On this week’s 51%, we’re talking women in sports. Professor Amy Bass of Manhattanville College shares her thoughts on the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. We speak with two-time Olympian Tricia Mangan as she heads to the slopes, and Ithaca College Professor Ellen Staurowsky discusses the upcoming 50th anniversary of Title IX.

Guests: Dr. Amy Bass, Manhattanville College; Tricia Mangan, U.S. Alpine Ski Team; Ellen Staurowsky, Ithaca College

51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It’s produced by Jesse King, our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is “Lolita” by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue.

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You’re listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women’s issues and experiences. Thanks for tuning in, I’m Jesse King. 

We’ve got a great lineup of interviews for you today. It’s all about women in sports, and where else would we start besides the Olympics? We wrapped today’s show just before competition launched for the Winter Games in Beijing. It’s the second Games to be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, after the Tokyo Olympics last summer — but it comes with its own challenges to navigate. 

Our first guest today is Dr. Amy Bass, a professor and author at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York. She’s been a commentator for WAMC, but she won an Emmy for her work with NBC Olympic Sports on the London Olympics in 2012. Bass recently shared with me her thoughts about the latest edition of the Games. 

“I think that apprehension is affecting teams right now. I think that one of the things that we learned in Tokyo is that these athletes are incredibly isolated because of COVID protocols. They’re not traveling with their families, they don’t have their cheering crowds there, which fans are an important stakeholder in sports,” says Bass. “So, I think some of the psychological tension that we saw around a star athlete like Simone Biles is something that I think we should be on the lookout for in Beijing, especially because we have some of those really intense pressure sports like figure skating where, if your head’s not in the right place, your sport suddenly becomes very dangerous.

Amy Bass

Who should we be looking out for at these games?

I think Nathan Chen is our is our headliner, always. He didn’t do what he wanted to do in 2018 Pyeongchang, but I would also put the one and only Chloe Kim on that list. She took gold in Pyeongchang, took a break, I think she had a broken ankle. She tried college, and now she’s back and she looks pretty unbeatable. I hate saying that in a sport as sort of crazy as halfpipe, but Chloe Kim i