AIBU to wonder why all white is alright?

[VeraStanhope]

I'm not a sport buff, but I have had to sit through the GB womens' hockey matches. Wondering how they all have kept lovely slim, straight noses in what looks a brutal sport, I suddenly realised mid-final that all the players are white. Celebrating with all white support staff at the end of the match. Friend who is the sports buff says "well it is a posh sport". How is that okay to accept that in 2016?

PE has probably changed since I was at school, I hope so anyway. But in no way were we introduced to a variety of sports. It was hockey in the winter, athletics in the summer and cross country all year round. For seven years. And I went to a 'posh' school with huge grounds (just walking from the gate to the door of the school is about a fifteen minute walk). If the weather was particularly awful we might have played a bit of badminton indoors. But that was it.

Do you never tried football, volleyball, netball, basket ball? That's crap. I thought PE was defined in the national ciriculum.

Where on earth do you live that you can't get swimming lessons before 7? Have you contacted the council, written to your MP etc? That's horrendous!

Where we live there are 4 good public pools within a couple of miles (maybe more) with free swimming for kids (up to 16 I think). I mostly see gaggles of kids messing around in the pool, not there to swim or train but to hang out and be pains in the backside.

When I was a kid I got my backside down to the pool, taught myself how to swim and dive, and drilled myself.

It's motivation. It's not just a kid finding their 'thing' but parents investing in their kids too - time and interest, not just money.

Hockey isn't a "posh" sport. I went to comp in the '80's and had to play it in games. I bloody hated hockey. I was not much taller than the stick and I can still hear my games teacher screeching "come on girls, come on, come on, come on".
I imagine all children have the same opportunities in school to proceed with a sport they excel at, inter school competitions, after school clubs etc, but whether they want to or not is a different matter.

dontyou I am 40 now, so left school a long time ago. Maybe they do all those sports at school now, although I have younger relatives who attend the same school who have never mentioned anything other than hockey.

I haven't written to my MP about swimming lessons because I don't see the point. The pools run lessons every day of the week except Sunday and there are a limited number of swimming lessons available, they have obviously put the rules in place for a reason. If they suddenly opened them to three years olds, for example, the waiting list would probably end up four years long instead of two years long, so no one would get lessons any sooner anyway.

Whereas at my school we had no teams and didn't compete against any other schools. I think that's hugely damaging and would never allow my children at a school which had so little focus on competitive sports.

And also, it was only about a month ago that I discovered that other people get swimming lessons for much younger children. It is completely normal where I live to not have lessons until that age, so I have never had any reason to query it.

but treacle other areas manage it? My twins are in swimming lessons at the leisure centre (18m) you can start from birth. The don't seem to have problems fitting all classes in and that's a very family area.

Could it be that 7+ children are all at school and since none can swim they're trying to fit them all into weekend classes?

no, they run classes all week long. It isn't just weekend classes.

After school classes, I mean.

But either way they're missing out on 40 hours a week of classes whilst their pupils are at school?

Just saw an interview with the gb womens relay team ( and their bronze medals) all four are black. Are we suggesting they were selected for anything other than skill?

This is 2016 uk, not apartheid south africa. I know no country is free of racism, but it is also important not to see what isnt there.

I don't know how other areas manage. Maybe they have more swimming pools? There are three swimming pools in my council area. That council area has a population of over 130,000 people, so it doesn't seem like a lot of swimming pool to go around. And if you live close enough to one of those pools, you are probably two far away from either of the others to consider going to lessons there, because they would be 40 mins drive away.

Special you're missing the point. It's not about selection- I personally have no doubt there would be black players in the women's GB hockey team of there were any good enough in the selection pool.

The question is why aren't black girls getting to that standard of hockey in the first place?

the pools are used during the day by the local schools, so they couldn't use them to have lessons in anyway.

Interesting treacle- just checked here, population 141000- one swimming centre (with a teaching pool, general pool and splash area, so sort of 1.5 full pools)

I don't think there is an excuse to explain why they can't- I just think they can't be bothered. Or haven't thought about it much.

Probably haven't given it much thought, I would imagine. No one really questions it, because that is what we are used to.

I definitely think that better swimming facilities would be a good idea in general where I live. You can't really swim in the swimming pool anyway because it is too crowded.

Any sport, to get to Olympic level, is expensive and requires a lot of resources and support. And some sports do traditionally belong to certain classes, although this can vary regionally, eg Rugby is huge in west Yorkshire and south Wales, and definitely played by working class men, as well as everyone else.
I think that London, in certain boroughs, has generally had much more money poured into sports for children, and even more since 2012, but in most of the country, pro sport, other than football, boxing and in some places rugby, is only available to those with cash, time and connections.
Also some sports do have a rather cliquey feel.
I agree with the pp who mentioned riding as an example. I know someone who is into sailing, member of a sailing club etc, and I was surprised when he told me as he is BME, and that is only because anyone I ever met into sailing, or riding, was posh and white. And usually blonde!

It is definitely fair to point out that each of the sprint finals was dominated by black people. Some of them second / third generation immigrants to places like USA etc, but still black and still more genetically more similar to their descendants than their native countries.

At some point it will have to be acknowledged by the general population that people of African/Carribean descent have higher muscle mass than caucassians which helps a lot with these sorts of events. I don't know much about other sports but I am sure the fact that Chinese / Japanese populations tend to have less muscle and smaller will help them in other ways in other sports.

When I look at golf and sailing they seem to be mostly caucassians. These are the sports that I think smell most of racism - privileged, white classes with lots of money.

I would just like to point out that our female 4x100m relay team were all black.

At the end of the day, the team should be made of whoever is best ie, getting the most consistent results at the top level.

Could be sky blue with pink polka dots for all I care.

Yes mad ginger many people have pointed that out already. What we're asking is why black women aren't better at hockey, and most people believe it's down to money.

As mentioned above, black athletes generally perform
Better for generic reasons

But those genetic reasons would on theory give them an advantage in any sport which involves speed so why aren't they out performing white women in hockey?

Personal experience here - I was at a private school, so the majority of people could afford clubs//training etc. The winter sports (netball, hockey, lacrosse) teams were much less diverse - I don't remember any black girls on the hockey or lacrosse teams. I think some were for netball and tennis, and quite a lot were on the athletics and rounders teams in summer. Gymnastics was a complete mixture and I think swimming was too.

Only a small sample I know, but a bit bizarre when you consider we all had access to the same sports in lessons and school training!

Or perhaps white, middle-class schoolgirls just have some deep-seated genetic or cultural drive to run around freezing cold playing fields chasing a ball?

One of my friends played hockey for our county - she had to drive miles for practices, games etc, and I think she had to buy most of her own kit. She loved it so she didn't mind, but her investment was purely for her own enjoyment, whereas with a sport like football if you are talented you can make a living from it even at quite a low level, so there is more incentive to invest in children who show promise.