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A woman can win a thousand competitions and awards, but until she crosses over and makes the attempt to beat a man she will never get as much media coverage. Sports and athletic participation have always been associated with men. The development of sports particularly for women has only been something recent. So for a woman to cross over and participate well in what has always been thought of as a man ’s world is something to note.
There are only a handful of women that have made the
cover of Sports Illustrated and one of those
women was Billy Jean
King. For anyone that doesn’t know, Billy Jean King was a female tennis player
who competed in the highly televised event known as the Battle
of the Sexes. Bobby Riggs was a tennis player who had been at the top of his
game when he was young, but now in his age was constantly boasting that
male athletes were far superior to female athletes. To prove his point
he challenged Billy Jean King to a tennis match where he promptly lost
in three straight sets. Billy Jean King made huge leaps for women in
sports, but she is most famous for defeating a man at his own game. In
the world of tennis King was already a legend being named the best female
tennis player in the world and becoming the first woman to be named Sports
Illustrated’s “Sportsperson of the Year.” 
This all
occurred at a time in the heart of the women’s rights movement
when women in the athletic world were starting to come
to more prominence. King beating Riggs was a huge moment for
women in athletics, but she
was already a champion tennis player among women.
"I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn't win that match. It would ruin the women's [tennis] tour and affect all women's self-esteem. " -Billy Jean King |
The same issue is going on today with the current realm
of female athletics. There are many more opportunities
for women to participate
in athletics, but yet they remain second to men in
terms of media attention. Think about two of the most popular
female athletes
in 2006 and the names
Michelle Wie and Danica
Patrick will probably come
to mind. These two women are talented athletes
who are receiving loads of media
attention
because they are competing on the same level as male
athletes. Michelle Wie has yet
to win an LPGA crown, but has chosen to compete
in the PGA
tour and is receiving more attention than the women
winning those LPGA tournaments. Danica Patrick
also has yet to win a NASCAR
title, yet she
is receiving attention because she is competing on
the same track as the men. As stated many times
before, these women do
deserve attention
because they are extremely talented, but the reason
for the attention lies in the fact that they
are competing against men.
In Sports Illustrated magazine the best place
to find women are in the pages of the Faces
in the Crowd section.
Most of these girls have been named Players
of the Year or won National
titles in their respective
sports, but this was not the case for Meggie
Meidlinger. This high school student won a spot in the magazine
for becoming the first woman in Virginia’s
history to win a men’s varsity baseball game as a pitcher. She
was also the first woman to pitch a
perfect game. There are softball
players that pitch perfect game all the time, but there aren’t
many of them who then grace the pages of Sports Illustrated. It’s
great that this young woman was able to perform
so well in a sport dominated by men, but her recognition
was given
because
she crossed the sports
gender barrier.
For more information on the women and issues discussed....
Danica Patrick Official Website
Sports Illustrated - Faces in the Crowd