By: Dr. Rosetta Stith
With the success of girls and women medalists at the Summer Olympics, age was not a factor.
The youngest, Katie Ledecky, is 15 years of age from Bethesda, Maryland.
Gabby Douglass , America’s Golden Girl, is 16 and became the first African-American to win the Women’s All Around Gymnastics Competition.
Missy Franklin, age 17, broke the world record and won the 200 meter backstroke.
The most rewarding factor for those young girls is that they are still in high school. They were able to train and compete because 40 years ago, Title IX of the Civil Rights Act was enacted into law, and removed the barriers girls faced in the schools to engage in competitive sports.
How did girls and women end the 2012 Olympics?
Triumphantly!
And that bodes well for their future success in the 2016 Olympics.
Related articles
- Editorial: A gold medal for Title IX (denverpost.com)
- For U.S. Women, Medals and a Moment to Celebrate Title IX (london2012.blogs.nytimes.com)
- From Title IX To The XXX Games (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
- Viewpoints: Women continue to fight for equal access in sports (sacbee.com)
- Title IX And The Success Of Women At The Olympics (thinkprogress.org)
- Because of Title IX . . . (wordsisters.wordpress.com)
- Female athletes take Olympic leap forward (startribune.com)
- US women set to earn more medals than ’08 (sfgate.com)
- Sam Mellinger | Call this the Title IX Olympics (kansascity.com)
- Women shine in Olympics, but they’re still working for more progress (kansascity.com)