{"id":1406,"date":"2005-03-10T11:49:38","date_gmt":"2005-03-10T19:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2005\/03\/10\/boo-canada\/"},"modified":"2005-03-10T11:49:38","modified_gmt":"2005-03-10T19:49:38","slug":"boo-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=1406","title":{"rendered":"Boo Canada!"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Edmonton Sun<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Earlier this week three veteran track athletes suggested that Athletics Canada is sending the wrong message: that you can’t be both a parent and a serious athlete.<\/p>\n

Leah Pells of Langley, B.C., and Calgary’s Lisa Harvey and Jeremy Deere – all three parents – were left off the Canadian team for the world cross-country championships for refusing to attend a pre-meet training camp because of parental obligations.<\/p>\n

“It’s so 1950s,” said Pells.<\/p>\n

“They’re basically telling athletes that once you are a parent, you are off the national team, and that we (Athletics Canada) do not value your experience at all. It makes me very angry to work so hard, and deserve to be on a team, and then be left at home because I am a mother.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article writer goes on to say that the parents are just being whiney:<\/p>\n

Firstly, to get to the top of the podium there are sacrifices. This, in my estimation, is one of them. Organize child care at home, Leah Pells. And take a number.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, this same logic could be used to justify virtually any sacrifice demanded of athletes. What if the Canadian track team demanded that all athletes on the team had to – I don’t know – get massive facial tattoos, or have a finger cut off, or murder their dads? Anyone not willing to do this could be told “to get to the top of the podium there are sacrifices.”<\/p>\n

What’s missing from this “top of the podium” analysis is the question of which sacrifices are reasonable to ask of athletes, and which are not. Asking them to spend insanely long hours in practice and training is not unreasonable, since that’s what it takes to be a star athlete.<\/p>\n

Refusing to allow them to schedule their insanely long hours of practice in a way that accomidates their responsibilities as parents, however, is not reasonable. For any reasonable parent – including a star athlete – parental obligations sometimes have to come before everything else, including work. It’s quite possible that the Canadian cross-country team, by refusing to build their training schedule around that reality, is cutting out some of its best athletes for no good reason – and denying Canadian track fans the chance to see the very best Canadian athletes at work.<\/p>\n

Via Family Scholars Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Edmonton Sun: Earlier this week three veteran track athletes suggested that Athletics Canada is sending the wrong message: that you can’t be both a parent and a serious athlete. Leah Pells of Langley, B.C., and Calgary’s Lisa Harvey … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-families-structures-divorce-etc","category-feminism-sexism-etc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}