ANNA MONICA / L’Observateur / August 4, 1999

This bothers me. Well, actually, a lot of things bother me, but this time I’mtalking about the public’s reaction to sports figures who have done much to make this country proud.

There are so many negatives out there in the world that it seems to me we should take good news when and where we find it, rejoice in it, become submerged in it and be happy for those providing it. Too often it doesn’t workthat way. It seems that whenever there is a good side we do our best to find abad side.

That’s the way it seemed to me when USA women’s soccer team won the World Cup championship. The ladies won huge accolades from all over and were evenreceived by the president of the United States. But, team member BrandiChastain’s sports bra got more than its share of publicity. And Lance Armstrongwon the grueling Tour de France cycling marathon after battling life- threatening cancer, but he had his triumphant moments overshadowed by allegations of drug use. How very sad.Journalists all over have a need to write about something every day for whatever news source they write. Anything for a story, I guess, because there isa tremendous capacity out there for picking up nit-picking events and blowing them up. I would think that the world is full of enough people and noteworthyevents, good and bad, happy and sad, etc., etc., that with a little effort we couldavoid “sweating the small stuff.”Brandi Chastain’s removal of her shirt and exposing of her sports bra after the soccer team’s outstanding victory meant absolutely nothing to me because I consider that a standard form of attire for any daily wear and especially athletic wear. Most of the women I play tennis with, have cycled with and haverun with also wear them, mostly covered by shirts, but not always. Ladycyclists wear them with bike shorts as their only cycling attire; lady runners run in them without shirts and nobody thinks anything of it. At least, thecyclists and runners don’t. Believe me, in the heat, it’s the only way to go.This attire generally is not used for sex appeal. It is good for the ladies,comfortable and extremely decent. Like almost anything else, the interpretationis in the eye and mind of the beholder, but, really, most of us don’t shop for sports bras at Victoria’s Secret.

Marty Calderera, Rene Kurica, Carol Vicknair and I discussed this at the tennis court, and we all agreed on the appropriateness of sports bras for certain activities, with or without a shirt over them. They are far more decent thansome bathing suits seen at the beaches.

Nonetheless, instead of the soccer team’s victory being center stage, it was Brandi removing her shirt (the men always do this after a victory) and being photographed as such which sparked the big debate. More than one columnistdevoted the entire story, mostly negative, to the subject. I think that’sridiculous! It wasn’t necessary to be kind to Lance Armstrong because of his battle with cancer, when he had to endure toxic chemo which made him so sick and feel like anything but a human being, suffer the loss of his hair and lose the ability to have anything resembling a normal life without a tremendous struggle. Thataside, the man was and is a tremendous athlete with a colossal will. The hillswe have ridden in Mississippi for the MS Tour for Cure couldn’t even begin to give us an idea of what riding up mountains would be like.

As soon as Lance took the lead, there was talk and accusations of drugs, disturbing Armstrong and those who knew better. Evidently this wasorchestrated by those who had no confidence in the human spirit.

In private life these athletes seem to lead decent lives. Becoming championsdoesn’t take that away but does make them good press, even if negative press. Iam very much in favor of supporting those who do well in whatever they do.

Sometimes I envy those achievers, but if I wanted to do as well in anything, it would have been a good idea to work harder.

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