Posts Tagged women’s athletics

Kathrine Switzer running in the Boston Marathon
By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

Photo of the Day: The women who forced their way into the Boston Marathon

In honor of yesterday’s Boston Marathon, there were a couple great profiles of the trailblazing female runners who forced their way into the race back when it was thought that women couldn’t run 26 miles without dropping dead or turning into men or something. 

In honor of yesterday’s Boston Marathon, there were a couple great profiles of the trailblazing female runners who forced their way into the race back when it was thought that women couldn’t run 26 miles without ...

Shannon Miller coaching
By Katie Barnes • 9 years ago

New report reveals continued decline in women coaching women athletes

Ed. note: This post was originally published on the Community site.

Earlier this month, the Tucker Center for Research released a report on the status of women in collegiate coaching, detailing the continuing decline of the percentage of women coaches employed to coach women athletes at 76 athletic programs. 

Ed. note: This post was originally published on the Community site.

Earlier this month, the Tucker Center for Research released a report on the status of women in collegiate coaching, detailing the continuing decline ...
By Chloe Angyal • 10 years ago

Today in shitty treatment of women athletes

Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard just became the first woman from her country to advance to the semis of the Australian Open in over three decades. Way to go, Eugenie! What do you want to know about her history-making game? How she prepped before facing Ana Ivanovic? What she thinks put her over the edge in this match? How high she thinks she can rise in this tournament? Duh, of course not, you want to know what man she’d date if she could date any man in the whole wide world. Because that’s so relevant to tennis!

That’s what British sports reporter Samantha Smith, herself a former tennis player who really ought to know better, asked Bouchard seconds ...

Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard just became the first woman from her country to advance to the semis of the Australian Open in over three decades. Way to go, Eugenie! What do you want to know ...
By Maya Dusenbery • 12 years ago

Why ESPN’s Body Issue could have been great but doesn’t quite succeed

There’s a lot I appreciate about ESPN’s Body Issue–the primary thing being Danell Leyva.

I’m all for admiring “the vast potential of the human form,” I love seeing naked bodies, and as someone who is endlessly irritated that female athletes are sexualized more than men are, I think it’s great to have a chance to “gawk” at beautiful athletes of both genders. Of course, the range of types of bodies celebrated in the issue is pretty narrow–someone like Sarah Robles is, unsurprisingly, not featured. (Although I’m super excited they included paralympic athlete Oskana Masters being totally badass.)

In a culture in which women’s bodies are typically valued for being passive objects that are nice to look at, admiring ...

There’s a lot I appreciate about ESPN’s Body Issue–the primary thing being Danell Leyva.

I’m all for admiring “the vast potential of the human form,” I love seeing naked bodies, and as someone who is endlessly ...
By Maya Dusenbery • 12 years ago

Olympic sexism study: Male athletes have skill and female athletes have luck

According to a new study on past television coverage of the Olympics, sports commentators talk about athletes in notably different ways depending on their gender. And by “notably different” I mean “pretty sexist.” The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Delaware, analyzed NBC’s primetime coverage of past games. The main findings:

When female athletes succeed, commentators tend to focus on luck and less on physical ability. When female athletes fail, physical ability and commitment are noted. When male athletes succeed, commentators applaud their skill and commitment to the sport. When male athletes fail, it is not necessarily about their failure, but about how their competitors succeeded.

So basically women athletes can never truly win and male athletes can never truly lose. ...

According to a new study on past television coverage of the Olympics, sports commentators talk about athletes in notably different ways depending on their gender. And by “notably different” I mean “pretty sexist.” The study, conducted ...