Lindsey Vonn

[dps]

She is meh and not that attractive for all the hype.

She's cute, but she's not HOTT.  Needs implants.

I don't see any evidence that she's not a good enough to be a professional race care driver.  She may not be good enough to win much, or even be in contention on a regular basis, though she's inexperienced enough that she stil could get better.  But most drivers on the racing circuit aren't good enough to be in contention on a regular basis.

A better analogy than the actuary analogy would be with golf.  Most golfers on the tour aren't good enough to win against the top players, but they're good enough to keep their tour cards and make a living from the sport.  It's not a perfect analogy, because on the PGA tour, the top players sit out a fair number of the less important events, giving the lesser players a chance to win a few, which doesn't really happen in NASCAR (who knows what goes on in Indy racing outside of the Indy 500).

[Eddie Teach]

There's also the gender issue- Patrick is easily the greatest female race car driver we know of. Auto racing may not exactly be a sport, but it's still definitely something men do better at. It's not fair to say she's bad at it because she gets beaten by men while not holding Vonn or Sorenstam or the Williams sisters to the same standard.

[DGuller]

I don't see any evidence that she's not a good enough to be a professional race care driver.  She may not be good enough to win much, or even be in contention on a regular basis, though she's inexperienced enough that she stil could get better.  But most drivers on the racing circuit aren't good enough to be in contention on a regular basis.

I don't think anyone claims that she's incompetent.  She can drive the car fast, not be dead last in the field most of the time, and not be a hazard on the track.  The issue is with having such an also-ran be constantly shoved down everyone's throats, which doesn't happen with other middling drivers. 

A couple of years ago Indycar racing was nearly unwatchable on TV, mainly because Danica was getting more coverage than the rest of the race combined, and ridiculous undeserved praise to go with it.  As an example of how comic it got, she was once praised for having the composure to be able to lift up the visor of her helmet. 

You can say that it's not Danica's fault for being covered so much, but that's not entirely true.  She's certainly playing along with the hype machine, she actually bought into it, and as a result developed quite an unpleasant and ill-tempered personality.  She's gotten better at it in the last year, since she started looking very bad with having her screaming tirades over the radio broadcast on TV.

[DGuller]

There's also the gender issue- Patrick is easily the greatest female race car driver we know of. Auto racing may not exactly be a sport, but it's still definitely something men do better at. It's not fair to say she's bad at it because she gets beaten by men while not holding Vonn or Sorenstam or the Williams sisters to the same standard.

The good thing about racing is that women are not at a physical disadvantage over men, so there is no need to segregate them.  You do need to be fit to be a good driver, but being fit is different than pushing your body to the absolute physical limits.  Racing is mainly a mental sport, which is why it fascinates me so much. 

The biggest reason that there aren't more women racing is because there just aren't that many women racing, period.  It's just not something that girls get into when they're in their teens (or even much younger than that).  Those that do are the exception rather than the rule.

[grumbler]

I'm gonna join with Berkut and say that i now have realized the DGuller's fixation on mediocre or better women athletes is kinda creepy.

I cannot fathom why he cares.  I certainly don't.  I recognize that sports these days are about advertising sales, for the most part.  Athletes are actors as much as they are performers, because that is what gets them the bucks.  If mediocre athletes with better acting skills get better bucks than better athletes with mediocre acting skills, I see that as survival of the fittest.