Women are less likely to be bigoted, exclusionary, and to bully other female athletes. It's a societal feature. The same reason heterosexual women can hold hands and complement each other, whereas men are seen as gay for anything remotely affectionate. Macho culture. Toxic masculinity. Call it whatever you want. It acts as a massive deterrent and a stressor to potential gay male athletes.

>Black students made up 12% of the student population at 4-year public institutions,

So underrepresented?

Interesting that you cut this part out:

"...and only 8% of Black students attended an elite research institution."

Regardless, you didn't actually address my argument at all. Being gay doesn't make you predisposed to liking or not liking sports any more than being straight does. That's why we look at external factors.

When it becomes the norm, you can make that argument. We're nowhere near that time, at this moment.

Gay athletes are massively underrepresented and visibility like this inspires young gay people — who might love sports but might feel like they aren't welcome in that space.

That's like suggesting Black Americans don't have much of an affinity for college because they are underrepresented. Have you considered that the barrier to entry, societal treatment, and bullying are massive obstacles for openly gay athletes? These aren't stressors straight athletes ever have to concern themselves with.

What shows are the results of preferential treatment and rampant doping. Nothing more; nothing less. When you can physically train more because of "grandpa's water", you tend to get more consistent jumps. When a certain coach is taking out ISU judges out to expensive dinners before a competition, subjectivity is called into question.

Regardless, I suspect we won't be seeing eye to eye on this topic. I just threw in my two cents. Have a good one.

The Japanese and Canadian ladies all had their Lutz edges miraculously called at the 2018 Olympics. Medvedeva? None. It's magical how judges develop astigmatism any time a Russian skates and 20/20 vision any time anyone else skates.

>Then I gotta point out, Medvedeva is what, a two time world champ and an Olympic Silver? If your comparison for her technique to be considered "bad" is someone who won worlds twice... I rest my case. Her jumps are excellent, and I stand by my original statement.

Medvedeva is a prime example of the overwhelming amount of politics and corruption in the sport. I wouldn't shine a light on her successes in any argument other than to illustrate how much of a vice grip Russia has over the figure skating governing body. Her technique was absolutely abysmal in every way imaginable, yet she was rewarded endlessly for it. That isn't something to emulate. That is something the public should demand change from in the ISU.

As for Levito, watching her is like watching skating in 0.25x speed. Her telegraphed jumps are unwatchable to me. She has beautiful spirals and spins, but that's about the extent of her skating that I find palatable. It is very much like watching an Eteri girl minus the quads.

There is a very simple solution to this. Create a massive social media campaign aimed at the Olympic sponsors. Convince them to drop their support for the IOC. Watch how quickly they reverse their decision.