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Lindsey Vonn, two-time Olympic gold medallist skier and two-time World Championship gold medallist, wants to race with the boys.  It is something she has always dreamed of.  With all the red tape in the way in may never happen, but the biggest reason it may never be allowed is because, "Perhaps, underneath it all, the boys of the White Circus are a little bit scared of being 'chicked'".  This was new vocabulary for me, evidently, used by ski racers - to chick someone. Really it means to chick a guy; in reference to a woman who skis better than a man.

I am not a skier so I have never chicked a guy in that respect.  In fact, on the slopes (and my friends can attest to this) I get kidded. All the little kids will pass me by during their ski lessons.  I have, however, chicked many a guy on the tennis court, the ice rink, the basketball court and the golf course.  I kind of love the term, to chick someone.  It is experiential learning at its finest but it seems to be a lesson that the men who Vonn would be racing against don't want to learn.

Calgary's Ben Thomsen, 25, who finished second in the downhill race in Sochi last season, said if approved, Vonn should race last in the start order so men aren't robbed of the good spots they earned.  He also confessed that the prospect of getting "beat by a girl" is embarrassing. 

"It was always a big moment in your ski-racing career when you're old enough or good enough to not get beat by the best girl," he said, "That's kind of a tipping point - when you no longer get chicked."

I suppose that moment is also a defining moment for women skiers as well; the moment where gender relations are restored to 'normal'.  I tend to find these types of comments particularly disturbing. As girls and women we are supposed to roll over and expect defeat at the hands of a boy or man.  They are supposed to be better - it's what nature wants!  But when a man loses to a woman he doesn't just lose, he loses face. Nothing is worse for a boy or man than to be compared to a girl or a woman or to lose to a girl or a woman.  Not losing to someone older or younger. Not losing to someone poor. Not losing to someone with a disability.  And the worst part is it doesn't matter how good that woman is, it will hurt all the same.  Losing to a girl means losing some of your respect as a man.  We wonder why women's sports are so undervalued when the real question should be why is being a woman so undervalued?

The fact that Thomsen articulates that it is a tipping-point for male skiers when they no longer get chicked is sad.  It sounds like living in fear rather than striving for success.  Tipping-point essentially refers to a symbolic moment of manhood - I am better than every woman skier on this mountain.  And really, that's what matters right? I could be the worst skier who pees standing up but I am better than every skier who pees sitting down. Thomsen's statement means that he sees Vonn as a woman first and as a skier second.  Truthfully, I've never really thought much about the guys I have chicked in my day.  It always brought a smile to my face because I felt I had earned an extra badge of respect.  Yet, it is sad to think that my respect came at the expense of someone else's.  It should not be a zero-sum game.  Competition should be competition.  Maybe women competing with men will never happen in my life time.  Maybe women's sports will never get Monday Night Football ratings but I would like to think that in the near future we can at least get to the point where losing to a girl/woman isn't embarrassing.  It would be nice if young boys who get beaten in a foot race on the school yard simply smile and say "wanna go again?"  It would be nice if when a man gets chicked on the ski hill he looks his opponent in the eye and says "too good" and doesn't feel any less a man.  As much as the term chicked refers to a rethinking of gender norms it also confirms them; it confirms the fact that a man getting beat by a woman on a sports field is unconventional, unusual, and unexpected.  After all, what do we call it when a man defeats another man or a woman? A loss.

Side note: There appears to be a shortage of photos of Vonn actually skiing. I would like to suggest that anyone who has a photo of her on her skis moving down a hill should please donate them to Google images because currently Google images makes it difficult to tell that she is a professional athlete.

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