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SALT LAKE CITY — The images were striking: a weight room overflowing with squat racks, deadlift bars and everything else college basketball players would need for training or post-practice workouts.
The other? A stack of yoga mats and free weights.
The latter is the image found inside the NCAA women’s basketball tournament bubble in San Antonio, Texas, an image that has since gone viral through social media and sparked a real conversation for change within of the governing body of collegiate athletics.
At BYU, the disparities aren’t always as stark. The Cougars share the Marriott Center Annex practice facility with the men’s team – it’s “as much ours as it is theirs,” head coach Jeff Judkins said. But not all teams get this treatment.
When the NCAA installed two weight rooms in hotel bubbles in Indianapolis and San Antonio, the oversight quickly surfaced. Perhaps worse, some responses were spread on social media – mostly through anonymous users and egg avatars who were afraid to post their name or identity in the comments. Do women even lift weights? Why do women even need to lift weights? Perhaps most shocking were some of the responses to female athletes telling them to “get back in the kitchen” and other misogynistic taunts that should have died in the United States decades (if not centuries) ago.
Many professional athletes and celebrities have already spoken out on the subject, including Golden State’s Steph Curry, who tweeted: “Come on now @NCAA, you’re all tripping.”
The NCAA has I already apologized for the oversight, with vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt specifically apologizing for his organization “dropping the ball on the weight room issue in San Antonio.” The irregularity will be corrected as soon as possible, Gavitt added.
But what were the attitudes after female athletes spoke out, as well as the reasons for this lopsided scrutiny in the first place? These are the biggest problems.
“I was pretty shocked by the presentation of both weight rooms: how amazing the men’s room was and how despicable ours was,” BYU guard Paisley Harding said. whose TikTok video was part of the flood of social media posts highlighting the imbalance and has been viewed more than 1.5 million times. “Some people have said ‘this is what women deserve,’ and that’s disheartening to hear, as a female athlete who I know has a lot of people who look up to me and my teammates .
“I was really shocked by this story. There are a lot of misunderstandings about women’s sports. We started the sport later than men, and I think it snowballed and caused us to lose as much popularity. But I think people should really educate themselves; they don’t. “It’s a question of money, time or resources. It really comes down to where the NCAA wants to put its money. Going to the NCAA Tournament, the NCAA pays for everything, and things are supposed to be equal (like in Indianapolis) – but the weight room was a pretty dramatic situation.”
BYU star Shaylee Gonzales is grateful for the safety and security provided by the NCAA bubble. Each athlete gets their own hotel room, in part to quarantine upon arrival at the hotel and test for COVID-19, which is something different than the regular season when they travel with roommates and in the buddy system.
For the most part, everything the women need is made available by the organization: meals, snacks, pre-match gifts, access to training facilities and transportation to host sites throughout the greater region. of San Antonio, including San Marcos, where the games are taking place. The 11th-seeded Cougars will open the tournament Monday against a strong and athletic Rutgers team on the Texas State campus (10 a.m. MDT Monday, ESPNU).
“I definitely feel like we’re a little more spoiled,” Gonzales said. “I feel like our team chemistry is a lot better.”
But there are still problems. From the weight room to the different testing protocols for men and women, this week showed that the NCAA — along with other organizations — values women’s sports differently than their men’s counterparts, head coach said of Stanford Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer.
“This cannot continue as business as usual,” VanDerveer said in a statement. school statement. “Necessary changes need to be made. With the disparity evident between the women’s and men’s tournaments, the message that is being sent to our female athletes and to women around the world is that you are not valued at the same level as “
Judkins has seen the rise of women’s basketball during his 20 years at the helm of the Cougars program — increased media coveragemore TV time and access to equipment similar to each school’s men’s program, and a general overall respect for the game that didn’t exist when he left Utah men’s basketball to lead the women at BYU at the turn of the century.
Since then, a lot of things have improved, he admits. But there is still a way to go.
“It’s hard to always be second fiddle,” Judkins said. “I feel like our team is treated as well as anyone in the country, and it’s because of our administration that gives us so many opportunities. We fly first class and stay in most of the same hotels (as the men’s team). Our practice center is as much ours as theirs.
“Girls know that. They would just like to have equal opportunities. The game has changed a lot. Twenty years ago, when I started, there was nothing on television, but now women’s basketball is broadcast in The players are improving a lot, the coaches are improving and I think some things are improving about my game. Men’s soccer has gone down because all these guys come in for a year and then leave. The women don’t don’t do that; they stay for four years, so their dynasty remains.
“There’s been a lot of talk about it,” Judkins added, “so I hope it’s awakened some people.”
The Cougars have two players with husbands who play on the BYU men’s team: Harding (nee: Johnson) and newcomer Kayla Bells Lee, who recently married center Kolby shortly after transferring to Provo from Michigan State. These two, in particular, know the differences between the men’s and women’s basketball programs — and yes, they still exist — and talk about them often with their husbands. This gives them a unique perspective on gender equality in sport, while also appreciating what their counterparts are doing in their respective fields.
Harding and Lee will organize the BYU women’s team to watch the men’s team tip off the NCAA Tournament against UCLA (7:40 p.m. MDT, CBS) from their San Antonio hotel room, even. For obvious reasons, they don’t want to take anything away from the men’s tournament.
“I was so excited knowing they were going to the tournament and that Connor would get to experience the NCAA atmosphere,” said Harding, who is making her second NCAA appearance after her husband’s first, “especially after that chance was taken away from him last year.”
The weight room controversy was a popular topic on the BYU women’s team’s chat group, and Gonzales also shared videos and photos of the disparity with her many social media followers. The conversation helped spark change, which is a good thing.
But change needs to go beyond a stack of dumbbells and a few yoga mats.
“Seeing this is very frustrating to me,” Gonzales said. “We’re very grateful for everything we’re getting. I feel very fortunate to be here in the NCAA Tournament. I don’t want to complain about what we’re getting. The main point is just equality; being female athletes, I think it’s really important that we use our voice and show what we get compared to men.
“It’s extremely unfair. I think we should all get the same resources, the same equipment as men. We understand that men make a lot more money, but it all comes down to equality.”
But there is at least one area where the women’s tournament in San Antonio could be better than the men’s tournament in Indianapolis, Gonzales joked, referring to the viral video of Jesse Wade ‘rescued’ from a broken elevator in the team hotel.
“Our elevators work,” Gonzales said with a laugh.
NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
Sunday March 21
No. 16 Utah Valley vs. No. 1 Stanford
8:00 p.m. MDT, ESPN
Monday March 21
No. 11 BYU vs. No. 6 Rutgers
10:00 a.m. MDT, ESPNU
