I am Woman Hear Me Roar in Numbers Too Big to Ignore! The Summer of Women in Sports
This summer has been phenomenal for women in sports. And it was kicked off by the US Women’s Soccer Team winning the World Cup in Canada. While their win was awesome—ending a drought that lasted 15 years—it was not the most amazing part of the games. The real coup was the audience that the final game drew. Beating out the NBA series final games, ESPN states that “It was the largest viewership ever for a soccer game in the United States, men’s or women’s” averaging 25.4 million viewers. Given that soccer is still considered somewhat second class to the NFL, MLB and NBA, and that women’s sports brings in a fraction of the money traded in men’s sports, that is quite a feat. However, it was not the only one of the summer.
Every year the NBA host a summer league where teams mix rookie players with second year players and unsigned free agents in an effort to enhance development and provide additional audition opportunities. In recent years the Summer League has grown in prominence and now even has its own championship. For the first time in history the NBA had the first female head coach. Becky Hammon broke the barrier for women coaching men when she was appointed head coach for the San Antonia Spurs Summer League. Hammon is no stranger to the NBA. She became the first female to be a paid member of a coaching staff when she was hired by the Spurs last year as an assistant coach. After leading her team to the championship title Hammon was quoted as saying “I just think its important [for] society that women be rewarded for their brain…To me it’s always about the bigger picture…Whether it’s basketball or in the army or in CEOs or in operating rooms, we want women there.”
And there they shall be.
In addition to Hammon’s position, Jen Welter was recently hired by the Arizona Cardinals as an assistant coaching intern. She will work through training camp and the preseason. But it’s not just sports teams that are taking notice of the power of women in sports. Big businesses are seeing the potential and jumping on board. This summer both Nike and EA Sports signed women to be the face of new products. US Soccer player Alex Morgan will become the first female to grace the cover of an EA Sports FIFA game when she joins Argentinian player Lionel Messi on the cover of FIFA 16, set to be released this September. And WNBA Minnesota Lynx player Maya Moore got her own shoe when Nike debuted an Air Jordon 1-esque sneaker in her likeness this month.
It’s been quite a summer for women in the field of athletics, and it’s a tide that is sure to keep coming in.
Image courtesy of Athlete Promotions
