It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s an American girl.

Simple. We’ve got the women. They make all the difference. I’m tiresome on the subject. My wife will confirm. I think basketball should be in the Winter Olympics. It’s played in winter after all. Then no one would ever touch us.

Our women play sports like men. It was the women who bailed out the catastrophic failure of the men in the team skate to win us a bronze.

I watched the new slopestyle event. Men did good, but then I watched the women, and I was shocked. My wife will tell you how boring I am on the topic of marginal utility and the fact that men’s 30 percent greater mass and strength translates to an approximate 10 percent differential in results. I was hoping for something like equality in the new women’s ski jumping event. Figured they were less fast on takeoff but slipperiest in the flying part. Wrong. Ten percent differential. Then came the slopestyle. Jesus. The women were just awful, slow, safe, and dare I say it, scared.

Then came Jamie Anderson. She looked, and I don’t mean this in a bad way, exactly like a guy. She was there to win, to push the envelope, to exhaust every metaphor of striving, courage, and skill. Wow.

We have a women’s hockey team too. The Canadians are supposed to be brawlers. Are the Americans afraid? No. An American hockey veteran said, if I may paraphrase, we can play that way too if we have to. Which I don’t doubt. I watched the Europeans. Their best players are their goalies, bravely reacting to offensive blitzkriegs. Women are everywhere brave and resolute in defense. But when it comes to offense, it’s the American women I’ll bet on every time.

Even in the luge and bobsled. And everything else they put their mind to. The Europeans talk a good game about female emancipation. Leave it to the Americans to do it for real.

Why I watch the women’s events. Honestly, as a general rule, they’re tougher than the guys.

P.S. For a brief view of RL watching the Olympics, you can go here.