The Smoking Jacket

Nine Great Moments in Women Beating Men at Sports

Posted 2/24/2011 at 1:30 pm by

bjk

When you’re a boy, few things are worse than losing to a girl at sports. When you’re a man, the feeling doesn’t really change unless the sport is somehow sex-based. But, the times they are a-changin. Women can do stuff now, like vote and drive automobiles. It’s time guys get used to this, and desensitize themselves to losing to women.

We’re here to help, with the definitive list of girls kicking man-ass in sports.

9. Golf – Jenny Suh Wins Virginia State Championship

jenny suh

Before Michelle Wie hoodwinked all the sports talking heads into thinking she could play in a men’s tournament and not blow, Jenny Suh actually put up by winning the Virginia Group AAA Boys Golf Championship back in 2002.

A bit of a fuss was made over Suh teeing off from the women’s tee box instead of the men’s, and therefore only having to cover 80% of the distance the rest of the field had to cover. Whether that’s a distinct advantage is definitely debatable, but what was she supposed to do? Rules are rules, right? Crazy rules are the only thing separating golf from a more dangerous (and probably awesome) version of hockey.

8. More Golf – Alexis Thompson Wins TPC Eagle Trace

alexis

Alexis gets the nod over Jenny in the battle of the man-crushing girl golfers because TPC Eagle Trace was a pro tournament, and her girl tee boxes covered 94% of the distance covered by the rest of the 76-man field, as opposed to 80%.

7. Tennis – Billie Jean King Beats Bobby Riggs

bjk

This one was billed as “The Battle of the Sexes,” and the once-and-for-all throw down that would prove irrefutably that girls ruled, and boys drooled. Sure, King was 26 years old at the time, and Riggs was closer to 126, but no matter.  Winning is winning, and the fact that Riggs was a legendary chauvinist asshole leading up to this match after he’d already beaten female British player Margaret Court several months prior made King’s straight sets victory (6-4, 6-3, 6-3) all the more sweeter. A decade later, King would complete the Amazonian circle by coming out of the closet and admitting she’d rather bone other chicks.

6. Horse Racing – Julie Krone Wins 1993 Belmont Stakes

julie

The 1993 Belmont Stakes wasn’t Julie Krone’s first win as a jockey, but it was by far her biggest. Before her, no woman had ever ridden a horse that had won any leg of The Triple Crown.

And being a jockey is tough—tougher than anyone realizes considering jockeys have to keep up with weight regulations that were established about 100 years ago when the average grown man was probably too short to ride a modern-day roller coaster. That means a lot of puking, fasting, and ex-lax. It’s possible though that—depending on how popular Krone was in high school—she was already familiar with an extreme weight loss regimen.

5. Wrestling – Michaela Hutchison Wins Alaskan State Wrestling Title

hutchison

Chris Rock put it best: Alaska is basically The Road Warrior…with snow. This implies that Sarah Palin ain’t got shit on the real women of Alaska—women like Michaela Hutchison. Michaela won the final of the 103 lb weight class her sophomore year, in 2006, competing against all guys—the first girl in the history of high school sports to do so.

Even more impressive was the way her opponents pretended to be devastated after being groped and manhandled by a girl for free.

4. Bowling – Kelly Kulick Wins PBA Tour Title

kelly-kulick

ESPN columnist Rick Reilly made a huge noise about this one a year ago, and with pretty good reason. Technically, Kulick winning the PBA Tournament of Champions last year was the first time in the modern history of ball-based sports that a woman had beaten an entire field of top-level professional athletes.

Granted, it’s still bowling, so calling all the dudes she beat top-level professional athletes is like calling the staff at The Smoking Jacket top-level professional bounty hunters. We mostly just do it for the free pepper spray.

3. Eating – Sonya Thomas Eats More Wings than Joey Chesnut

sonya

Before Takeru Kobayashi, the prevailing wisdom was that only fat dudes would win eating contests. After Kobayashi, that wisdom shifted to only dudes would win eating contests. Not because of any physical gender bias, but because it just didn’t seem likely that women would ever be into a contest determined by who could gain the most weight in a matter of minutes.

It’s unlikely Sonya Thomas will start a gender revolution for beating Joey Chesnut in the 2010 Buffalo Wing Eating Contest, but beating Joey Chesnut at any eating-related competition at this point is like out-blackouting Bob Uecker.

Nearly impossible.

2. Army – Sherri Gallagher Wins U.S. Best Warrior Competition

gallagher

Though it’s probably not even as cool as the Top Gun competition—what with the greasy sand volleyball and homoerotic locker-room stare downs— the Best Warrior Competition is no joke, either. Contestants are judged on events like hand-to-hand competition, night firing and weapons familiarization to determine the best soldier in the U.S.

Gallagher, considered one of the best long-rifle shooters in the country, beat out 11 other dudes to be the first woman to win the title of America’s biggest swinging Rambo-dick since the competition’s inception in 2001. Thus far, her victory has done little to change America’s policy on barring women from certain combat missions, so we guess it’s up to her to present Bin Laden’s nuts before Congress to get them to stop being such player-haters.

1. Baseball – Jackie Mitchell Strikes Out Murderer’s Row

mitchell

In 1931, the dynasty-mode New York Yankees played an exhibition game against the minor-league Chattanooga Lookouts, who featured a 17-year-old pitcher by the name of Jackie Mitchell. Jackie was a girl, but was taught the game from a very young age by her father. When she entered the contest in the first inning, she struck out Babe Ruth on four pitches, which caused him to vow to never bat against a woman again. She only needed three for the next guy—Lou Gehrig, whom we presume was more gracious.

Rather than inspire the second wave of the Women’s Movement right then and there, Mitchell’s contract was voided only days after by then-commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who subsequently declared women unfit to play baseball, saying that it was “too strenuous.”

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12
“Nine Great Moments in Women Beating Men at Sports”
  1. 1
    Alex says...
    8:14 pm on February 24th, 2011

    I can’t speak for the other sports, but the Bobby Riggs vs Billy Jean King match isn’t as big a deal as they make it.

    Not only was Riggs 55 years old (he looked 65) and King 26 years old, but… Riggs had to cover the doubles court while King covered just the singles court. And, Riggs was only given one serve per point during his service game. It’s no wonder he lost.

  2. 2
    jason says...
    9:54 am on February 25th, 2011

    Baseball historians believe that Jackie Mitchells strike outs were a publicity stunt. The fact that she never played again seems to back that up. She on the other hand insists her strike outs were real. The owner in this case had also done things like put a little person in to pinch hit among other odd stunts. History tends to lean towards this being fake. Also if a woman hits from the ladies tees in golf she didn’t bet any man. Hit from the pro tees or stay on the ladies tour and stop claiming to have beaten men. The women your talking about had to hit 800 yards less over the day than the men on the same course, that is 2 par 4 holes. Again seems like B.S to me.

  3. 3
    waffle says...
    11:27 pm on February 25th, 2011

    Whenever a female beats a guy, you know the competition’s been rigged somehow!

    Both golfing examples, and the tennis were blatantly rigged in the womans favour. I’m guessing they were just a little more subtle in the other examples.

    I have two nephews in school, they’ve already learned to never compete against a girl. If the girl wins, they’re losers. If they win, the rules will be changed so that they’ll lose next time.

  4. 4
    ................. says...
    2:04 am on February 26th, 2011

    Margaret Court is Australian

  5. 5
    jim shortz says...
    3:44 pm on February 26th, 2011

    the riggs vs king was a joke… riggs had to cover the doubles court and had one serve. it was a staged event to make women feel superior.

  6. 6
    A dude says...
    11:41 am on February 28th, 2011

    women can’t soldier because all that equipment they have to carry puts an incredible strain on even very fit males.

    Only the fittest men can stand that shit. Shooting a gun is only part (perhaps the easiest) of being a soldier.

    Also what’s so fucking great to celebrate about women beating men?

  7. 7
    haines says...
    8:34 pm on February 20th, 2012

    Five men who can’t stand being beaten by a woman . . . surprise surprise.

  8. 8
    a woman says...
    4:18 pm on February 21st, 2012

    don’t cry boys… i mean seriously, where does the term “be a man” come from? if it involves whining and bitching and making excuses for little things that don’t actually matter, maybe women and men are more equal than we originally thought lol

  9. 9
    Gamer girl says...
    8:22 pm on February 29th, 2012

    Aw what wrong 5 little guys mad that women can kick your butts in sport and shooting aw boo hoo go cry in a river.

  10. 10
    Eternal Anachronism says...
    9:35 pm on May 13th, 2012

    Well, girls, what ever happened to good sportsmanship? The guys above simply pointed out the cases in which the women were given HANDICAPS. Now, when you need a handicap, it’s an admission of inferiority. And you certainly should be humble about it.

    If I get a head start in a race and pass the finish line before my opponent, I don’t go shooting my mouth off about how I’m a faster runner.

    Oh, I forgot. That kind of restraint requires honor.

  11. 11
    7 Sports In Which Women Have Beaten Men says...
    4:00 pm on August 2nd, 2012

    [...] bronze in individual eventing. Female jockeys have also beat men in racing — Julie Krone won the Belmont Stakes in 1993.TennisBillie Jean King famously beat Bobby Riggs in a 1973 match dubbed [...]

  12. 12
    Geoff says...
    7:12 am on August 18th, 2012

    There is no doubt that a lot of women now are physically stronger and athltically more capable than a lot of men. But some of the events above were clearly handicapped to give the women the advantage. I think it is fair to say that many of these were years ago (like the Riggs-King match, which WAS a big deal back then but today would be laughable – which is why Martina Navratilova later turned down a match with a middle aged Illie Nastase). In only a few years women have closed the gender gap by a remarkable amount – it is only a matter of time before gender is recognised for what it is – just a social construct which is now an anachronism.

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  1. [...] bronze in individual eventing. Female jockeys have also beat men in racing — Julie Krone won the Belmont Stakes in 1993.TennisBillie Jean King famously beat Bobby Riggs in a 1973 match dubbed [...]



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