Victories and Failures in Women's Sports in 2009, or #FTW and #FAIL (Hot or Not for us old-timers)

posted by anngaff, a Women Talk Sports blogger
Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 4:18pm EST

About anngaff:

Chief Technical Officer, Women Talk Sports. I competed in Track & Field and Cross-Country in college at the University of Nebraska and competed professionally in Track & Field (3000m Steeplechase) fr...more

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I was going to make a Hot or Not in 2009 list for women's sports but then realized that "Hot or Not" is so 1990's when people still read magazines (the Hot or Not list was in Cosmo, no? I mean, I wouldn't know because a good feminist doesn't read Cosmo, I just um...heard it from someone else).

So instead I'm using Twitter phrases that have caught fire: FTW meaning "for the win" and FAIL meaning "major points lost" or "not a good look" or, just "failure"!

Please add more to my list in the comments below, as I'm sure I missed some good ones.

Victories and Failures in Women's Sports in 2009
#FTW	#FAIL
Candace Parker on the cover of ESPN the Magazine	The opening paragraph talking about her bra size
Sanya Richards returning to international domination in the 400m, winning her first individual gold at the World Championships and winning 2009 IAAF Athlete of the Year	Her and fiance Aaron Ross of the Steelers being left off of the BlackVoices Hottest Athletes of 2009 list
Sky Blue FC rising to the occasion after their manager and coach were suddenly let go mid-season to win the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer Championship	Puma putting the WPS players in skorts and parading the athletes around like runway models (at least they didn't wear them in the actual games)
Female Ski Jumpers relentlessly lobbying to get put into 2010 Olympics. Great example of organizing for a cause as opposed to waiting for change to happen.	IOC stubbornly refusing to add women's ski jumping, even though they let in skier cross which has far fewer competitors in fewer countries.
Strikeforce's much-anticipated Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos vs Gina Carano bout did not disappoint, with Cyborg winning by TKO in the first round and over 5 million viewers tuning in.	Cyborg is considering posing for Playboy.
Serena Williams defeating Venus Williams for the Wimbledon title only for the sisters to turn around and win the doubles title hours later.	Serena threatening a line judge's life (fail on her part) and being fined $82,500 and put on a 2-year probation (fail by Grand Slam for overreacting to a woman expressing anger)
5 of the top 6 women at the NYC Marathon are mothers, including the winner Derartu Tulu, disproving the myth that "childbirth is a barrier"	The marathon coverage focusing on Paula Radcliffe's "disappointing" performance as opposed to the victory of Tulu and her great story
WNBA inviting sports blogger to attend the 2009 Draft and embracing social media whole-heartedly	WNBA abandoning the kiss-cam because of "scary lesbian kisses"
Caster Semenya winning the 800m at the World Championships amid embarrassing rumors and rampant media commentary regarding the possibility that she was actually a male	1) Assuming she's a man because she looks muscular and is fast and 2) the IAAF and the media exposing a matter that should have been kept private unless a medal needed to be retracted.
Boxing added to 2012 Olympics	Softball getting cut from the Olympics and reinstatement for 2016 rejected

Other WomenTalkSports posts of "Best of '09":

From Because I Played Sports, Best of '09: Forming a community, WomenTalkSports.com
From One Sport Voice, The "Best" of 2009 and the State of Girls & Women in Sports
From WakeGirls.com, Best of ‘09 – A Year for Women in Wake
From Robin Bernstein, Best of '09: A Fresh Meat's Perspective
From PrettyTough.com, 2009: A Salute to Women in Sports
From Jayda Evans of the Seattle Times, Best of the decade: A look back at Northwest women's hoops
From Women Talk Sports Co-Founder Ann Gaffigan, Victories and Failures in Women's Sports in 2009 (#FTW or #FAIL)

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Women`s Ski Jumping in the Olympics

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There are 5 comments on this post. Join the discussion!

megankillian says:

love it!!

Friday, January 1, 2010 at 6:29pm EST

Kaci Kust says:

loved this! I laughed out loud about the WNBA abandoning the kiss cam, can't believe they really did that

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 5:17pm EST

hoopfeed says:

Actually, the decision on whether or not to have a Kiss-Cam is an individual team decision. The San Antonio Silver Stars still have it. The Washington Mystics was the team who abandoned it.

Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 1:27pm EST

anngaff says:

Thanks for the correction, Cheryl, you are absolutely right.

Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 11:26pm EST

how101 says:

Women have accomplished so much and are pushing the sport so hard, and it is heartening to see many networks and organization started with the goal of promoting and empowering female athleticism. WomenTalkSport is here to raise the level of awareness of women in sport by providing comprehensive sport coverage, spotlighting outstanding achievements, and working with sporting associations on advocacy issues and empowering programs. They should be applauded for their effort to provide a dedicated platform to celebrate every women%u2019s love of sports and the challenges they face, and providing a forum to exchange ideas, to debate and engage one another. Ladies deserve a fair play and equal recognition in sports, so hopefully, efforts like these carry on bring more women (even girls) to sports centres to play a game or two.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 5:50am EDT

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Victories and Failures in Women's Sports in 2009, or #FTW and #FAIL (Hot or Not for us old-timers)

Women`s Ski Jumping in the Olympics

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