Mexican women at the top

This week was a mixed bag of results in the sports I'm interested in. First, I was gladly surprised with Wake Forest's win over Duke almost at the end of the season. The win doesn't mean much in terms of the post-season for the Demon Deacons, but it may prove decisive for the permanency of Wake's coach, Jeff Bzdelik. Another positive outcome from this game was the fact that, during the season, Wake won against all of the other schools in the Tobacco Road (Duke, UNC and NC State). Let's see what happens in the ACC Tournament and if Wake makes it to any of the national tournaments. In football, Santos Laguna won and Oribe Peralta scored to reach the top half of the table; Chelsea won by four against Spurs to stay in contention to win the League; Heaton Stannington lost at home; and Roma undeservedly lost at the end of its game against Napoli. Roma's chances to win the league are now very slim; actually, they have to be careful to not let Napoli reach them (now just two matches behind). The biggest problem for the giallorossi is that Kevin Strootman, a promising Dutch defensive midfielder, is out of the season and the World Cup with a torn anterior crutiate ligament. I, particularly, think that he's a fine player and wanted to see him in Brazil. Such a pity! The Six Nations just hasn't gone according to desire: Ireland, England and France can go all the way, with Scotland only aspiring to fourth place. Finally, I'm very excited for the beginning of the F1 season this Sunday. Let's see if Ferrari, the Mexicans or Massa get good results. Now that the current events are covered I want to mention something I just realised, but that it's kind of evident: lately, Mexican women have stood out more in sports at the international level than their male counterparts. This can be seen more clearly in the Olympic Games, but it's not limited to them. Please see this report published in August 2012 by CNN Mexico for a detailed analysis on the Olympics: http://mexico.cnn.com/deportes/2012/08/04/las-mujeres-dominan-el-podio-del-deporte-mexicano-en-el-siglo-xx . Here, I just want to present chronologically some data: 2000 (Sydney): Soraya Jiménez (1977-2013) wins the first Mexican gold medal for a woman in the Olympics in weightlifting having many international championships in the run to the Olympics. Ana Guevara finished in 5th place in the 400m final. Fernando Platas (diver) was the flag-bearer having a successful career in regional and worldwide competitions. 2002: Ana Guevara wins the World Cup (400m) in Madrid. 2003: Ana Guevara wins the World Championship (400m) in Paris. 2004 (Athens): Ana Guevara wins silver in 400m showing her consistency in the discipline. 2007: María del Rosario Espinoza wins the taekwondo World Championship in the -72kg discipline in Beijing. Lorena Ochoa becomes the top-ranked golfer in the world and wins her first major Championship in St Andrews. 2008 (Beijing): María del Rosario Espinoza wins the +67kg discipline in taekwondo. Paola Espinosa and Tatiana Ortiz win bronze in the 10m platform synchronised diving. Paola Espinosa is the Mexican flag-bearer. 2008: Lorena Ochoa wins her second major Championship in Rancho Mirage. She continues being the number one in the world. 2009: Paola Espinosa wins the 10m platform in the diving World Championships in Rome showing how dominant she's been in the sport. Lorena Ochoa is still the top-ranked golfer. Paola Longoria wins the racquetball competition at the World Games in Kaohsiung. 2010: Lorena Ochoa retires from professional golf having accumulated 158 weeks at the top of the rankings. 2012 (London): Paola Espinosa and Alejandra Orozco win silver in the 10m platform synchronised diving. By this point, Paola Espinosa has won many regional titles and World University Games. Aída Román and Mariana Avitia win silver and bronze, respectively, in archery. María del Rosario Espinoza, being the country's flag-bearer, wins the bronze medal in the +67kg competition in taekwondo. 2012: Paola Longoria and Samantha Salas won the women's doubles in the racquetball World Championships. Paola Longoria won the singles competition too. Mexico also won the women's team competition and the third place in the men's team discipline. 2014: Aída Román wins the World indoor archery Championship in Nimes in the recurve category. A Mexican team integrated by Rosalía Domínguez, Brenda Merino and Linda Ochoa also won gold medal in the compound category. Paola Longoria has won all the racquetball tournaments to date accumulating 120 consecutive titles since May 2011.* In summary, I've named ten women who have been top of the world in their competitions. So far, in the same period of time, I only remember youth male teams in football, baseball and basketball doing the same. Is our chauvinistic culture pushing women to fight with bravery all the way to be world champions? If so, even though I'm happy with Mexicans being at the top of the rankings (by achievements and effort, not just by being Mexicans) I won't justify sexism. Far from that, I simply think that the energy that we, as Mexican men, spend showing our "supremacy" could be redirected to support our athletes both male and female and, why not?, to work on being the best at something. On a side note, I just thought of a Mexican man who's been dominant in his category, but I'm not sure he's earned his title fairly... Carlos Slim. What do you think? * http://www.mediotiempo.com/mas-deportes/noticias/2014/03/09/paola-longoria-triunfo-en-nj-y-sumo-su-titulo-30