Are elite hockey players more elite, or more player?
Joe Clark has a Freakonomicsesque write-up outlining the similarities in body mass of a significant cross section of elite male and female hockey players.
BMIs ranged from 20 to 30 (with an excluded outlier of 31 in one case, a woman on the Canadian team). Only four BMI values were seen in one sex only – 20 and 21 in women and 29 and 30 in men. That leaves a lot of room for overlap.
I thought for some time if there was any sport that men and women could play on equal footing, it would be hockey. While the game is very physical, the greatest players are better known for their finesse than their fisticuffs.
At a time when the interest in hockey is in decline, wouldn’t it be an interesting experiment to see how women can compete in the NHL?
Oh, and for the record, while I was typing this up I was watching the Russian/Sweden Olympic Men’s hockey on CBC, cause we all know how much Canadians just love the sport, right? Draw your own conclusions.