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The Mad, Mad World of Niche Sports Among Ivy League-Obsessed Parents Where the desperation of late-
Last edited Mon Oct 19, 2020, 10:23 AM - Edit history (1)
It was almost too late before these parents came to their senses!!
The Mad, Mad World of Niche Sports Among Ivy LeagueObsessed Parents
Where the desperation of late-stage meritocracy is so strong, you can smell it
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/squash-lacrosse-niche-sports-ivy-league-admissions/616474/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
photo illustration of overcrowded women's lacrosse field
Story by Ruth S. Barrett November 2020 Issue Culture
A new guide to living through climate change. Our climate reporter, Robinson Meyer, brings you the biggest ideas and most vital information to help you flourish on a changing planet.
Photo illustrations by Pelle Cass
To make the images that appear in this story, the photographer Pelle Cass locked his camera onto a tripod for the duration of an event, capturing up to 1,000 photographs from one spot. The images were then layered and compiled into a single digital file to create a kind of time-lapse still photo.
Image above: Cornell versus Dartmouth, womens lacrosse, October 2019
On paper, Sloane, a buoyant, chatty, stay-at-home mom from Fairfield County, Connecticut, seems almost unbelievably well prepared to shepherd her three daughters through the roiling world of competitive youth sports. She played tennis and ran track in high school and has an advanced degree in behavioral medicine. She wrote her masters thesis on the connection between increased aerobic activity and attention span. She is also versed in statistics, which comes in handy when shes analyzing her eldest daughters junior-squash ratingand whiteboarding the consequences if she doesnt step up her game. She needs at least a 5.0 rating, or shes going to Ohio State, Sloane told me.
She laughed: I dont mean to throw Ohio State under the bus. Its an amazing school with amazing school spirit.
But a little over a year ago, during the Fourth of July weekend, Sloane began to think that maybe it was time to call it quits. She was crouched in the vestibule of the Bay Club in Redwood City, strategizing on the phone with her husband about a malicious refereeing dispute that had victimized her daughter at the California Summer Gold tournament. He had his own problem. In Columbus, Ohio, at the junior-fencing nationals with the couples two younger girls and son, he reported that their middle daughter, a 12-year-old saber fencer, had been stabbed in the jugular during her first bout. The wound was right next to the carotid artery, and he was withdrawing her from the tournament and flying home.
Shed been hurt before while fencingon one occasion gashed so deeply in the thigh that blood seeped through her pantsbut this was the first time a blade had jabbed her in the throat. It was a Fourth of July massacre.
I thought, What are we doing?? said Sloane, who asked to be identified by her middle name to protect her daughters privacy and college-recruitment chances. Its the Fourth of July. Youre in Ohio; Im in California. What are we doing to our family? Were torturing our kids ridiculously. Theyre not succeeding. Were using all our resources and emotional bandwidth for a fools folly.........................................
The 9 most chilling words you will ever encounter: "determined lacrosse families from New Canaan, Greenwich, and Darien..."
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The Mad, Mad World of Niche Sports Among Ivy League-Obsessed Parents Where the desperation of late- (Original Post)
riversedge
Oct 2020
OP
eeks. I posted the wrong tweet. Thanks for heads up. I will try to find my intended tweet.
riversedge
Oct 2020
#2
A deeper look at that story on niche sports in The Atlantic by Ruth Shalit Barrett:
mahatmakanejeeves
Oct 2020
#5
brooklynite
(93,851 posts)1. What does the tweet have to do with the article?
riversedge
(69,721 posts)2. eeks. I posted the wrong tweet. Thanks for heads up. I will try to find my intended tweet.
riversedge
(69,721 posts)3. Replaced tweet with intended tweet.
genxlib
(5,506 posts)4. That is a fascinating article
Although it left me somewhat disgusted.
I feel sorry for those kids.
mahatmakanejeeves
(56,893 posts)5. A deeper look at that story on niche sports in The Atlantic by Ruth Shalit Barrett:
Full disclosure: I started a thread about that article on another forum.
David Fahrenthold Retweeted
A deeper look at that story on niche sports in The Atlantic by Ruth Shalit Barrett:
Link to tweet
Opinions
The Atlantics troubled niche-sports story
Opinion by Erik Wemple
Media critic
Oct. 30, 2020 at 3:04 p.m. EDT
Readers of the Atlantic may well believe that fencing is the goriest of sports. Over a couple of paragraphs in a recent story on niche sports and college athletics, Ruth S. Barrett writes of two injuries sustained last year by a girl from Fairfield County, Conn.:
The Erik Wemple Blog wrote last week that these counted as freakish events in one of the worlds safest sports. The Atlantic has already issued one correction on the story a claim about Olympic-size backyard hockey rinks prompted by this blogs questions. Now there appear to be yet more problems.
{snip}
Erik Wemple
Erik Wemple, The Washington Post's media critic, focuses on the cable-news industry. Before joining The Post, he ran a short-lived and much publicized local online news operation, and for eight years served as editor of Washington City Paper. Follow https://twitter.com/ErikWemple
The Atlantics troubled niche-sports story
Opinion by Erik Wemple
Media critic
Oct. 30, 2020 at 3:04 p.m. EDT
Readers of the Atlantic may well believe that fencing is the goriest of sports. Over a couple of paragraphs in a recent story on niche sports and college athletics, Ruth S. Barrett writes of two injuries sustained last year by a girl from Fairfield County, Conn.:
In Columbus, Ohio, at the junior-fencing nationals with the couples two younger girls and son, [the father] reported that their middle daughter, a 12-year-old saber fencer, had been stabbed in the jugular during her first bout. The wound was right next to the carotid artery, and he was withdrawing her from the tournament and flying home.
Shed been hurt before while fencingon one occasion gashed so deeply in the thigh that blood seeped through her pantsbut this was the first time a blade had jabbed her in the throat. It was a Fourth of July massacre.
The Erik Wemple Blog wrote last week that these counted as freakish events in one of the worlds safest sports. The Atlantic has already issued one correction on the story a claim about Olympic-size backyard hockey rinks prompted by this blogs questions. Now there appear to be yet more problems.
{snip}
Erik Wemple
Erik Wemple, The Washington Post's media critic, focuses on the cable-news industry. Before joining The Post, he ran a short-lived and much publicized local online news operation, and for eight years served as editor of Washington City Paper. Follow https://twitter.com/ErikWemple
I have written two pieces on this episode, one about the reemergence of Ruth Shalit Barrett: https://washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/24/ruth-shalit-just-wrote-atlantic-would-readers-know-it-byline/ And another about a number of problems with the story:
Link to tweet
mahatmakanejeeves
(56,893 posts)6. A correction for the ages -- it even has a dramatic reveal.
Donny Ferguson Statue of liberty Retweeted
A correction for the ages it even has a dramatic reveal.
Link to tweet