women international teams practice on moving the puck throughout a different size rink which changes the entire dynamic of the sport, it’s just ridiculous.

No one beats another team by 10 goals in a competitive hockey game unless you are on acid. Come on now.
Every sport that is as ridiculously uncompetitive as women’s ice hockey should be eliminated, yes.
If an olympic size arena is unavailable, then the olympics shouldn’t be played there, I make no suggestion to build a rink.
You arguments are irrational. And you are 100% wrong about women from Canada and USA playing in ‘available rinks and mostly olympic’. This is simply false.

And are you comparing women’s ice hockey to high school hockey. You’ve actually verified the point. It’s like high school hockey.

And hahaha are you serious about the sexist and homophobic comments. You are prejudice in making these assumption you hyprocrite, you have no idea who you are talking to, if they are female or male, gay or straight. Educate yourself.

I think the first Olympics to feature women’s hockey was the Nagano games in 1998. I was excited about that, until I watched the games. It was far too early to hold a competitive international competition as the the experience and skill just wasn’t quite there yet. I maintain to this day that my high school team could have taken home a medal in those games. You should never get that feeling watching an Olympic competition.

Outside of the ‘checking issue’ the women’s game has matured wonderfully so far. The top teams have a great deal of talent… they are simply good hockey teams. Once a sport has a handful of truly top class teams, I think it is absolutely essential to highlight those sports in international competition at the Olympics. Hockey is an expensive sport, and it takes a long time to build a strong base to grow hockey in many countries around the world. What we are seeing over the past two years, especially in the junior international level, is that there are a handful nations right on the verge of becoming international contenders themselves.

I am happy that my 2 year old daughter, if she wants to, can play hockey in well established programs, with great women players to look up to, to have her own Olympic aspirations and dreams. I am forever linked to that 1980 miracle on ice. I was just old enough to know what was going on, at least to know that my parents thought that it was a huge deal. I started hockey that next winter, pushing around a folding chair in a termite program, dreaming of the Olympics. If my daughter wants to play hockey, no one is going to tell her she can’t dream of the Olympics because some nations are good enough yet.

On a related but different note, does anyone remember the Athens games? That swimmer from Africa, can’t remember the country right off hand. The man hadn’t ever been in a pool before 18 months prior to the games. He wanted to go to the Olympics, wanted to inspire his people. So he traveled to a pool, taught himself to swim, managed to organize a national qualification, got entry into the Olympics, raised money to travel, marched in the opening ceremonies, celebrated and inspired. In his heat for his event, televised, the race started… everyone else finished before he had even made it to the first wall. He looked like he was going to drown before finishing, but he finished. He climbed out of that pool, grinning and joyous. He had done it. Now THAT is the Olympics. It’s about inspiring, it’s about competing, it’s celebrating life and sport. I can promise you that despite the score, those women on the Chinese hockey team are thrilled to be in the Olympics, to be competing, to be privileged to represent their country and their sport.

It’s also not like the Winter Olympics is the Summer games, were there are nearly 300 different competitions, with a 100 more waiting a turn to get in… and lets not even talk about ballroom dancing.

I understand that you’all don’t “want” women’s hockey banned from the olympics, but based on reality, it is truly the only option.
Just because you don’t want it to be eliminated and feel bad for the players, or for your kids, doesn’t mean that it is a competitive sport.
There should be pie-eating contests in the olympics. I know plenty of competitors who would make for an awesome sport ;)
Simply the facts.

If all of the countries involved are putting their best teams out there then who cares, better to try and fail miserably than to sit on the couch and criticize those that do try. The only way the competition will get better is for the other teams to step up their game. They will learn from their losses and eventually they will get better. It’s unfortunate that we can’t say the same for some of the people that complain about it.

 “It’s not interesting enough,” then plain and simple, don’t watch, but don’t cut it from the olympics because its not competitive yet and you don’t enjoy watching. In fact, cut all prelim games from being telelcasted, that would make you and them happy. You don’t have to watch, and they still get to play. That’s all these athelete want to do, just play.

Women’s hockey is one of the FASTEST growing sports in the world. If you look even in the USA certain areas are more dominant for hockey in general, but especially womens hockey. The midwest and out east have large networks of teams, which isn’t necessarily easy to find in the other states.

What do young girls have to dream for if there are no Olympics?.. to play in the NHL? Oh, wait no.. there is no NHL or shall I say WNHL and that’s fine, the NHL has a hard enough problem getting support from certain areas of the US anyways. The only major “professional” womens sport is the WNBA, and thats even funded by the NBA. Womens sports are behind the times, they aren’t at the same calibar as mens teams, but they are competitve none the less. Guaranteed anybody playing in a game couldn’t care less if there were spectators in the stands at all, they’re playing for the love of the game. Any woman hockey player at the olympic level is playing the sport for the only reason any of us EVER play sports to begin with, they love the game. There are no million dollar contracts that these women are hoping and striving for, just a chance to go to the big dance and represent their country.

These smaller countries, or countries that are getting blown out in these games, the players are undoubtedly having a great time anyways. How would you feel participating in the Olympics? Win or lose it’s a tremendous experience that noone can take away from you. These countries don’t come with the intentions to win, just a chance to do what they love. Why take that away? With time it will come, this is just the 4th olympics with women’s hockey, you can’t just expect the field to be astounding. The growth of womens hockey even in the past 10 years has been through the roof, give it a little more time and these other countries will put up a better performance with a bigger selection of athletes.

Oh and as a point of reference: I don’t remember what the argument was all about but the super rink in Blaine has 4 olympic sheets and 4 non-olympic sheets, they could easily play on any of them, and ridder is NOT olympic. The size of the ice only matters at the begining of a game when one is getting used to it, and for the most part is unnoticable when going from olympic to smaller. If anything, playing on nonolympic ice, is an advatage to these countries, because there is less ice for the “big bad wolves” to skate and pass around them.

Well, in the Summer Olympics, you know the USA will probably win in basketball, but no one talks about removing basketball from the Summer Olympics.

If women’s hockey were as popular as men’s, this wouldn’t even be brought up. The Olympics are supposed to be about allowing amateur athletes their moment to shine and represent their country. Instead they seem to be about ratings and that means getting rid of unpopular sports in favor of popular sports.