Creating equality in sports

According to Boston.com, skier Mikaela Shiffrin was only on TV to be critiqued while sitting down after her run. “Women’s sports should be analyzed through the same lens as the men. The most famous skier in the world did not finish her two best events. So we are going to show her sitting on the hill and analyze what went wrong…” said broadcaster Molly Solomon. 

NPR.org explains how famous snowboarder, Shaun White, was celebrated after not performing well in the 2022 Winter Olympics. He “showed he’s able to handle the halfpipe better than some of his younger competitors,” said author Jacyln Diaz. When a male athlete failed, he was still praised, but a female athlete like Mikaela Shiffrin was completely humiliated. 

This sexism is deeply rooted and doesn’t just happen on the national level. This is happening to even student-athletes on the local level.

Earlier this year, many students at Delta High School were frustrated with the school for football getting “special treatment.” For example, on a trip to an away game, football took a very nice bus with an included bathroom. But this money did not come from the school as rumors had said. Football player Nathan Scharnhorst explained where they came from, “All of our charter buses for football, we worked all summer for a company called Telluride Express and they were the ones that then gave us the charter buses.”

Boys’ basketball is also treated differently than girls’ basketball. When back-to-back games are happening, people will only show up for the boy’s varsity game and miss the girl’s varsity. “Most people just show up for the boy’s varsity game,” said student-athlete Kyndahl Duran. When the games are recorded, you can tell by the appearance and overall enthusiasm of the crowd that the boys have a bigger audience.

These attitudes can affect how athletes perform. If no one wants to watch athletes will lack the motivation to perform as well. “ … I do know for others they need the excitement of the crowd,” said softball player Cambria Putney. 

Assistant principal and athletic director for Delta High School, Jeremy McCormick gave insight on how donations are given from the community to certain sports and the school. “We have a booster club that our business donate to. With that money we cover everything from playoff travel to uniforms…” said McCormick. He also explained that donations to the booster club are for the club and not just one sport. 

We can see the comparison between female athletes’ and male athletes’ responses. Although this may just be a coincidence it is also interesting. If all is equal, why are both sides so different?  

As much as we want to ignore it, female athletes are treated differently. Whether this is from sports coverage, money, or overall audience and crowd. This is an old belief that we still act subconsciously and we need to work to change it.