URL:http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoSports/9704030293.html April 4, 1997 AS AN OLYMPIC SPORT, WOMEN'S GAME ON THIN ICE By STEVE BUFFERY Toronto Sun KITCHENER --  There have been so many beatings here at the world women's hockey championship, I'm surprised Greenpeace hasn't filed for accreditation.   This tournament is leaving a sour taste in my mouth. There are two really good teams, Canada and the U.S., and two decent squads, China and Finland.   After that, the quality falls off miserably.   Disregard all those peaches-and-cream reports about how women's hockey is booming around the world and how the programs in Europe are improving every year and pretty soon the North Americans are going to get a run for their money from Switzerland, Sweden and maybe even, with apologies to SCTV, from the Dutchy of Saxmineagain.   The bottom line is, with all respect to the fine Canadian and American players, there is no way that this should be a full-medal event at next year's Nagano Olympics.   But it is, thanks to the new world order of political correctness at the International Olympic Committee.   An Olympic event that features two superpowers, a couple of also-rans and a collection of sad-sacks? I think not.   But hey, I also think they should get rid of modern pentathlon, synchronized swimming and racewalking.   There's a story making the rounds here about how women's hockey finally was accepted by the stuffed-shirts at the International Ice Hockey Federation at a 1990 meeting in Germany after the Canadian delegation unveiled a videotape of the Canadian women's team. According to the story, the IIHF officials could not believe that those firecrackers on the screen were women. Surely those devious Canadians hit the fast-forward button.   It's said the IIHF hierarchy quickly took the game to heart and a couple of years later, the IOC announced that women's hockey would become a full-medal event at the 1998 Games.   That's great, except the Olympic tournament will feature two or three good games and a whole lot of really ugly ones. Will that ultimately do a service to the game? It may stir up interest in Canada and the U.S., where the sport is growing. But if you were a young Norwegian girl and you just watched your team get whitewashed 14-1 and outshot 73-6, are you going throw your cross-country skis into the basement and ask papa to buy you a pair of skates? The IOC should have waited four more years and granted women's hockey medal status for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Maybe by then, the balance of power will have evened out a bit.   After all, the supposed rule for participation in the Games is that a sport be "widely practised" in at least 25 countries and three continents.   Bob Nicholson, Canadian Hockey senior vice-president of hockey operations, admits that women's hockey probably falls a little short of that criteria. I'd be willing to bet that the game isn't widely practised in more than 12 countries.   Most of the weaker teams at this tournament, which features the best eight teams in the world, draw from a talent pool counting in the hundreds. The Russian coach said his his national squad is drawn from one six-club league.   Still, the IOC actively has been pushing for more participation by women at the Olympics for years. So when women's ice hockey was put on the table earlier this decade, Juan Antonio Samaranch and the boys fell over themselves opening the door.   "The IOC wanted more female representation, so they waived the usual time frame," said Neil Houston, director of domestic development of the Canadian Curling Association. "And I think they'll do whatever will make them money."   Curling is a sport that had to wait decades before the IOC finally granted it full medal status. There are those who would argue that curling is a sport dominated by one country (Canada). That may have been true in the 1960s, but since 1965, 14 other teams have won the world title.   I'll bet the Olympic and world titles in women's hockey will be passed back and forth across the 49th parallel for the next 10 years.   On the other hand, when the Canadian team wins the gold in Nagano next winter, I certainly won't mind getting out of my seat for the playing of O Canada. [3]TORONTO SUN _________________________________________________________________ CANOE home Copyright (c) 1997, Canoe Limited Partnership. All rights reserved.