More than a game
With the arrival of the FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia, we've put together a collection of some of our favourite writing on sport – from football to table tennis, wrestling and more.
No limits
I am eleven years old. My brother Ben (three years and three days younger) has already been a registered player for four seasons at our local club, Albany Creek Excelsior (ACE). Every day we match each other in the backyard. I attend his games jealously, playing around with a ball on the sideline and, yes, maybe showboating my juggling a little bit at half-time in the hope someone will notice me and insist I should be placed in a team.
Golden girls
Who would have thought it possible a generation ago – young women spending the day, every day, wrestling? Who could have imagined that a gate at the entrance of Balali would welcome all visitors in the name of these girls who have brought glory to the village? That this would be possible in a state that has been in the news for all the wrong reasons – including female foeticide, honour killings and rape?
A great leap forward
As tens of thousands of refugees continued to pour south across the border and into shantytown settlements like the one he called home in Shau Kei Wan, Rong Guotuan went the other way – he went north. Ludicrous though it sounds today, Rong thought he had a better chance of achieving table tennis success on the mainland. And he wasn’t the first: a few years earlier, two other accomplished Hong Kong table tennis players, Fu Qifang and Jiang Yongning, had also crossed north…
Big time unna?
Our 1985 season did not start well. We lost every game until about halfway through the season. This was not to say we did not have a good side, we did. It was just that the other three teams were better. As a means to try and spark a winning streak, Quiny got us all together one night at training. As we huddled together he promised us an eighteen-gallon keg (of Swan) if we won the premiership. We all started hollering like bastards, but deep in our hearts we knew that the contents of that keg were never going to pass our lips.
Is it hard to surf with boobs?
When she was reigning World Champion, Layne Beachley was also the female surfers’ official representative. This meant that even on mornings she wasn’t competing, she’d be on the beach at 5.30 am, the only woman, battling it out on behalf of the other female surfers. ‘The female surfer representative has to be very strong willed,’ says Beachley. ‘I remember arguing constantly with the male surfer rep, the male head judge and the guys’ sponsors, arguing about which conditions we were going to get.’
Born to run
Height (six feet six), quickness, balance, shooting touch – Ralph was the embodiment of the complete basketball player. Over the next few years Ralph, and another brother (Warren, who was six feet eleven), were not just among the best players in the New Zealand national league, they were widely considered NBA material. In those days, the US was a more distant shore than it is now and there were fewer navigation aids available, especially for a couple of kids from a tough background in Rotorua.