GIRLS need to know, be really aware, there ARE girls and women out there in sporting arenas they can aspire to be like. Top female athletes with awesome qualities they can adapt to their own lives.
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Positive role models.
What needs to go is an old, out-dated notion that women’s sport is not as good as male showdowns – talk that women’s sport does not rate as well, is less exciting, or lacks the same levels of power and endurance.
Top women’s sport needs better recognition and an equal platform to men not because it is any better or worse but because women are amazing athletes in their own right. Anyone who spends time working in women’s sport or supporting women’s sport, will guarantee you how impressive elite female athletes can be in battle.
Equal pay arguments aside, Australian girls and women need to know who these supreme athletes are.
Women’s National Basketball League club Melbourne Boomers arrived in Ballarat on Friday. This follows a successful visit from male counterparts Melbourne United, who took on NBL rival Cairns Taipans in a pre-season bout at the Minerdome last week.
Boomers chief Justin Nelson spoke passionately about women’s sport recognition to a wide cross-section of women involved in this city’s games – athletes, administrators, coaches, media – in a Ballarat Basketball hosted luncheon. Nelson said people, especially potential business partners, just needed to hear athletes’ stories to get on board. The hardest part was convincing people to listen.
“(Female athletes) are being role models to our youth. They are promoting a healthy and active lifestyle,” Nelson said. “...Businesses need to believe that women make incredibly talented athletes, incredible role models, valuable role models.”
This column does not intend to detract from elite men’s sport and its support, popularity and hype in spectacles it generates. Rather, to encourage more sporting fans to give women’s sport a better chance.
Attention to women’s sport is improving but promotion still has a far to go.
Nelson said the money paid by the Boomers’ naming right sponsor five years ago, on the back of the club’s championship season, would only now make up three per cent of the club’s budget. He said this is a great sign of growth in the league and sport, greater standards in player welfare and hard work to generate a better player income.
Yet, not one cent of Australian Sports Commission funding for women’s basketball reaches the WNBL and the league is a breeding ground for Australian Opals and pathway for talented juniors, including those from Ballarat.
Broadcaster ABC axed its WNBL coverage and the Boomers have turned to smarter more direct methods to showcase their game. Taking players to the people, like this Ballarat visit, so the public can better understand what this team is all about.
Female athletes in all sporting codes can rightfully be role models not just for sporting ability. They have determination. They have discipline. They are striving to be their best. They are worth celebrating.
