Why Are There No Great Women Athletes?

Did anyone notice the astonishing omission in the September issue (published last Sunday) of the NY Times' sports magazine, Play?

All of the athletes celebrated in it 90 pages are male.

No, wait a minute...there IS one exception: On Page 22, you can read about tennis' "reformed diva," Martina Hingis, in a one-page Q&A with that ace sports reporter, Michael Kimmelman. Now, we all know that the Times' chief art critic often moonlights as a knowledgeable music writer. But this was a stretch.

(I must now digress: CultureGrrl is not only an operaphile and an oldies aficionado; she's also a tennis enthusiast. On my bedroom dresser, in a special case, is enshrined the ball that Martina Navratilova obligingly hit into my lap at the last U.S. Open.)

Given Hingis' checkered career and her history of spotty sportsmanship, I'm not sure that the Swiss Miss (who is now trying for a comeback, after having retired three years ago) was the best choice as the sole women to get some play in "Play." Kimmelman allows her yet another chance to disparage the number-one player, Amelie Mauresmo. The two other top players, Kim Clijsters (2) and Justine Henin-Hardenne (3), referred to as "the Belgian girls," are not otherwise identified.

But at least Hingis gives due credit to Mozart: "He was amazing. I saw the movie."