BY GIGI PICARD ’22
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cancelled all collegiate sports, even one of their biggest money makers — March Madness. While this means that funding for college sports has taken a hit, it is a significantly harder blow for women’s sports.
“Women’s sports will take a disproportionate hit due to this crisis as budgets are reexamined,” Long Island Press reported.
There is still a gender equality gap in sports. With the outpouring of support for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team by fans and major corporations, progress was being made to close the gap. The president of the United States Soccer Federation resigned from his position on March 12 over his mistreatment of the women’s team.
The cancellation of the Olympics was disappointing, as women’s softball was going to return to the Olympics for the first time in 12 years. In swimming, the women were going to be able to swim the mile for the first time in Olympic history.
Now the question remains: with all of the progress that has been made and the increasing support for women’s sports, what will happen next?
“As far as impact with women's sports I believe that there will be a setback especially with funding as we already receive less than male sports,” Caitlyn Richmond ’21, a member of the swim and track and field teams, said. “Right now a lot is up in the air and I think that everyone will run into some financial issues with sports when we are allowed to return to play/practice.
”Currently, we are all sitting in the dark and just waiting and keeping our fingers crossed that we will have an answer soon,” Richmond said.
“Because professional women in sports already get less media coverage, the pandemic may make everything worse as sports media outlets are scaling back,” Tamara Mukulu ’21, another member of the swim and track and field teams, said.