This is in response to the film “Dare to Compete,” and the recent controversy with the WNBA coverage. I am in complete awe of women who can compete at the professional level, and yet I never see them on television or hear about them in most popular news. It seems that we are always watching or hearing about men. While it is great for men to receive coverage, it seems that there should be some attempt at equal representation. Furthermore, women’s sports need to be taken more seriously. The media focuses mainly on the minority of sexy women in sports and disregards the heroic actions of most female athletes. After viewing “Dare to Compete” I was amazed at Babe Didrikson, and completely surprised that I had never heard of such a strong, influential woman before. I decided to research her a little bit and post about her positive actions.
Babe Didrikson competed in many sports, but mainly basketball, golf, and track and field. She was also an Olympic athlete, competing in the maximum at the time of three different events. She played golf until close to her death of cancer in 1956. Babe is a heroic woman, who should gain more coverage and be remembered as one of the greatest athletes, male or female.
Samantha Durkin
KIN 338I, Section 3018, TR 9:30
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I agree. I remember growing up and hearing stories about Babe Ruth who set a record of 714 home runs or Mark Spitz who set seven world records in swimming in 1972, but I never heard stories of the great women athletes. Most of my history books growing up mentioned famous male athletes but neglected famous female athletes altogether. Just today, I found eight headlining stories for men’s sports on Yahoo Sports and zero for women’s sports, Google Sports contained twenty headlining stories of which zero were about women’s sports. I love to hear about men’s sports, but without equal representation young girls have difficulty finding a female athletic role model because they rarely hear positive accounts regarding the great women athletes.
Another amazing athlete highlighted in the movie “Dare to Compete” was Gertrude Ederle. She was not only the first person to swim the English Channel freestyle, but she was the first woman to swim the English Channel as well. She broke the men’s record with a time of fourteen hours and thirty minutes. This record held for almost twenty-five years. She competed in the 1924 Olympics and walked away with a gold in the 400-meter freestyle relay and two bronze medals, one for the 100-meter freestyle and the other for the 400-meter freestyle.
Amanda Hamilton
Sec 3018 TR 9:30
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