18 minute read
Title IX in Winter Sports Where Do We Stand?
Title IX
in Winter Sports: Where Do We Stand?
Jaelin Kauf performs a backflip iron cross in Whistler, British Columbia.
| BY CASEY HOPKINS
The fight for gender equality has been long and arduous in the United States, and much progress has been made over the years. But how far do we have yet to go, especially in the realm of winter sports?
On June 23, 1972, Title IX of the Civil Rights Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. Title XI allowed women to excel at sports they hadn’t previously had the chance to play. It created a snowball effect, increasing the number of female sports in the winter Olympic Games from 12 to 23 between 1972 and 1992, according to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. On top of that, a study by the Women’s Sports Foundation found that girls’ high school sports participation and collegiate sport participation has jumped more than 1,000% and 500%, respectively.
But the dramatic improvement in numbers doesn’t mean the fight for equality is stagnant. On June 24, the International Olympic Committee ruled that women’s Nordic Combined will not be included in the 2026 Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy.
“That’s definitely a place where gender equality could have been achieved on an Olympic platform,” says freestyle Olympic skier Olivia Giaccio, who lived in Steamboat for close to two years before making the U.S. Olympic freestyle ski team. “I think generally in the sport that I’m in, in moguls, I’m thankful that it’s been very equal as a whole, in terms of prize money, how the events are run, the venues we compete on – it’s all been very equal from the start, especially compared to other sports. But essentially the place where we do see gender bias most in our sport is in jumps – how some men perceive that women can’t execute jumps as well as men. That’s something I’ve personally tried to change. I’ve tried to push the envelope of the difficulty of jumps women can achieve in competition.”
In early January, Giaccio became the first woman to land a Cork 1080, a trick where the athlete completes three rotations in the air, one of which is off-axis, in competition at a World Cup stop in Tremblant, Canada. Jaelin Kauf, who also spent about six years living and training in Steamboat, won the silver medal in freestyle women’s moguls at the 2022 Beijing Games. “I’ve been pretty lucky growing up and privileged in sport because of Title IX. I’ve always had equal opportunity and access to sport,” Kauf says. “I never really considered growing up that I couldn’t really succeed in sports because of my gender. I think I’ve been “I never really considered very fortunate to grow up in a generation of growing up that I couldn’t women that have had the opportunity and access to sports that we have, that previous really succeed in sports generations didn’t grow up with.” because of my gender.” The Women’s Sports Foundation reports that three million more high school sport – U.S. Olympian Jaelin Kauf opportunities have been available for girls since the introduction of Title IX, while women in collegiate sports now make up 44% of all NCAA athletes, compared to 15% pre-Title IX. Additionally, professional cross-country skiing is seeing an increase of females in their ranks. Earlier this year, U.S. Ski and Snowboard submitted a proposal to the International Ski Federation cross-country committee to increase the number of athletes per team per competition to encourage nations to develop and utilize female coaches and technicians on the World Cup circuit. The committee also approved setting the same race distances for both men and women next season, with a 57% vote in favor of the change. While adult female athletes continue to push the envelope to help narrow the gender gap, Kauf feels a responsibility to the young people who look up to her as a role model. “Trying to set an example for all these kids, both guys and girls, who look up to me and other athletes and just continuing to push myself to try and do more and be the best that I can be – I think that that’s the best model I can set for the next generation,” Kauf says. SM
Nourish Your Hungry Mind
GET COZY AND STAY CURIOUS WITH FILMS, BOOKS AND A LITTLE INTERACTIVE CITIZEN SCIENCE TO BRIGHTEN THE DARK SEASON OF LONG NIGHTS.
| BY JENNIE LAY
WATCH A DOCUMENTARY.
At press time these must-see documentaries were still awaiting streaming release dates. Press play as soon as they appear, because these are two of this year’s film fest bests.
Steamboat Mag Media Editor’s Pick for favorite documentary of the year. Director Sara Dosa tells the story of a love triangle between two quirky, madin-love French volcanologists and every volcano on Earth. Katia and Maurice Krafft chased eruptions all over the planet, and their surreal archival footage is overlaid with the wondrous narrative voice of Miranda July. It’s a story of invention and adventure, revealing the daily business of working inside primordial lava flows. What a blessing to peer into the legacy of the Kraffts’ scientific discoveries and their authentic romance between one another and the natural world.
Alex Pritz’s documentary is a “Save the Rainforest” thriller that puts you smackdab in the middle of an Amazonian ground battle between the indigenous Uru Eu Wau Wau community and Brazilian cattle ranchers. The stakes are high as the flames and COVID-19 rage, violent tragedies ensue, and a young Indigenous leader emerges with an embrace of technology that puts his people front-and-center as the cinematographers. In a parallel narrative, the film gives unprecedented access to settlers illegally burning and clearing the protected Indigenous land, providing an irrefutable truth-telling about the encroachment.
HOT DOCS YOU SHOULD STREAM RIGHT NOW.
Renan Ozturk and Freddie Wilkinson tickle our mountainfolk penchants for audacious adventure, climbing history and staring at cinematic peaks in this century-long climbing tale upon the Moose’s Tooth massif in Alaska. Relying for navigation upon Brad Washburn’s iconic 80-year-old Denali photographs (and his own compelling personal adventure story), these modern climbingbuddy filmmakers embark upon a
traverse of the treacherous range. It becomes an obsessive multiattempt expedition across a most forbidding route – and the film satisfies an addictive breed of storytelling that adventurous souls who land in towns like Steamboat adore endlessly.
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine rages on, anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, the face of Russian opposition to President Vladimir Putin, remains behind bars. Before that, filmmaker Daniel Roher was the fly on the wall documenting Navalny’s fight for democratic reform that led to his attempted assassination by a poisonous nerve agent, then his defiant return home to challenge the Kremlin. Even if you read it in the news, the footage remains astounding – a glaring reminder of how the world arrived at the current standoff with a brutal Russian authoritarian.
A BONUS SHORT WORTH SAVORING RIGHT NOW.
Nine- and 11-year-old brothers embark on their adventure of a lifetime in 1967 – an unsupervised journey from Massachusetts to the World’s Fair in Montreal. They travel in a cart hitched to their Shetland pony, with the full blessing of their mom. It’s a beautiful story about childhood awe, parenting and shifting perspectives. Stream it for free at Op-Docs, the New York Times’ award-winning series of short documentaries by independent filmmakers. (Hint: While you’re there, binge on the archives.) www.nytimes.com/video/op-docs
PLAN A 2023 ADVENTURE.
| By Jon Kedrowski A fresh new guide is this year’s perfect gift for all your mountainwandering friends and family. Created for four seasons of Colorado alpine fun, Jon Kedrowski mostly stokes our wanderlust for the less-snowy seasons. This is the book you want to savor during winter while you’re scheming summer road trips to less familiar mountains beyond Northwest Colorado. The Yampa Valley vicinity is included, but what might prove most enticing to Steamboat locals are the sections that send readers farther adrift in their hiking boots – loops in the San 525 LINCOLN AVE. • ACROSS FROM THE OLD COURTHOUSE 970-870-6658
685 Marketplace Plaza #6 Steamboat Springs, CO 80487 970-875-3728 www.TheGlacierLily.com
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Juan, Sangre de Cristo and Sawatch ranges. Plus, it’s brimming with full-color photos, maps and clear and concise directions. Kedrowski offers up no less than 70 backcountry lakes in this guide, so don’t forget your fishing rod … and your dog.
PREP FOR AN EXISTENTIAL CONVERSATION.
| By Katharine Hayhoe Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist proving what it takes to communicate effectively across splintered hearts and minds. She has been named a United Nations Champion of the Earth and one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. She’s also chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy, an endowed professor of public policy and public law at Texas Tech University, and an evangelical Christian who was a lead author for the United States’ second, third and fourth National Climate Assessments. In a polarized world, Hayhoe has put herself at the fulcrum of conflicting forces, continuing to argue, “the most important thing you can do to fight climate change is talk about it.” (Watch her TED talk with that title). Hayhoe has long worked to open the dialogue, and her book, “Saving Us,” joins the ranks of essential reading for everyone who genuinely wants to make changes in the face of an existential climate change crisis. Hayhoe continues to be nimble with her humanity and solid in her discipline, finding ways to bring everyone into the conversation via science, faith and human psychology. Read it before she comes to Steamboat in January for the Weather Summit, and watch for a public talk to be announced. www.katharinehayhoe.com
READ THE MODERN STORYTELLERS. LAYING DOWN TRUTHS IN FICTION AND NONFICTION ALIKE.
| By Barbara Kingsolver In her contemporary remaking of Charles’ Dickens’ classic novel “David Copperfield,” Barbara Kingsolver transports readers to modern-day Appalachia, hunkering down in a town reeling from generational poverty, opioid addiction and the ephemeral land wealth of a people locked in their sense of place. Kingsolver weaves a fabric of culture and clash with irresistible characters wading through seemingly insurmountable troubles. Only a few of them will you love; but nearly all of them will solicit some level of
complicated, if distasteful, understanding of individual humans tumbling through the system. Young Demon Copperhead grows from tween to teen through a young addicted mother, foster homes, Southern-style football stardom and his own powerful addictions. The social and familial dilemmas run deep and are blurred to a powerful effect. Sometimes we need fiction to actualize the news stories.
| By Kirk Wallace Johnson On the heels of “The Feather Thief,” Kirk Wallace Johnson continues to reveal an uncanny ability to dissect real-life dramas in the most gripping narrative nonfiction prose. In “The Fisherman and the Dragon,” Johnson takes us deep into the environment and culture of the Texas Gulf Coast, where generations of struggling shrimpers and crabbers start facing off against Vietnamese refugees in the late 1970s. It’s a moment in modern history that most of us missed, and Johnson’s telling of it reads like a crime thriller. This is a work of deep investigation that lays bare a crossroads of American xenophobia, racism and environmental degradation that simmers with the angst of diminishing natural resources fueling long-burning flames of hatred. Johnson breaks down the intimate details of an ugly turf war that ignited the rage and prejudice of the Ku Klux Klan. It is a uniquely American story of immigrants facing up against institutional prejudice and oil industry gaslighting. The truths of the escalating conflict unravel day by day, like a whodunit, via Johnson’s deep dive into FBI records, personal interviews and newly unveiled case files. Forty years later, as America dances around the predicaments of pollution, climate change and social injustice, the “Fisherman and the Dragon” scenario feels prescient.
DO CITIZEN SCIENCE. BE HAPPY.
Big Joy Project
Individuals around the world are invited to participate in a citizen science project inspired by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and carried out by University of California Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and HopeLab. To participate in the Big Joy Project, you’ll spend seven days documenting your feelings and responses to designated micro-actions, then contribute your reactions to cutting-edge neuroscience that’s learning how humans in any circumstance can access more daily joy. In the process, you’re likely to discover positive micro-actions that work best personally, and maybe even spark more joy in the world around you. www.ggia.berkeley.edu/bigjoy SM
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SHUTTERSTOCK.COM Staff Picks: Upcoming Releases
SKI TOWN MEDIA’S STAFF MEMBERS SELECT THEIR MOST ANTICIPATED MOVIE RELEASES THIS WINTER.
Dan Greeson - Editor-in-Chief “The Menu” (Nov. 18, 2022)
“The Menu” follows young couple Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), as they attend an exclusive feast hosted by celebrity chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). The trailers have kept the intricacies of the plot vague so far (thankfully), but it’s clear that not all is as it seems on this gastronomic getaway and festivities are bound to take a macabre turn. A darkly comedic satire from Mark Mylod (producer/director of the show “Succession”), it looks like the fantastic ensemble cast and sharp social commentary will make this one a real treat.
Deborah Olsen - Publisher “A Man Called Otto” (Dec. 14, 2022)
Combining classic dark Scandinavian literary style with an unexpectedly heartwarming touch, “A Man Called Ove” was a bestselling novel in both Sweden and America. The story of Ove (Otto), a grumpy old man who is fed up with life and who exasperates his neighbors, is quintessential dark comedy. Translating it for an American audience would likely prove impossible, were it not for Tom Hanks in the lead role. I cannot wait to see what Hanks does with this challenging, but potentially Oscar-winning role.
Trey Mullen - Digital Director “Avatar: The Way of Water” (Dec. 16, 2022)
The first “Avatar” film is easily in my top 10 favorite movies of all time. Nothing beats a good sci-fi film, especially one that so vividly creates worlds and characters unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. The first “Avatar” introduced us to the world of Pandora. With “Avatar: Way of the Water,” we’ll get to explore alien oceans and experience a whole new side of that world. I love the immense detail portrayed in Pandora’s ecosystem and the emphasis on coexisting with nature vs conquering it. I’m looking forward to this underwater creation from James Cameron.
Melissa VanArsdale - Art Director
“Harold and the Purple Crayon” is an all-time favorite book of mine; I read it as a child and shared it with my own two kids. The simplicity, curiosity and adventurous images and storyline have always captivated me. I love how Harold creates a world to venture into and then (spoiler alert) returns to the comforts of his home to sleep in his bed. And what’s not to like about the color purple? Harold uses only one color to make the pages come alive with imagination. I am really looking forward to how this translates to film.
Casey Hopkins - Office Manager “Knock at the Cabin” (Feb. 3, 2023)
I’m excited to see “Knock at the Cabin.” M. Night Shyamalan movies tend to be hit-or-miss for me, but after seeing the trailer, watching Rupert Grint (aka Ron Weasley) and Dave Bautista cry as they explain that a mysterious decision has to be made to prevent the apocalypse, Shyamalan once again grabbed my attention. I got into reading horror stories during COVID, especially Stephen King, and that helped me graduate to my latest binge: thriller films. Fingers crossed, M. SM
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Victor Fleming
Across
1 Egos’ kin, in psyches 4 Do as directed 8 Loquacious 13 Jean of Dadaism 14 Lay asphalt on 15 Fish named for a facial feature 16 City in southern
Saskatchewan 18 Proofreader’s list 19 Cola container 20 Party food provider 21 With “slightly,” ajar 22 Aggressively denounced 24 Space in between 27 Places for surg. 28 Challenging chore 31 Former California fort 34 Fill one’s tank 36 Aware of 37 Flying formation 38 State Park in Cecil
County, Maryland 41 Chili ___ carne 42 Help out, as a perp 44 Reply to “Your birthday’s not tomorrow!” 45 MPG rating group 46 Croft who raided tombs 47 The Simpsons grandpa 48 Day, to Diego 50 Colorful brand name? 53 Gets hitched to 57 Unsettle 59 Change the decor of 62 Think creatively 63 It of the title, as suggested by 16- & 38-Across and 10- & 33-Down 64 Primer meses 65 “Warts and all” 66 Avoid responsibility, with
“out” 67 Casino equipment 68 ___ majesty (high treason) 69 Vietnamese holiday
Down
1 Reply to “You’re not ten years old!” 2 Give in to gravity 3 Bone china brand 4 Cartel since 1960 5 Lower California, familiarly 6 “Happy Trails” composer
Dale 7 Archer’s bow wood 8 Dieter’s concern 9 Accept 10 Golf club in Larkspur,
Colorado, familiarly 11 Info unit 12 Solar cycle 15 Finishes ahead of 17 Caroled 20 Decorator’s suggestion 23 Lawyer or what a lawyer may give 25 Actuarial datum 26 Amigo 29 “Cool it!” 30 Coastal region of Hawaii 31 Almond-shaped 32 McEntire of music 33 Town in Minnesota or
Wisconsin 35 Snow vehicle 39 Boston catch 40 Pond fish 43 Menu word with steak or tuna 47 All Quiet on the Western
Front star Lew 49 Boot camp truant 51 Coupes and convertibles 52 Awaken 54 Authoritative decree 55 Moll Flanders author 56 Caught a few winks 57 Where one may angle 58 Giant writer Ferber 60 “___ Coming” (1969
Three Dog Night hit) 61 Dept. store goods 63 Nut opening?
| BY VICTOR FLEMING
Leave the driving up to us
Private transportation providing service to and from the Yampa Valley Regional Airport (HDN) in Hayden.
To Schedule a ride, please text 970-846-0616 www.AlpineAirportTransport.com
NOAH WETZEL Steamboat youths participate in traditional events during the Steamboat Springs Winter Carnival, including skijoring down Lincoln Avenue. SteamboatMagazine.com contains a comprehensive calendar of winter events.
Why Stop at the Last Page?
Welcome to Ski Town Media
We’re excited to announce the launch of the all new SkiTownMedia.com website, showcasing the full scope of everything we offer here at Ski Town Media, Inc. Ski Town Media is responsible for publishing Steamboat Magazine, Steamboat Springs Visitors’ Guide, Steamboat Wedding Day and the Yampa Valley Arts & Culture Guide. Specializing in telling genuine Steamboat stories, Ski Town Media understands the value of printed publications while also offering professional digital asset creation and multimedia marketing services.
Daily Digital
Can’t get enough of Ski Town Media content? In addition to our four printed publications, our digital channels provide weekly updates on the people, places and events of Steamboat Springs. Curious to know how to host a Rocky Mountain wedding? Interested in the performance of the U.S. Ski Team? Want to learn more about the environmental factors impacting Steamboat? Head on over to your favorite social media platform and be sure to follow @SteamboatMagazine, @SteamboatSpringsVisitorsGuide, @SteamboatWeddingDay and @YampaValleyArts for the most up-to-date content.
Looking Forward to Steamboat Wedding Day
We can’t wait to share with you the upcoming re-designed Steamboat Wedding Day, due to hit shelves this holiday season. This square publication is an inclusive, intuitive wedding guide created in conjunction with the Steamboat Springs wedding community, designed to help you plan and execute the flawless Steamboat Springs wedding. Research venues and vendors, and find inspiration from couples who have already said “I do” in Steamboat. Be sure to visit SteamboatWeddingDay.com and follow @SteamboatWeddingDay on social media to stay up-to-date.
Winter Calendar of Events
Wintertime in Steamboat Springs means feathery powder, bubbling hot springs and an abundance of events sure to get you out-and-about in this vibrant community. You won’t want to miss local highlights like Steamboat Winter Carnival, WinterWonderGrass Festival, Music Fest, and many more events that can all be found in the calendar at SteamboatMagazine.com. Follow @SteamboatMagazine on Facebook and Instagram for weekly updates. SM
