Female athlete of the year
The Associated Press named golfer Lorena Ochoa as female athlete of the year - here is USA Today's piece. Tiger Woods was the male athlete of the year.
Happy New Year!
« November 2006 | Main | January 2007 »
The Associated Press named golfer Lorena Ochoa as female athlete of the year - here is USA Today's piece. Tiger Woods was the male athlete of the year.
Happy New Year!
This article was from Sunday's New York Times, which I didn't read until Monday night because of holiday craziness - but it's worth the read if you haven't already. It's an article about West Point athletes - not only do they balance their academics, military training, and competing at a Division 1 level - they also have to face the prospect of serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and this article profiles some of the athletes that have lost their lives over there. "At least 14 of the 44 former cadets killed in action since 2003 played intercollegiate sports." The story of Second Lt. Emily J. T. Perez is particulary hard to take - so much talent and accomplishment. Thankfully, the NYTimes hasn't put the story behind the archived wall yet.
Interesting column on ESPN.com about Ruqaya Al Ghasara, a Bahraini sprinter who is Muslim and wears national team gear designed by Nike, including a hijab that she wears when racing. There was a bit of debate because in her final race (she won gold) at the Asian Games - her hijab now had the infamous Nike swoosh emblazoned on the side and was this in poor taste to "brand" a religious item. But it turns out Al Ghasara chose to wear the swooshed hijab and is hoping to be an inspiration to Muslim women to compete in sports. Here's the AP account of her win.
I stumbled across this letter to the editor in the Quad City Times referring to a sports editor's letter response that their lack of coverage of Iowa State's women's basketball team compared to the men's is because of the lack of interest in the women's game. This letter writer begs to differ. This debate and the range of attitudes (see the comments section after the letter) is reflected across the board in all media markets - big and small. In my own research, I have heard the 'lack of interest" argument from some sports editors and that it's not the sports section job to promote women's sports and there is truth to this. But I think the issue is more complicated and this is what I'm hoping to tackle with my book - sports coverage brings exposure to a sport (sometimes good exposure, sometimes bad) and this exposure is a two-way street - possibly bringing new fans to the sport, increasing the popularity of the sport. If a media outlet ignores or barely covers a local women's team because they think no one cares, then many people will not care because they will see that the media outlet isn't bothering to cover it, they can't find the games on TV - there are no images or words out there on these athletes.
There is also an extra burden in women's team sports - media coverage comes with success - you must be super successful in order to generate media coverage. No one will care if you suck. Where as established men's teams, get coverage whether they're winning or losing. Look at the Boston Celtics this season - still getting local front-page coverage as they lose and lose badly. Although, they are starting to get bumped inside the sports pages as the Red Sox start their "will Manny stay or go" routine. I think for individual women's sports such as tennis or golf - it's a bit different. And part of that difference is s-e-x. The successful players get media coverage. However, so do some of the unsuccessful ones - if they are attractive, etc. Although, I think this is more of a TV/magazine thing than newspaper thing. Okay- -that's my two cents. Back to correcting final papers....
The New York Times has a feature profile piece on Lorena Ochoa -- from growing up in Guadalajara, Mexico (where she still lives) to playing in the elite ranks of women's professional golf.
A Reuters piece from last month about the NFL's efforts to figure out their women fans (40% of Superbowl viewers are women). Their market research shows that basically women fans don't want to be treated different than the men - meaning they don't need the game dumbed down for them, which is how some earlier NFL campaigns reached out to this fan base.
ESPN's Graham Hays covered the NCAA Women's College Cup "soccer's version of the Final Four" where Univ. of North Carolina (Mia Hamm's alma mater) beat Notre Dame 2-1.
When you are not posting frequently - and I am guilty as charged. It was a doozy of a semester - but it's really no excuse because everyone is busy and I'm amazed how prolific some bloggers are at blogging. Anyway, as the semester winds down, I'm hoping to start writing "the book," finish a study I'm working on, and get back to this blog. And grab a few moments of needed downtime in between!
