Kay Yow and Betty Jameson: They Changed the World of Sports for Women

I’m Steve Ember. And I’m Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about two women who helped change the world of sports, golfer Betty Jameson and basketball coach Kay Yow. Both women were founders of women’s sports organizations.

Sandra Kay Yow was born in nineteen forty-two in Gibsonville, North Carolina. She developed a love for basketball from her parents, Hilton and Lib Yow. She attended East Carolina University and earned an English degree. She went on to become an English teacher, librarian and girls’ basketball coach at Jay Allen High School in High Point, North Carolina.

In nineteen seventy-one, she began coaching college sports. She became the women’s athletics coordinator and women’s basketball coach at Elon College in North Carolina. Four years later, North Carolina State University hired her as the school’s first full-time women’s basketball coach and athletics coordinator. She also coached women’s volleyball and softball.

Kay Yow had become a very successful basketball coach. In nineteen eighty-one she began coaching women’s national teams. She coached the United States team in the World University Games. The team finished second, winning a silver medal. Five years later she led the United States women’s basketball team in the Goodwill Games and FIBA World Championship. Both teams won first place and received gold medals.

In nineteen eighty-one, Kay Yow, along with others, founded the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. She also served as president of the group. The WBCA was established to unite coaches at all levels of the game and to develop basketball as a sport for women and girls.

In nineteen eighty-seven, Kay Yow learned she had breast cancer. She did not let her health problems interfere with her responsibilities as coach and leader.One of her famous expressions was: “When life kicks you, let it kick you forward.” Just ten month after learning she had cancer she coached the United States women’s basketball team to an Olympic gold medal in Seoul, Korea in nineteen eighty-eight.  

Kay Yow has been recognized for her service to the game of basketball. She was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Hall of Fame among others.

Coach Yow also became well-known for her work in cancer awareness. In two thousand seven she established the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund in partnership with the V Foundation for Cancer Research.  The V Foundation was named for Yow’s friend Jimmy Valvano. He was the former coach of North Carolina State University men’s basketball team. He died of cancer in nineteen ninety-three. That same year Yow lost her mother, Lib Yow, to breast cancer.

Kay Yow died in two thousand nine. She was sixty-six years old. Earlier that month, she had announced that she would not return to coaching that season. She had missed four games because of extreme lack of physical energy.

She had fought sickness from cancer for more than twenty years. Her funeral was held in Cary, North Carolina. Hundreds of people attended, including coaches and athletes from NC State and other teams. 

During the ceremony, mourners watched a video message Yow had recorded for the funeral.  She thanked them for their support, and she spoke mostly of her strong religious beliefs which helped her through difficult times, including her battle with cancer.

She also read a poem she wrote in nineteen seventy-six called “My Thoughts on Sport.” She talked about the importance of learning about life through sports. She said sports stretched her to her limits and sometimes she wanted to quit. She said winning was more than the score on the board.

Kay Yow touched the hearts and lives of many people. She was known as a great coach, teacher and friend. She expressed love and kindness toward people including strangers. Immediately after her death, Kay Yow was honored at many college basketball games, both women’s and men’s.

The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association gave permission for teams to wear the color pink to honor Coach Yow’s work in educating people about breast cancer.  Pink is commonly used by groups that try to raise money to search for a cure for the disease.

People said many kind words about Kay Yow. They remembered her as a woman of great emotional and religious strength. They spoke of how she fought extreme sickness in a brave and graceful way.

Duke University men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski said:“God bless Kay. A fighter to the end.”

Betty Jameson was another woman important in the world of sports. In nineteen fifty, she and twelve other women founded the Ladies Professional Golf Association. They were involved in all areas of the sport. They played, organized golf tournaments, established rules for the group and supervised membership.The LPGA gained the attention of many news organizations.  They considered Jameson and others to be beautiful women.Photographers liked taking pictures of them and began calling them the “glamour girls.”

Elizabeth Jameson was born in nineteen nineteen in Norman, Oklahoma. She grew up in Dallas, Texas. She began playing golf at a very young age. She was very good in the sport and won many competitions. In nineteen thirty-two, Betty Jameson won the Texas Publinx competition. She was just thirteen years old.Two years later, she won the Southern Championship.

In both nineteen thirty-nine and nineteen forty, Jameson won the United States Amateur competition. Two years later she won the Western Open for the first of her three major titles. She completed her non-professional career with fourteen major victories.

Betty Jameson began playing professional golf in nineteen forty-five. She won many professional titles, including the United States Women’s Open in nineteen forty-seven. Her score was two hundred ninety-five. She was the first female golfer to score lower than three hundred in a seventy-two hole tournament.   Years later, she said it was the best moment of her career.She finished her career in the Ladies Professional Golf Association with thirteen major victories.

That may not seem like many wins compared to women’s golf today. However, during that time golf was considered a sport for men. Women were not treated the same as men in sports. The LPGA fought to change that.The organization was successful in making women’s golf recognized as a serious professional sport.

Betty Jameson was officially accepted into the Hall Fame of Women’s Golf in nineteen fifty-one.  She became one of six inaugural members of the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame in nineteen sixty-seven. The LPGA chose to recognize nineteen fifty-one as the date of her acceptance. She was also named to the World Golf Hall of Fame and the Women’s Sport Foundation Hall of Fame.

In two thousand, the LPGA celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. During the ceremony Betty Jameson was recognized as one of the organization’s top fifty players and teachers. Jameson and the twelve other LPGA founders were honored with the Commissioner’s Award. They were recognized for their part in furthering the cause of women’s golf.

Betty Jameson died in two thousand nine. She was eighty-nine years old. In her later years, she was forced to live a simple life because of lack of money. She said the situation caused her to learn through suffering. She said: “Just like in golf, you always learn more when you lose than when you win.”

This program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember.

And I’m Faith Lapidus. You can learn more about famous Americans and download podcasts of our programs on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.

1.The WBCA was established to unite coaches at all levels of the game and to develop basketball as a sport for women and girls.她们成立了女子篮球教练协会（WBCA)，以把比赛中各个层次的教练联合起来，和把篮球发展成为妇女和女孩的体育运动。

2.Just ten month after learning she had cancer she coached the United States women’s basketball team to an Olympic gold medal in Seoul, Korea in nineteen eighty-eight. 在得知她患癌症的十个月后 ，她执教的美国篮球女队夺得了1988年韩国汉城奥运会的金牌

3.She thanked them for their support, and she spoke mostly of her strong religious beliefs which helped her through difficult times, including her battle with cancer.，她感谢他们的支持，并且常常提到她那如宗教般强大的信仰，正是这个信仰帮她渡过了艰难时期，帮她与癌症斗争。

4.The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association gave permission for teams to wear the color pink to honor Coach Yow’s work in educating people about breast cancer. 女子篮球教练协会准许了球队穿粉红色衣服，以为纪念教练Yow致力于教育人们与乳腺癌抗争的工作。

5.They played, organized golf tournaments, established rules for the group and supervised membership. 她们参加,组织高尔夫球锦标赛，为团队设立比赛规则并监督队员。

奥运体育项目：铁人三项 （英语阅读）

Triathlon was invented in the early 1970s by the San Diego Track Club, as an alternative workout to the rigours of track training. The club's first event consisted of a 10km run, an 8km cycle and a 500 metre swim.
Over the next decade, triathlon grew by leaps and bounds and soon gained recognition throughout the world. In 1989, the International Triathlon Union (ITU) was founded in Avignon, France, and the first official world championships were held.
The official distance for triathlon was set at a 1500 metre swim, a 40km cycle and a 10km run - taken from existing events in each discipline already on the Olympic programme. This standard distance is used for the ITU World Cup series and was also featured at the Sydney Olympic Games.
Since 1989, the sport has grown rapidly and now has over a hundred affiliated national federations around the world.

The History of Table Tennis 乒乓球的历史

    Like many other sports, table tennis began as a mild social diversion. Descending, along with lawn tennis and badminton, from the ancient medieval game of tennis. It was popular in England in the second half of the nineteenth century under its present name and various trade names such as Gossima and Whiff-Whaff. After the name Ping-Pong (an imitation of the sound made by the ball striking the table and the vellum bats that were used) was introduced by J. Jaques & Son, the game became a fashionable craze.

    正如其他运动一样，乒乓球只是社会中无足轻重的一部分。它跟草坪网球和羽毛球都是由网球演变而来的。在十九世纪的后半叶，乒乓球就以其现在的名字或其他商名文明于英国。比如： GOSSIMA ， WHIFF-WHAFF。

    而当乒乓这个名字被J JAQUES 介绍进来之后，它就开始越来越受欢迎。

    The game was popular in Central Europe in 1905-10, and even before this is a modified version had been introduced to Japan , where it later spread to China and Korea. After a period when it had dropped out of favor in Europe, the game was revived in England and Wales in the early twenties. by that time Ping-Pong had been registered as a trademark, so the earlier name of table tennis was re-introduced. National associations were formed and standardization of the rules began, both in Europe and the Far East.Then, over the next sixty years, table tennis developed into a major worldwide sport, played by perhaps thirty million competitive players and by uncountable millions who play less seriously. However, the game itself has not changed in essence since its earliest days, though it is faster, more subtle and more demanding than it was even only twenty years ago.

    在十九世界初期的中欧，乒乓球运动很热，后来其运动方式稍加修改，传入日本，而后来又传入中国和韩国。乒乓球曾经一度销声匿迹，在十九世界二十年代早期， 它又在英格兰和威尔士获得新生。在那时，乒乓球被作为一种商标予以注册，所以，乒乓球再度浮出人们脑海的记忆。那时也成立了很多国家的协会，同时在欧洲和 远东，比赛的规则也被设立。其后的六十年间，它发展成为一项世界著名的运动。其运动员能达到3千万，另有无数人以休闲方式接触乒乓。然而，乒乓由始以来， 它的精髓是没有改变的。尽管现在其要求比20年前要苛刻的多。

Ping-pong Diplomacy (April 6 - 17, 1971) 乒乓外交

    One of the first public hints of improved U.S.-China relations came on April 6, 1971, when the American Ping-Pong team, in Japan for the 31st World Table Tennis Championship, received a surprise invitation from their Chinese colleagues for an all-expense paid visit to the People s Republic. Time magazine called it "The ping heard round the world." On April 10, nine players, four officials, and two spouses stepped across a bridge from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland, ushering in an era of "Ping-Pong diplomacy." They were the first group of Americans allowed into China since the Communist takeover in 1949.

    1971年4月6日，乒乓球曾经作为中美关系友好使者，为两国关系的发展做出了突出的贡献。那时，美国的乒乓球队，在日本参加第31届乒乓球冠军赛事。他 们惊奇地接受到来自中国的邀请，费用全由中国承担。正如纽约时代杂志所说，乒乓球的声音回荡全球！4月10日，9名队员，4名官员，两对夫妇登上了香港连 接大陆的桥梁，捧出了“乒乓外交”。他们就是从1949年新中国成立以后，第一批踏上中国土地的人们。

    In various ping-pong games, the most famous is the world championship competition, which was held once a year at the beginning, now, it is held twice a year ever since 1957. 在名目繁多的乒乓球比赛中，最负盛名的是世界乒乓球锦标赛，起初每年举行一次，1957年后改为两年举行一次。

    In 1904, a shanghai shop keeper called Wang Dao WU, brought 10 sets of table tennis tools home, the game was therein introduced to china. 1904年，上海一家文具店的老板王道午从日本买回10套乒乓球器材.从此,乒乓球运动传入中国。

体育英语阅读