WOMEN AND GUNS

August 96 Column: Olympics



     On a chart in Newsweek magazine, a graph shows the increased 

participation of women in the Olympic Games since the start of

the modern era in 1896 (0%) to a projected 36.5% at this summer's 

quadrennial sports fest. Along the way, the graph highlights notable 

achievements by female Olympians: Margaret Abbott, the first American 

woman to win a gold medal in 1900 (golf); a seven-out-of-eight sweep

by the American women's swim team in 1920; Wilma Rudolph's world-

record-breaking 100- and 200-meter sprint wins in 1960; Wyomia Tyus' 

first-ever successful defensive of a gold medal in 1968 (she won in

'64 as well); the rise of gymnastics as a premier event, fueled by

Olga Korbet ('72) and the historic perfect "10" scored by Nadia 

Comaneci in 1976, and the amazing achievements of sisters-in-law

Jackie Joyner-Kersee (heptathlon) and Florence Griffith-Joyner (three

gold track medals) in 1988.



     All of these notable attainments are cause for celebration among

women who take even a passing interest in sports. With the exception

of golf, tennis and figure skating, there aren't many "professional"

sports venues for women. Yes, others, even including shooting, do

exist at the professional level in the United States, but the

professional (read: finances and fame) rewards are few and far between

for these women. Since we measure and value achievement by exposure,

it is easy to forget women who make fractions of their male

counterparts' salaries in basketball, for example.



     With the exception of Wyomia Tyus, I had heard of all the women 

mentioned in Newsweek's "Year of the Women" history of the Olympics, 

and I am not much of a "sports" fan. My knowledge of these women (and 

their achievements) is based mostly on the hype - and I mean that in

a good way - that surrounds the Olympics. When I got my nearly-waist 

length hair cut in my sophomore year in high school, it was in a

style made popular by skater Dorothy Hammil - "The Wedge" - although

my ice skating activities were limited to several Delaware Park lake

outings as a much younger person and a number of crushes on NHL hockey

players. While the allure of the Olympics has arguably been downgraded

in the past few years, due to a number of factors, it is still true

that most people, even those like me with little interest in sports,

become caught up in the Games. Part of the reason is an inchoate

nationalism, generally frowned on these days, except when we can all

pull together as we root for young people of amazing dedication and

skill who wear our country's colors, and thereby compete for all of

us.



     While rule changes in the past 8-12 years have allowed athletes

from this country who make their living from their sport to compete

in the Olympics (not unlike the vast majority of other countries

who have always directly subsidized their competitors), by and

large, the Olympians are still those (usually young) people whose

dreams don't start and end with league contracts and million-dollar

endorsements.



     Instead, they are somehow more like you and me expressly because

of their amateur status. The hundreds of Olympic vignettes of

competitors'lives we see during the Games, reinforce that image:

athlete after athlete is from a small (or big) town, surrounded by

family, friends and neighbors who facilitate their achievements. These

competitors are fierce, as fierce as any tattooed basketball star, any

mohawked footballer, any gap-tooth hockey player, but their fierceness

always seems tempered by a sweetness their amateur status affords

them. Yes, some will reap enormous rewards from their Olympic gains

- cereal boxes, vacation pitches, soup commercials and the like, but

most of them will go home, satisfied, perhaps to pursue their sport

again while they make a living at something else. Their fame will be

localized, or remembered only by devotees of the sport, or reduced to

the odd Jeopardy question every couple of years.



     Once upon a time, Annie Oakley was the Madonna of her day,

although Little Miss Sure Shot, by all accounts a modest women in her

life and accomplishments, would probably be distressed by the

comparison. It is easy to forget, ignore, or never know, that Oakley

was the hottest ticket of her day, that European tours were built

around her, that no less a personage than Queen Victoria was

determined to meet her. (The Queen pronounced Oakley, then 27, "a

very clever girl.") Three years after the first modern Olympics in

1896 at which there were no women competitors, Oakley and the Wild

West Show built around her drew 20,000 people at the Great Paris

Exposition. Indeed, some clever theorist or dissertation writer might

be able to make the case that Annie Oakley was the first sports

superstar - male or female!



     With an almost mythological antecedent (and there are a lot of

people who don't quite know that Oakley was a real, live person and

not a made-up movie figure) it's a shame the shooting sports 

generally are no longer of interest to the general public, that even

premier professional shooting events draw comparatively tiny crowds

of spectators, and that Olympic shooting, a rich mine for US medals,

will be largely ignored again by the media.



     Too bad, for example, that Newsweek's coverage of women Olympians

failed to mention Margaret Murdock. In 1976, when Comaneci was the 

celebrity to come out of the Montreal Games with her unprecedented 

"10," Murdock was to provide a thrilling rupture in another sort of

barrier. Her silver medal rifle performance marked the first time in

history that a woman had medaled in the shooting sports.  Margaret

Murdock's silver medal came only after a tiebreaker with teammate Lanny

Bassham. As they stood on the graduated medal stand, Bassham reached

down to indicate he and Murdock "shared" the gold.



     Until Murdock's win, although, or perhaps because, there had been

no women medalists in the shooting sports, men and women competed 

together in shooting. Most people credit Murdock's victory with 

establishing separate Olympic shooting events for women. (It's

generally acknowledged that the then-powerful Eastern Bloc countries

just couldn't take the idea of a female athlete whipping the boys at

their own game.) Lest you think this was somehow a setback, think

again. The establishment of separate events for women (which now

number five, compared to 10 for men) means there are 15 medals to be

won by women shooters, 15 shots at glory and self-fulfillment for

women around the world, all courtesy of Murdock. "She helped stop the

male domination of the sport and destroyed the idea that women could

be kept on the sidelines," said Gary Anderson, like Murdock a member

of the US International Shooting Hall of Fame. Several years later, I

got to meet Launi Meili, who took the first US gold medal at the 1992

Games in Barcelona, Spain. Meili, currently working on her Master's at

the University of Idaho, at least got some decent general coverage,

but I don't remember seeing any of those "Up close and personal" type

features on her that permeate Olympic television coverage. In fact,

the 1992 Games featured no coverage on NBC television of shooting

events, either in its primary network coverage, or its auxiliary cable

productions that year.



     I remember Meili telling me about the thrill of just being at the

Olympics: "They say to let your breathe out as you pull the trigger,

but I wasn't even sure I could catch my breath!" Of course she could,

and did, but her comment said a lot about how much the Games mean to

the athletes, even those who are among the leaders in the game. In

addition to her academic work, Meili also spends time as a spokesman

for Crosman AirGuns and Federal Cartridge, and has been active in

developing shooting programs  for hear-impaired youngsters.



     I have not had the pleasure of meeting any of this year's crop of

US shooters, but in reading about them it is clear that they have

personal histories as compelling as any of the other competitors at

Atlanta. All would be fitting subjects for the profiles that

proliferate during the games. Elizabeth Bourland of Texas is a first

teamer on the 3x20 rifle squad and a second team member on the air

rifle squad. Connie Petracek, who has competed in past Olympics (and

appeared on a W&G September 1992 cover with Meili) is back on the

women's sport pistol team together with Libby Callahan, a Washington,

DC, police officer.



     This month's cover girl, Kim Rhode of El Monte, California (see

Page 30) may yet pique the interest of the heretofore indifferent

press. At 16, she will compete in Women's Double Trap (making its

debut as a medal sport), and brings a blistering string of qualifying

national and international matches to the table.



     In putting this issue together, I did speak with her dad,

Richard, to straighten out some of the photo credits that accompany

the story. His pride in Kim was evident and genuine. We spoke a little

about how the shooters are all but ignored by the press, and about how

the small town of El Monte has taken this youngster to heart, making

her a local heroine of the best sort.



     Regardless of how she finishes, Kim Rhode will continue (when 

you enter the topmost ranks at the age of 16, a sports career

stretches enviably long) to pursue her dreams of excellence in a

sport undervalued by most. We wish her and her teammates the best

of luck and look forward to summer glory for them all.



Peggy Tartaro,

Executive Editor