Girls in the Game
In honor of the FIFA Women’s World Cup I thought I’d write about some of my favorite romances starring female athletes. It’s not a huge subgenre (certainly not in comparison with male athletes), but they’re out there, and in larger numbers all the time.
I’m interested in how athlete heroines’ bodies are depicted. In Jennifer McQuiston’s Summer is for Lovers, poor Caroline Tolbertson’s broad shoulders look terrible in 1840s fashion, and she is taller than most of the men she meets. Her physicality and her athleticism are therefore at odds with what should be her goal in this time period – to attract and keep a husband. Raine from Elizabeth Lowell’s Remember Summer is more traditionally petite and pretty, but Lowell makes something interesting out of it by pairing her with an enormous horse. When Devlin’s Waterloo misbehaves at dressage, Raine explains to Cord that she scores higher than a larger rider would because her size makes her control over the large animal more impressive. Narratively, it all comes together – Raine is in danger because of eventing, so she must ride a powerful eventing horse, but she must also compete in dressage. To make the dressage interesting, Raine is made smaller.
Of course, I’d love to see the authors take up the challenge of letting these heroines beat their heroes fair and square. When Caroline outswims David, it’s by virtue of her superior stroke. In Juliana Stone’s Offside, Olympic hockey star Billie-Jo isn’t depicted as much better at her own game than Logan. I’d love to see a hero who gets and can handle and honest-to-goodness no-handicaps thrashing from his heroine.
Another topic authors steer away from is the frequent conflict between being at the top of their game as athletes and marrying. Characters in professional leagues travel frequently and are subject to trade at any time, which would require a supportive and adaptable hero. More difficult is the possibility of having children in the middle of prime competitive years (the recent Atlantic profile on USWNT mothers shows how difficult it is to balance childbearing and childrearing with motherhood). Maybe this is why so many athletes, like Billie-Jo, are shown at the end of their competitive careers.
Interestingly, the Olympics are often referenced as a heroine’s bona fide for athletic prowess. Not, of course, for pre-Olympic Caroline, but for Raine, Billie-Jo, and another athlete heroine I love, figure skater and gold medalist Amy Legend from Kathleen Gilles Seidel’s Summer’s End (what is it about athlete heroines and summer?). Authors just have to name-drop pro leagues (even fictional ones) to prove to us that their heroes are top-notch, but they can’t even invent pro leagues for heroines that we will take seriously. It’s the Olympics that reassure us that the heroine is for real. I can’t help but see this as a commentary on our culture’s impression of women’s professional sports. Are there any romances starring WNBA women? I’ve never seen professional tennis or soccer heroines, but could Grand Slam events or a World Cup substitute for Olympics in our minds?
I’d also like to see authors take on some heroine types who are very common in the sports world but don’t seem to be showing up in fiction. If you’re writing sports, it’s simply inaccurate never to write tall, powerful heroines like the Williams sisters or Ronda Rousey, heroines of color like Michelle Kwan, Lorena Ochoa, or Gabby Douglas, and lesbian athletes like Martina Navratilova and Abby Wambach.
What books have you read starring athlete heroines? What works and doesn’t work about these books? Would you like to see more of them?
AAR’s Caroline
Employing coupons enables one to grow your
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The NYTimes posted an article this weekend on the fact that the 2015 Women’s World Cup just became the most-watched soccer event in U.S. television history. That should say something to doubters who say that America doesn’t care either about women’s sports or soccer. But NPR today had a rather pointed section on the disparage of monies between men’s soccer prizes (and budget in general) and women’s. Pretty shocking and discouraging actually.
I think that could explain why sports may be more relevant in books targeted to younger audiences and/or feature younger characters. I don’t think it quite explains though why adult romances do not feature equal numbers of female athletes compared to romances that do feature male athletes. I ride and train with so many competent female riders, and so it seems very normal to me to view adult women as athletes. But when I think of my own romance reading, I rarely encounter women characters that are athletes. I find that odd now when I consider it.
I’ve read a lot of romances in which women engage in recreational sports activities, but not a lot with pro/competitive athletes. My guess is that we don’t see a lot of female athletes in the genre for the same reason that we don’t see a lot of billionaire and rock star heroines: these tend to be professions/statuses that are used to indicate that the hero is powerful, rich, and likely attractive, and that’s a large part of the appeal. When a heroine is given a similar background, it may signal different things to readers, and it changes the relationship dynamic. Personally, I’d love to see more romances with athlete heroines, just as I would love to see more romances in which the heroine is the wealthier, more successful one (the only one that really comes to mind is Liberating Lacey). I hope that authors will take more chances and that there will be a market for it.
I’d also add that opportunities for female athletes in team sports just aren’t the same as the ones for men. I read the Atlantic story linked in the blog post, and it’s clear that pro soccer players lead a very unsettled life, without the monetary compensation that male pro athletes receive, so it can be a struggle for both partners. In high school and college, men and women in team sports are more equal (Title IX has already been mentioned). But the disparity at the pro level is notable – the women in the article are top players, but seem to be living a life similar to that of minor league baseball players, and we don’t see too many of those in the genre, either.
Of course, there are sports in which some women are financially rewarded: tennis, golf and figure skating come to mind. But these are not sports that are often featured in the genre, with male or female leads (see the sports special titles list http://www.likesbooks.com/sports.html). Again, I’d love to see that change.
Me too! This is all an interesting topic to think about.
There are fewer female athletes than male ones, but pickings aren’t *that* slim.
I get the sense that there are more athlete heroines in YA and NA, which may reflect the greater opportunities for women to engage in organized and competitive sports at a younger age. For instance, in Miranda Kenneally’s Hundred Oaks series, there’s a quarterback, a softball player, a jockey and two runners. In Katie McGarry’s Take Me On, the heroine is a kickboxer. Jill Sorenson’s Backwoods includes an NA secondary romance with a heroine who is in college with an athletic scholarship (she’s a runner). Jennifer Comeax writes NA romances about figure skaters. Sarina Bowen has written two hockey playing heroines (in The Year We Fell Down and The Year We Hid Away) though for different reasons, neither plays when the books take place.
Other than YA/NA: In Bowen’s Shooting For the Stars, the heroine is a professional snowboarder – she competes in freeriding, which is a non-Olympic sport. The h/h in Elizabeth Harmon’s Pairing Off are, as one might expect, competitive pairs skaters. In Meg Maguire’s Takedown (originally published as Driving Him Wild), the heroine is a recently retired MMA fighter, now working as a trainer.
Jilly Cooper’s Riders isn’t really a romance, but it does have a major female character (and several male characters) who is a show jumper.
I meant, of course, that there are fewer female athletes in the romance genre, not in general :)
That’s interesting to consider that NA and YA books offer more opportunities for female athletes. I see the dearth of female sports figures in adult romance novels, but since I’m not much of a reader of NA or YA, I can’t really speak to these books. But I think it could well be true and wouldn’t be surprised at all.
I’m wondering if that reflects decades of Title Nine. Today, many a young girl thinks thinks she can be a professional athlete. That certainly wasn’t the case when I was a YA!
Interesting to consider! I spend a fair amount of time driving my 11-yr. old niece around to her team practice and competitions. She and her friends refer to “”girl power”” constantly! I spent an hour outside today watching their neighborhood girls vs. boys kickball match, and all of the girls seemed to take great pride in their athleticism and ability to compete against the boys :) I can well imagine that contemporary YA books pick up on all of this.
I wonder if it has to do with setting. YA and NA are typically set in high schools or colleges, where sports are not only woven into daily life but also carry character connotations (the cheerleader and the quarterback, the money stereotypes of tennis or golf, etc). Adults rarely have practice after work but it’s normal for teens or college students to belong to teams.
Yulie, thanks so much for the mention of Pairing Off! I loved writing about a female athlete and agree we don’t get to see enough of them. Adding in a sexy male figure skater hero was another chance to write about another rarely seen athlete-type.
With it’s athlete h/h and Russian setting, I keep hoping Pairing Off makes its way onto an AAR reader’s Fabulous Fifteen reading challenge list. Thanks again!
Connie in Susan Andersen’s ‘On Thin Ice’ is a professional ice-skater.
I’m not that much into sports myself. But having said that I can remember one romance with a tennis pro, and yes Grand Slams work. IIRC it is a Nora Roberts on, Opposite Attracts.
Rachel Hauck’s Dining With Joy features a heroine who used to play softball quite competitively (don’t remember the specifics) and leads a team of women who beat the male team including the hero.
Hauck is an Inspirational Romance Writer.
I was thinking very hard for a while and I just couldn’t remember more than one book with a professional sportswoman as a heroine. And it was a category novel from 1989 –The Thrill of Victory, by Sandra Brown. I would love to see more novels with heroines that are professional athletes, at least it would be something original and different.
Slim pickings in the romance genre for women athletes. Curiously, in my life, I know far more women athletes than men. I ride dressage competitively and equestrian sports are overwhelmingly dominated by women.
Sarah Mayberry’s Her Secret Fling is about an Olympic swimmer.
Robyn Carr’s One Wish is about a retired figure skater.
Kaylea Cross’ Out Of Her League has a softball player heroine.
The heroine of Jennifer Lohmann’s WINNING RUBY HEART is a former Olympic runner, disgraced in a doping scandal. There’s no book without the heroine’s athletic career. When the book begins, she’s returned to long-distance running (not an Olympic sport) and falls in with the reporter who broke the scandal that ended her career. He’s a former athlete who uses a wheelchair, and the way they use their bodies is an ongoing theme. I really loved it, though the ending was rushed–I wanted more!
Jennifer is a good friend, so I know I’m biased. That said, I thought the portrayal of Ruby rang true.
I really liked Ruby and agree that her portrayal rang true, but I had several issues with the book – in addition to the already mentioned rushed ending, I thought that the doping ban Ruby was given made no sense (a lifetime ban for a cooperative first time offender?!) and I really disliked the hero. Micah was a judgmental jerk who acted as though Ruby had wronged him personally, and his reaction when their relationship became public knowledge was just awful – I don’t normally look for grovelling in my romance reading, but Ruby deserved better.
It was published in the time of the Lance debacle. I think the doping ban was probably a reflection of ire in the public consciousness. I agree that Micah isn’t my favorite hero.
Winning Ruby Heart was published two years after the USADA’s reasoned decision in the Armstrong case. While I get that this might have been the inspiration, Ruby’s transgressions were nowhere near the scale of Armstrong’s, who went well beyond doping on his own. In the range of doping cases between Andreea Răducan and Lance Armstrong, Ruby’s would be somewhere in the middle. An actual athlete in those circumstances would probably get a two-year ban from Olympic sports – four at most. Lohmann chose an unrealistically long ban and presented it as authorities going easy on Ruby. I’m used the authors getting details wrong in sports romances, but it’s still distracting.
Also, how can a sports journalist be unaware that dopers are viewed and treated as scum (often beyond all proportion to the actual offense) and that high profile women, including successful female athletes, face all sorts of crap?
I think Lohmann came up with a great premise, but didn’t develop it as well as she could have. As I wrote earlier – Ruby was an interesting heroine who deserved better.
Wow, that sounds original and complicated. I like it!
She goes places in that book that are very unusual for a Harlequin. The paralyzed hero is a revelation.
Harlequin Supers have done a few books with paralysed heroes (maybe Kay Stockham did one…?).
Ooh, the McQuiston book is about swimming. I want! Now if only someone would write a romance novel about deep water jogging… ;)
One of my favorite romances ever is Elizabeth Lowell’s Too Hot to Handle, with an injured diver.
I have Stephanie Doyle’s Got Game? in my TBR list, it’s about a female golf player admitted to play with men.