The Olympics, U.S. Soccer And Youth Volleyball

I am a weather geek and love sports. As such, I often explore topics at the intersection of sports and weather. This week, three things caught my eye involving competitive sports and winter weather. They range from youth sports to international competition at the highest level. Let’s explore them more closely.

I have to start with the U.S. men’s national soccer team and its World Cup qualifier match against Honduras. The game was played in St. Paul, Minnesota during the peak of the winter season and marked the coldest start to game in the history of the program. Who does that? Apparently, the U.S. team does. According to writer Kent Erdahl, U.S. Soccer has used cold weather sites to its advantage in the past, but even this was considered extreme. Wind chills were -15 degrees F during the game. I found the U.S. Soccer guidelines for playing in extreme temperatures. There is a wind chill temperature chart with green, yellow, red, and black indicators. If the wind chill temperatures were below zero (in the black section of the chart), the guidelines say, “Cancel or attempt to move activities indoors. Frostbite could occur.” In fact, several media reports noted that Honduran players were treated for cold weather-related health issues. I won’t even harp on the health risks to fans. Sure both teams were equally exposed to the cold weather. However, as we have written in some of our scholarly work on weather-climate and vulnerability communities, sensitivity is different than exposure.

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports wrote an article entitled, “Congrats to the USMNT, but shame on US Soccer.” In the piece, he goes on to say, “It was an example of a small-time mindset within US Soccer, which too often plays with fear rather than confidence, which looks to protective gimmicks rather than bold attacks. It’s the kind of strategy that — while successful — is cringeworthy and hard to defend for even the most passionate of fans.” My 18-year old daughter Arissa certainly sniffed this out when she saw the schedule many weeks ago.

Also on the international stage, the Winter Olympics began in China. This is an opportunity for some of the best athletes in the world to display their talents, and I wish them well. There have been a lot of politics swirling around the games because of international policy and COVID-19 requirements. However, there is something else that has been on my mind – diversity and inclusion. While there is certainly diversity of nationalities and customs represented, I just don’t see many faces representative of my race and culture in the Winter Olympics. Though strides had been made in sliding sports such as bobsleigh and skeleton in recent decades (remember the Jamaican bobsled teams), the International Olympic Committee’s decision on representation quotas in 2022 means there will be no African athletes competing in those sports, according to Sports Illustrated’s Alex Prewitt.

Additionally, Skiinghistory.org examined the reasons that people of color are underrepresented in winter sports like skiing. They write on their website, “While there are several possible factors contributing to this relatively low rate of participation—proximity to ski areas being one of them—it seems likely that the cost of skiing plays a key role in tamping down participation by African Americans.” Using 2016 numbers, there is almost a $16,000 difference between U.S. median family income and that of African Americans. I will certainly catch some of the Olympics because, after all, it is competitive sports. However, the representation gap should not be ignored.

Speaking of sports with disparate representation and significant cost, let’s shift to youth volleyball. My daughter’s travel team was slated to fly to Columbus, Ohio this week for a regional qualifier. It became apparent to me as a meteorologist that flights on Thursday would likely be canceled due to a major ice and snow storm (that is ongoing even as I write this on Friday morning). Her club director as well as many other teams made the decision to pull out of this tournament. Much of the central Ohio area was under Level 2/Level 3 snow emergencies, yet I noticed that the tournament is still proceeding. Kudos to the National Weather Service and the broader meteorology community. There was ample information several days for proactive decisions based on science not hope or “let’s wait and see.” I am pleased to report that my daughter’s team will be playing a tournament in Georgia this weekend.