Women in sports deserve credit

Since March 8 was the United Nations’ International Women’s Day, I would like to dedicate this week’s column to all of the women in sports, both collegiate and professional. According to the United Nations website, “International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.”

Though women’s sports have certainly come a long way, they are far from equal with men’s sports in scale or popularity. Title IX of the Education Act opened collegiate athletics to women and girls and has vastly increased the number of female collegiate athletes. Statistics show, however, that colleges still favor men’s sports more than women’s.

Male college athletes receive 36 percent more scholarship dollars than female college athletes at NCAA institutions. Men’s college athletics receive more money than women’s in scholarships, recruiting, head coach salaries, and operating expenses. Men have substantially more employment opportunities than women in college sports. Women are 16.9 percent of the athletic directors, 44 percent of the head coaches of women’s teams, 2 percent of the head coaches of men’s teams, and 27.8 percent of the full-time athletic trainers.

Despite this imbalance, women in sports have certainly given us many reasons for celebration. Because the sports industry is such a male-dominated one, honoring the successful women in sports is important to grow athletics for women.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is one of the most “macho” and male-dominated sports in the world. Recently, though, it is a female who has stolen the MMA spotlight. Ronda Rousey’s most recent win came in just 14 seconds when she forced a tap out. Rousey has said that she feels confident that she could beat a male in her weight class. Don’t expect to see her fight a man, though, as Rousey says she’ll never condone a man hitting a woman in any setting.

WNBA star Brittney Griner had a historic career at Baylor and has extended that success into the WNBA. Aside from her success on the court, Griner is an openly gay female athlete who is a symbol or acceptance and equality.

Danica Patrick, though she has won just one NASCAR race in her career, is the only female to have done so. Her presence alone is a huge accomplishment for women in sports. Because Patrick is such a polarizing personality, it is easy to forget how influential she is.

A list of the most influential female athletes is not complete without Serena Williams, of course. Williams has won not only Grand Slam titles, but Olympic gold medals as well. While America’s men’s tennis players have struggled to bring home Grand Slam titles in the past decade, Williams has dominated the sport.

Not only do males certainly make up a greater percentage of athletes, they also make dominate the managerial positions as well.

While she is well-known for being the National Security Advisor to former President George W. Bush, and later being promoted to secretary of state in the administration’s second term, Condoleezza Rice has made major strides for women in the sport’s industry as well. Rice was chosen to the College Football Playoff selection committee. She has often talked about her love for football and has combated critics who say she has a lack of on-field experience and should be excluded from the committee. She is also one of the first two female members of Augusta National Golf Club, the host site of the Masters.

Hannah Storm is my favorite female sports broadcaster, as she is one of the most prominent faces on ESPN and does a variety of jobs for the network.

Though ESPN has been around since 1979, ESPNW was founded in 2010 to publicize women’s sports. Laura Gentile is the vice president of ESPNW and actively works to represent women’s sports without perpetuating the “pink” and “dumbed down” stereotype of women in sports.

Though I hope to one day achieve the success of these aforementioned women in the sports and sports media industries, I am inspired every day by my fellow Women of Troy. In my short time as sports editor, I have been lucky enough to cover some amazing female athletes here at USC.

Most recently, senior Haley Ishimatsu became the first Pac-12 woman to win the platform dive title three consecutive years. She is just the second woman to win the event three times in a career. For maintaining the delicate balance between academics and athletics, Ishimatsu was named the 2015 Pac-12 Women’s Swimming and Diving Scholar Athlete of the Year.

Senior Elizabeth Eddy is dominant in not only one sport but two. Eddy was named the MPSF Defensive Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 9 as defender on the women’s lacrosse team. With the honor, Eddy became the first USC female student-athlete to win conference player of the week honors in two different sports. Eddy is a forward/midfielder on the women’s soccer team and was recognized with the Pac-12 Women’s Soccer Player of the Week for the week of Aug. 26, 2013.

These are just two of the phenomenal Women of Troy I have had the privilege of covering, and I look forward to covering many more inspiring female athletes at USC.