Week 4: Where are my female athletes

I recently read an article written by a man that asked the question; where are the female athletes? I found this interesting since we talked about Brandi in our blackboard discussions. In the article he was listing all the female athletes of the past that made such a huge impact on women sports in the 90's. When it comes to now there is no one a young female athlete can look up too. In the 90's we had Mia Hamm for soccer, Gabrielle Reece for volleyball, Jackie Joyner Kersee for track and field, Katrina Witt for figure skating. I can go on and on with a list of strong female athletes but now we live in an age where girls cry for that role model. We can look at our female athletes now, most of them are retiring like the Williams sisters, Lisa Leslie from the WNBA, and so on. Girls can say we have Danica Patrick and Maria Sharapova but they are not dominating their sport like the woman in the past have and they are more seen as sex symbols. These two girls are in the top 10 of hottest female athletes. They are not even in the top 10 for influential and dominating. The question I have is has out society taken the few woman we have as role models and turned them into sex symbols? Better yet do the women athletes of today see being a sex symbol first as a meal ticket to success and once they get into the sport they will try and perform to the best of their talent? When they asked students in North Jersey schools whos their favorite female athlete, most girls did not have one. They had Derek Jeter on their top list. Women athletes need to say to heck with being on the cover of Maxim, or Playboy and say I want to be on the cover of ESPN the Magazine. I want to see again little girls having Mia Hamm posters on their walls. Like I said before, men are bored at seeing other men. Where are the women with fire, passion, and drive for the love of the game. In an era where steriods and drugs affect male sports, females need to show some of the guys what it takes to win. Help them remember why they loved the sport in the first place. Not for the money but for the love and passion of the game. That is what Brandi represented when she took off her shirt on that field. We need another moment like that in sports today.