I think the author was writing about a sport she didn’t know much about (fencing). Big mistake when those who knew anything about fencing saw the mistakes immediately.
When I first read the Rolling Stone article about UVA rapes after it was posted here on CC (very, very early in process, as we on CC are always way ahead of the rest of the world), I thought “this makes no sense.” Everyone was calling for the fraternity to be shut down and the school did close the house, cancelled all Greek events, started the investigation, and I kept thinking the descriptions in the article just didn’t make sense. She described the rape scene were she was thrown on a glass coffee table that shattered and she was left lying in a pile of glass that was all over the floor. Her back was cut, but 7 guys raped her in that pile of glass with no one needing medical attention. It just didn’t make sense that that could physically happen, that they weren’t all cut up with the glass.
I think if 12 year old fencers where having their faces slashed all the time, we’d all have heard of that. The fact checkers need to actually check out the things that sound wrong and this just sounded wrong.
And you don’t have to make up the crazy amounts people pay for their kids to play sports. Do a little research. My daughter’s friend was on a travel lax team that cost about $8000, plus travel, and she wasn’t even a starter on her high school team. This kid also skied on a club team that probably cost another $10k (not counting the condo in Vail). Her brother was a ranked tennis player and I’m sure his fees exceeded $25k per year. This was not in NE.