This was an article I wrote on women in sports and breaking the status quo. I feel strongly about females in athletics because I'm an athlete myself and I see how we're sometimes set unequal to men. I hope you enjoy my article, but it is unfinished.
Women Defying Odds
By: Aleah Adams
Starting
off as the underdogs in sports, women have now made a name for themselves as
well as creating a league of their own. Ever since the passing of “Title IX”,
which was the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in any
educational activities that were funded federally (which included athletics)
women soon began to be prevalent in sports. After this law was passed, girls
all over America got involved in more activities, and while they still aren’t up
to par with men they have made great advances.
Dating back
to 1896 when the first modern Olympics were held in Athens, women were
excluded. Women were told that they would be impractical, and uninteresting
therefore the only thing they were allowed to participate in were the Games of
Hera, where they could compete in footraces. It wasn’t until the Olympic games
in Paris, France that followed four years later (in the year of 1900) that
woman actually took part in the games. 997 athletes competed that year and out
of those athletes, twenty-two were women. During that time, nine sports were
inducted in the Olympics and women competed only in the following five: tennis,
sailing, croquet, equestrian and golf. Now in the upcoming games in 2016 there
will be twenty-eight sports and women have no restrictions in any of them.
One of the
first products of “Tile IX” was the one and only Jackie Joyner Kersee. Taking
the top spot for the best female athlete of the 20th century by Sports
Illustrated magazine. Jackie wowed everyone with her amazing
consistency. Competing in over four consecutive Olympic games she won a total
of six medals encompassing: three gold, two bronze and one silver. As well as
four Outdoor World Championship gold medals. She was only ten when the act was
passed, but discovered what would soon take over her life, which was track and
field. She discovcered this at the age of nine living in the slums of St.
Louis, Illinois. She would have makeshift long jump pits in her front yard and
race her brother, and eventually go on to set the still-standing world record
at the womens hepathlon of 7,291 points! She ended up retiring in the summer of
1998, but even though she isn’t still competing today in track and field, her
legacy will always live on.
Another very important woman that
added to the equality of men and women in sports greatly was Billie Jean King.
She happens to be ranked the third best woman athlete of the 20th
century by Sports Illustrated, and on
top of that helped establish the Womans
Sports Foundation. King felt highly for womens rights because she was
always put second to men, and felt they got paid more than women. Taking that
into consideration she joined a team of eight other women (claiming the name
Original 9) and they formed what was called the Virginia Slims Tournament. With the support of Glayds Heldman [founder
of Worlds Tennis Magazine] the tournmanent lasted nineteen years, and gave more
attention to female tennis players, and atheletes in general. But the most
monumental moment of her career would have to be her participation in the “Battle of the Sexes”. Taking
great loss. King said “It wasn’t about tennis, it was about
social change…” and that winning or losing didn’t matter. She didn’t just want
to voice for tennis female athletes but for all female athletes. She always
supported “Title IX” and place at
the Houston Astrodome in 1973, Billie Jean battled Bobby Riggs and defeated him
in all three sets, causing a ton of controversy. Riggs had went into the
competition conceited and sure that he was going to win, but had left with a
