Page 79 - On the Road to the Canada Winter (Part 2)

ISSUE : Issue 44

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1987/1/1

On tine Road to the Games (Part 2) Judo Cindy Northen, Judique: Well, I joined when I was 6, when the club started in Ju? dique. And at that time nobody was telling me that a girl shouldn't join. I was only 6, So at that time, I was fighting the guys--at that age girls usually are strong? er than boys. Well, all through the years, it's been com? petition, but only for males. In the Oljnii- pics it's just male. (In) 1988 they're hav? ing women's judo as a demonstration sport, and in '92 it'll be a regular sport. But that's why they haven't had it in the Can? ada Games, because there's none in the 0- l3mipics. Which sounds kind of stupid. But in the past, they wouldn't even let girls go into the boys' category and play against the boys. They wanted to wait un? til they made separate categories for girls to play girls and boys to play boys. (What happened for the 1983 Canada Games, in your case?) Well, I was the right age and everything, and I was first in the province, but I wasn't allowed to go be? cause I was female. So the second in the province, who was male, got to go. (Being first in the province--did that mean that you had beaten all the other women?) No, I was fighting boys. It was boys and girls fighting together. (And you were Number 1. So there was no boy better than you at that time. And then it came time to choose who would go for the 1983 Winter Games.) And they just said, right away, "Sorry, Cindy--you're a girl. We can't take you." We tried to see if we could get any way of me getting into the boys' categories, fighting against the boys. But they didn't quite understand. In Ontario and that, the guys and the girls don't fight. But around here, from the time I was 6 to 13, I fought guys. So, like, it was just to fight in the same category. They didn't have to make any other changes, like add? ing different categories or anything. (What was it you really wanted to have hap? pen for the last Winter Games?) Just to let me go fight in the normal category--un? der 110 pounds--representing Nova Scotia, and fighting boys. (And the answer was?) No. (And the boy who was Number 2 went.) Yes. (So does that mean you'll fight in the 1987 Canada Winter Games?) No. I'm too old now. There's certain age limits, and I'm too old now. I was the right age last time. But that's gone. Alison Graham, Judique: (This idea of girls fighting boys. I have to honestly tell you that I grew up with the idea that any boy eventually could beat most girls. (79)

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