Preise » ng: Fiji is about to create history. Therefore, pleas

For the first time in more than three-and-a-half years, the top-ranked player in womens tennis is not named Serena Williams. The long-standing No. 1, who held that ranking for 186 weeks, hampered by a knee injury, lost in the US Open semifinals Thursday night to 10th-ranked Karolina Pliskova. And with it, she also lost her shot to break Steffi Grafs record for consecutive weeks atop the rankings.Until we get the opportunity to watch Williams play in another major -- which wont be until the Australian Open in January 2017 -- all conversation around her will invariably involve some sort of assessment of her career and legacy, attempting to put into historical context one of the greatest athletes weve ever seen.The key word there is athlete, not womens tennis player. As Williams herself said after her third-round victory last Saturday, Im a female, and Im an athlete. And Im an athlete first.Too often the coverage of Williams qualifies her as one of, if not the greatest, female athletes of all time -- something were?just as guilty of here at espnW. Its certainly important to acknowledge Williamss womanhood. Her femininity has constantly been denied due to that toxic mix of sexism and racism known as misogynoir -- her hair, her body, her demeanor and even her sartorial choices are endlessly scrutinized, while both her strength and her sexuality have been used against her.But the focus on Williamss gender when evaluating her athletic career usually isnt about humanizing or empowering her. Most likely, its said with a wink and a nod to separate her from the men.The subtext is, Yeah, shes the GOAT, but at a girls game. Framing it in this way does more than merely undermine her success. It spares people from needing to consider her among legendary male athletes without comparing her to them.A common tactic in disparaging womens sports is to argue that female players wouldnt be able to beat men in one-on-one competition. This, of course, entirely misses the point: Williams is in the category of all-time greats who similarly dominated their field. Nobodys going around asking if Mariano Rivera would beat Muhammad Ali in the ring.?The need to uphold male athletes as the standard-bearers is often excused away by some lazy argument about quality of competition, but its really about the inability to see sports as something other than just for men. In a column for VICE, Rick Paulas argues that those looking for a woman to beat a man within the same sports are overlooking the fact that most of the major sports were designed to suit male skill sets:I tend to cringe when ascribing such specific attributes to broad gender groups, and I disagree with the implication that if women cant run or swim or serve as fast (Williams can, by the way), that makes womens sports inherently less worthy. But the idea that sports were designed exclusively with men in mind continues to segregate sports as a space thats not meant for women.And the tactic used to justify that is the straw man of direct comparison. A male athlete is simply an athlete, the natural order of things, while a female athlete is an anomaly -- and a supposedly inferior one, at that. Its this thinking that continues to stand in the way of equal pay for women players while holding back the confidence, support and investment needed to help womens sports continue to grow.It doesnt help that those covering sports, including tennis, continue to be overwhelmingly men. According to FiveThirtyEights Carl Bialik, men comprise 73 percent of journalists covering the US Open this year. Thats how you get a reporter telling Andy Murray hes the first tennis player to win two Olympic gold medals, and Murray having to remind him that Venus and Serena have won four each.While this might be an extreme example, it goes to show how separating men and women athletes in our minds can serve to erase female players entirely from our consciousness.But women athletes arent going away, and its up to those of us in the media to continue to nag people into acknowledging their existence and worth. It might be a blatantly self-serving move, but Nikes new campaign declaring Williams the greatest athlete ever is meaningful for both contextual and material reasons. The hesitance of major companies to see marketing value in female players has been a major barrier to the growth of womens sports, and here you have one of the biggest sponsors in sports declaring the supremacy of an athlete who happens to be a woman.At the end of the day, if youve somehow managed to forget one of the greatest athletic careers weve ever seen, the only person who missed out is you. Rio and Flushing notwithstanding, Serenas numbers speak for themselves, and the utter electricity with which she lights up the court is undeniable. And she hasnt just been an incredible boon to the profile of womens sports; she has managed to keep tennis relevant in the U.S. during years of futility by American men. Its not a far cry to imagine a young boy at the Williams sisters Los Angeles tennis academy dreaming of one day becoming Serena. We should all be so lucky. Custom Keith Tkachuk Jersey . However, he did make them miss him a little less. Cundiff, who had the unenviable job of replacing Dawson last season, agreed Thursday to a one-year, $1. Authentic Custom Jets Jersey . There was no hesitation from the 40th-ranked Pospisil, from Vernon, B.C., who admitted that he cut back on his training sessions over the last few days to conserve energy as the long ATP season finishes next week at the Paris Masters. http://www.customnhljetsjersey.com/ .J. -- Marty Brodeur beat the Pittsburgh Penguins yet again. Cheap Jets Jerseys .com) - The game was all punts and field goals before Kodi Whitfields catch. Custom Jets Jersey China . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. The Pacific Island nation of Fiji erupted into celebration on Friday after its rugby sevens team defeated Britain to capture the countrys first Olympic medal. The fact it was gold made it even more of a reason to party.In the capital of Suva, fans packed the 15,000-seat National Stadium to watch the final of the Olympic tournament on a big screen. Tense at first as they saw the nation poised on the brink of an historic achievement, fans relaxed as Fiji ran away to an emphatic 43-7 victory on Thursday evening in Rio de Janeiro.Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, in Rio for the games, issued a statement hailing a wonderful moment in the history of our nation. We have won our first gold medal at a summer Olympic Games and every Fijian is rejoicing at home and around the world.Speaking to the media later, Bainimarama recalled Cyclone Winston which struck Fiji in February, claiming the lives of 44 people and causing widespread devastation.You know we had Winston, the second-biggest hurricane that swept through Fiji in February, he said. Rugby has always lifted the spirit and always brought us together. Right now, whatever political party, theres no difference. Everyone is coming together to celebrate.Bainimarama said Fiji was a tiny little dot but the Olympic victory would put it on the map.The match was played at 10 a.m. local time and the nation of around 900,000 mostly stopped as fans gathered around television sets. At the University of the South Pacific in Suva, classes were halted to allow students to watch the match.A bank in Suva pinned a note to its front door saying: Fiji is about to create history. Therefore, please be advised that this branch will take a 30-minute break during Fijis game ... and will reopen after that.National carrier Fiji Airways said it would be serving only Fijian beer on its flights in in a gesture of celebration. A post on the airlines official Twitter account said history is for the brave, for the warriors and the proud. Today, pride soars!The Fiji Timess reported fans danced in the street and said many called for Fijis England-born coach Ben Ryan to be granted honorary Fiji citizenship.ddddddddddddIt said some of them (fans) could not hold back their emotions and shed tears of joy as Ryan and his team brought glory to the country.Part of Suvas bustling Victoria Parade was closed as fans danced in the street.As the final whistle sounded ... people took to the streets of Suva with the Fiji flag, dancing and running from one end to the other, the Times said.At the offices of the Fiji Olympic Committee, staff began planning for the teams return and for national victory celebrations. A spokesman said it was too soon to say what form those celebrations would take.But Bainimarama said a wonderful reception awaits our boys when they arrive back in Fiji .. never before has the Fijian spirit soared so high as it does today.In deeply religious Fiji, fans visited churches to give thanks for the victory and some said they had fasted in the hope of improving Fijis gold medal chances.Rugby sevens is Fijis national sport and almost every village, no matter how small, usually has a team. Some villages do not have electricity, creating a challenge for some fans to watch the game.The Fiji Village website reported that 51-year-old Peni Matai from the village of Serua had traveled by minibus from 2 a.m. Friday to be in Suva in time for the game. Matai, who works for the Asian Development Bank, said Serua has no television reception.He watched the match in his office in Suva, providing updates to the village by phone.Fiji-born former All Blacks winger Joe Rokocoko tweeted that sellers of powerful local beverage kava might be multi-millionaires by the end of the week.---McMorran is based in Wellington, New Zealand. AP journalist Nick Perry in Wellington and sports writer John Pye in Rio de Janiero contributed to this story. ' ' '