As I reflected earlier this month on , it felt different this year. Rather than a pumped-up opportunity to celebrate strides鈥攖he sweat, guts, and proficiency of female athletes鈥攎y conscience urges reflection.
I can鈥檛 write about National Girls & Women in Sports Day or the Winter Olympics which opened this week without considering the abuse of young gymnasts by Lawrence Nassar, former doctor for the national team. So far, 140 (140!!!!) women and girls have the guise of 鈥渢reatment.鈥� Somehow their voices were pervasively and effectively muted, disregarded or explained away. Coaches, athletic training programs, and facilities and that exalted sports governing body鈥攖he Olympic Committee鈥攆ailed to protect these athletes from a monster.
Yet this is not merely a question of 鈥渟peaking up鈥� but the problem of whose voice matters. For years, it was Larry Nassar鈥檚. To those young women caught in the broken culture of gymnastics, abuse was the 鈥減rice鈥� for the opportunity to compete at the highest levels.
Athletic excellence requires sacrifice, but it鈥檚 not communicated well enough what, exactly, that entails and where the lines should be drawn. We need to nail that. We are living in an era of outcomes. The final, shining product, the result, is what dominates our attention. It has made us less interested in the messy 鈥渉ow鈥� and less focused on the unquantifiable value of the process. And, less willing to hear upsetting or complicating information. Yet, culture must be built from the inside out and the bottom up. On the balance beam or off.
This is just as critical for sports as it is in other fields. It is not enough to celebrate wins. We must ask how they were earned. How was it made? The #MeToo movement is pressing the matter, not just in movies and on TV news desks, but , as many wonder about adding an asterisk and explanation beside the work of egregious sexual harassers. This is interesting on a number of levels, not the least of which is recognition that solo brilliance may not be solo鈥攁nd, or鈥攖hat in a time when simplicity (鈥渂uild the wall鈥�) has anchored political decision-making, that we crave complexity. All is not quick or easy.
Sports鈥攊n highlights鈥攔eflect split-second plays. One key move. But athletic endeavors are the culmination of multiple inputs, of practice, advice, persistence, teaching, cheering, anger, love. And every part matters. This is to say that we must pay attention to our system of sport. Which unearths another explosive conversation. Last month, in the Los Angeles Times by a professor and former track athlete, Victoria Jackson, argued, as the headline put it, that 鈥淐ollege Sports are like Jim Crow.鈥� It inspired viral debate.
The pointed issue鈥攗npaid black male athletes in football and basketball raking in revenues that fund 鈥渨hite鈥� sports like swimming (and women鈥檚 sports) 鈥攊s not new (check out a 2012 paper, 鈥淪tudent Athlete鈥�). The matter of whether to pay or not pay revenue-producing male NCAA athletes is the leading edge of a bigger conversation: What is the purpose of college sports?
But the very fact that we can clearly delineate 鈥渂lack sports鈥� and 鈥渨hite sports鈥� is not an accident but something nurtured and presumed. If sports are more than athletic contests鈥攊f they have social, economic, and political value鈥攚e must care who gets to play.
If you look at 鈥攆or women鈥攊n 2016-2017, the latest NCAA data available, not a single black female athlete in Division I played squash or sailed (one skied and one played ice hockey). Black women are overrepresented in basketball (47 percent of players) and track (27 percent). We can make a list of 鈥渞easons鈥� why this is.
But if we care about who is on campus and what role they play there鈥攁nd then out in the world once they leave 鈥攁s we recognize National Girls and Women in Sports Day and cheer on athletes during the Winter Olympics, let鈥檚 begin the conversation about how to diversify sport. We must use this #MeToo spotlight to unravel old power structures and standard practices. It鈥檚 not just a problem on the men鈥檚 side. Let鈥檚 notice who is on the roster鈥攁nd who isn鈥檛. And let鈥檚 commit to doing something about it.
Journalist Laura Pappano is writer-in-residence at the 妻友社区 and was a leader of The Women鈥檚 Sports Leadership Project. For seven years, she edited the blog, now preserved as an archive.