Why Are So Many Female Athletes Playing in a World of Hurt?
Amid the excitement of the Olympics, it’s easy to forget how many athletes trained to compete in Beijing but couldn’t because of injury. Soccer star Abby Wambach broke her leg, for example, and two members of the women’s gymnastics team are competing in only one event because of ankle problems. Author and journalist Michael Sokolove sees a particular problem in the women’s sports arena, which he says faces an “epidemic” of injuries. In a discussion with U.S. News’s Katherine Hobson about his new book Warrior Girls, Sokolove explores the tension between telling our daughters that they can do anything the boys can do and recognizing the reality that girls may be particularly susceptible to crippling injuries. In another article, Hobson described four injuries that hurt female athletes.
