As the teams settled into their bubble in San Antonio for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament which begins Sunday, the staff found itself shocked by the lack of a legitimate weight room for players — especially compared to the elaborate weight room setup at the men’s tournament in Indianapolis.
Oregon’s Sedona Prince pointed out the glaring discrepancies between the two weight rooms in a Tik Tok video she posted to Twitter on Thursday.
Prince wasn’t the only one who noticed. No. 1 Stanford sports performance coach Ali Kershner posted a photo on his Instagram (@kershner.ali) of the men’s setup (which appears to have everything a team could want and spans the (the equivalent of a convention center ballroom) and the one for women (which looks like something you’d find in a hotel gym).
“Not usually for this type of post, but it’s worth looking into,” Kershner posted.
She then tagged the NCAA’s Instagram accounts and said, “This needs to be fixed.” These women want and deserve the same opportunities. Not just that – 3 weeks in a bubble and no access to dumbbells over 30 until the sweet 16? In a year marked by the fight for equality, this is an opportunity to have a conversation and improve.
When former Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu caught wind of the disparity, she tweeted, “I thought it was a joke. What is that ?!? To all the women participating in the @marchmadness tournament, keep working! »
Many others expressed their disapproval.
The NCAA has not refuted Kershner’s comparison.
“We recognize that some of the amenities that teams would typically have access to were not as available in the controlled environment,” said NCAA vice president Lynn Holzman. “This is partly due to limited space and the initial plan was to expand the training area once additional space was available later in the tournament. However, we want to meet the needs of our participating teams and are actively working to improve existing resources on the training grounds, including additional strength training equipment.
Cori Close, coach of the No. 3 seed UCLA Bruins, said none of this surprised her.
“We’re not blown away by this,” Close said. “It’s just that it’s a lot more public. We have work to do. We try to live – I call it healthy tension – being truly grateful for how far we’ve come. In my 28-year career, to see how women are treated in the NCAA tournament today compared to (when) I was playing or when I started coaching, I’ve come a long way. I want to celebrate that.
“At the same time, I want to be really honest. I want to fight tirelessly towards the change that is still necessary. These women are elite athletes. Master their craft at the highest level.
UCLA star Michaela Onyenwere agreed with her coach’s point of view.
“When I saw the photos, I was shocked but not surprised because being a female athlete is just reality,” Onyenwere said. “It was just a little discouraging because the NCAA told us that we weren’t really as valued as the male athletes in terms of the differences between the weight room, the goody bag and the food. It just reaffirmed to me that this is the world we live in as female athletes.
The men’s tournament received no complaints from the public about the weight room, but it was also a rocky start in Indianapolis.
Players from 15 teams launched a protest Wednesday under the hashtag #NotNCAAProperty in hopes of getting the NCAA to change its rules regarding name, image and likeness.
