Victory in the gender gap; more men participating in female-dominated sports

Kevin Alger, 20, is an ordinary college student. He goes to San Jose State University, hangs with his friends, stresses about school and does sports. What kind of sports? Just one: cheerleading.

Alger is a member of the Titans, a competitive cheerleading squad.

While cheerleading is traditionally a female sport, it's one of a growing number of athletic activities with an increasing number of male participants. Other examples include ballet, synchronized swimming and gymnastics. These sports don't usually draw many men; in fact, sometimes they're considered not manly enough.

But the opposite is true, Alger said. The techniques can be very challenging and dangerous for those who aren't physically prepared.

The Titans had three male chearleaders in 2002 and more than doubled that number to seven in 2004. At Western Ballet, a Mountain View dance school, there are 15 male dancers compared to 100 female dancers, a ratio that's been pretty consistent over the years.

Men are also pursuing synchronized swimming, a women-only sport in the Olympics. The Santa Clara Aquamaids and San Jose State synchronized swimming teams each have had one male.

Why are men attracted to these so-called women's sports?

Some men said they simply thought it was cool or they just tried it and found it was fun. Such is the case of Gonzalo Espinoza, a male ballet teacher at Western Ballet.

"I saw how athletic it was in college, and I wanted to see what it was about," said Espinoza, 40. "I took it for college credits, found out it was fun, and kept going."

He's been dancing for 20 years.

Greg Borromeo, 20, a member of the Titans squad, joined cheerleading because he wanted to be at football games.

"I was very active in football in high school," he said. "I wasn't at a high-enough caliber for football in college, so I joined cheerleading instead."

Daniel Maxfield, another member of the Titans, sums up the reason for his participation in one phrase: "It's like working out at the gym, but our weights look better."

Cheerleaders mostly are female so the male team members are sometimes subjected to insults from observers, usually from the crowd at football games.

But the men who participate in these female-dominated athletics say the sports require a lot of strength and stamina. A typical cheerleader practice session begins with stretching to warm up. Then the male cheerleaders lift women cheerleaders into the air and try to hold them up without dropping them. They practice the moves over and over for two hours or more.

Ballet, too, requires strength, stamina and discipline. Whether the dancers are professionals or are training to be, the sessions are rigorous and long.

Mark Foehringer, the director of Western Ballet, said he always got ridiculed from the time started dancing at age 15. That quickly stopped, though, when he became a professional at 17.

Bill May, 21, is a synchronized swimmer for the Santa Clara Aquamaids who tried out for the 2004 Olympics in synchronized swimming. He was not allowed to join the team because he is male and forbidden from participation, according to the rules of Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA), the organization that governs the sport for the Olympics. Mixed-gender pairs are not allowed to compete.

Would May have been eligible if he were a she?

"Yes," said Amy McClintock, the Olympics media relations director.

"May is a very good athlete," said Betty Hazle, the president of the synchronized swimming division of FINA. "He is very comparable to the female swimmers in the Olympics."

Alger and the other men say there are perks to being one of a few men on a largely female team. The snide comments don't really bother them.

"They're just jealous because we get to pick up beautiful women," Alger said.