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Latin@s Underrepresented on Olympic Team

11:37 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Sports

6 Aug 2008

dara%20torres.jpgApparently it’s a problem that Latin@s are not as represented on the Olympic team as they are in the general populations. Our lack of Olympic involvement probably has something to do with our evidently overwhelmingly sedentary ways.

I’m really not sure what is going on with the constant influx of news stories about fat, lazy, unhealthy Latin@s recently, but I’m getting kind of sick of them. Especially since nobody really seems to know what a Latin@ even is.

Witness the following paragraph from the SI article:

Swimming, unlike track and field, has a scarcity of both blacks and Hispanics in its upper echelons - the 56-member Olympic swimming and diving squad has one black and no Hispanics. USA Swimming, the sport’s governing body, has acknowledged the problem by launching extensive learn-to-swim programs in black and Hispanic communities.

I guess that Latin@ swimmer, Dara Torres, doesn’t count as “hispanic”? Sure, one Latin@ is not much better than no Latin@s, but it’s really hard to take an analysis of underrepresentation seriously when the most obvious example of representation is completly omitted. What other Latin@ Olympian has been completly written out of existence to make a point?

2 Responses to Latin@s Underrepresented on Olympic Team

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EYES OF TEXAS

August 7th, 2008 at 9:12 am

Mexico is also complaining about not having enough of their Olympic team at the games. They have to realize that anyone from Mexico that can swim, jump or run fast is already in the U.S.

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Maegan la Mala

August 7th, 2008 at 9:42 am

Watch it, this is bordering on racist and looking for a banning.

Hola!

VivirLatino is a daily publication published by 2 Mujeres Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse and influential Latino and Latina community in the U.S.

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