Media, dude. Media.

To clarify upfront that this post has been written in response to David O'Sullian's question of why we don't hear much about Marsha, depite the fact that she is an accomplished athlete, good leader etc. This post is a comment on the lack of media coverage of women in sport. It is not about what David O'Sullivan does or doesn't do in his professional media capacity around sports coverage nor his knowledge of women in sport. I received a reply from David and unfortunately he thought that I was attacking his work in sports media. Not at all. This is about media in general; the post is an answer to a question he posed. What I missed is that the question was rhetorical. He's right - I'm not good at subtlety.

On Friday morning, 702 talk show host David O'Sullivan, who was standing in for John Robbie, made some comments on the sports news, specifically around the captain of the South African women's hockey team captain, Marsha Marescia. The news item told of the team's 4-3 victory against Azerbaijan (world ranking of #14). This was the first of 18 test matches that the team will play over the next month.

David commented on Marsha and what an awesome hockey player she is. He also said how she has always been such a superb ambassador and leader. Marsha made her international debut in 2001 and I remember meeting her briefly at a Nike launch - she was a NikeWomen ambassador - no updates on NikeWomen website since July 2009.

David then went on to say something to the effect of how she is so fantastic and yet we hear so little about her. He then questioned why that would be so and added how she is quite pleasing to the eyes too. I'm paraphrasing, but you get the gist. [To correct, Xola Ntshinga made the comment about Marsha being pleasing to the eyes.]

"David, David, David...

You want to know why? Media, dude. Media.

Listen to the sports news on your radio station and what do you hear? Rugby, cricket, football and golf. To be more precise, men's rugby, men's cricket, men's football and men's golf. Now check out the weekend newspapers. Count the number of references to women. Sportswomen do not often feature in sports news.

Media creates household names. Media applaudes achievements. Media chooses what the audience should know about. Media chooses focus sports. And these are generally male team sports. Big money, big sponsorships, big media coverage.

Women make headlines when they're a) hot (not necessarily a leader in their sport, just hot) or b) something goes wrong. Women's beach volleyball at the Olympics is a tv viewing hit; and not because of the strategic dynamics of the game. 'Top SA cyclist', to quote SuperCycling, Carla Swart recently became a household name; but not for her cycling achievements but because she died in an accident during a time-trial training session last week. Tennis is probably the only sport where women get reasonable - not quite comparable, but reasonable - media coverage. And because of media support and coverage, women's tennis is popular.

What about our accomplished female paddlers, climbers, freedivers, mountain runners, triathletes, adventure racers, surfers, swimmers... Add polar adventures, mountaineers and long-distance adventurers to this mix; locally we have really accomplished female athletes.

Media, dude. Media.

Sure, top female sprinters can't run 100m as fast as the top male sprinters. We can't benchpress the same weights either. We are built differently. We are no less than any sportsman, David. Female athletes train hard and they're as committed and dedicated and focused on their sports.

I am very appreciative to GSport... for Girls!, an initiative launched in 2006 by Kass Naidoo and her husband, Ryk Meiring. GSport supports and promotes the achievements of women in sport. As gsport quite rightly says, "Men’s sport is well established, well-funded, and well-covered by the media. Women’s sport, by contrast, is mostly sustained by a dedicated volunteer base of participants and supporters and rarely receives media coverage."

Something else that I have a big issue with is that the lack of media support of female athletes means that there are few to zero sporty female role models for young girls. I have yet to hear a young girl proclaim how she'd like to be just like Victor Matfield... Role models are very important; media helps to create them.

David, I'd like you to try to name 10, or even five, South African women who excel in their sports. On this point, it would be relatively easy to rattle off the names of 10 male rugby, cricket, soccer and golf players - but what about other sports? How about 10 sportsmen competing internationally in sports other than those featured in your sports new bulletins n-number of times a day. [David can name many women in sport; I know that I can't outside of those I follow in sports I enjoy. Interestingly, I don't watch or follow rugby, soccer or cricket but I can name a good number of players.]

While I don't imagine that people will suddenly flock to watch women's rugby or cricket matches, realise that there are many more sports out there aside from rugby, cricket, football etc. These are traditionally male sports and that's where all the attention is focused. But what about the dozens of other sports that exist where South African women excel internationally?

TV coverage is another whole issue and tv will go where the money is, which explains the constant coverage of the well-sponsored male team sports. Print - newspapers and magazines - can easily carry news on women in sport and as for radio, the achievements of women in sporting events can be added easily. This is not a money issue; just thoughtless neglect.

David, I'm about to host my second FEAT event. I invited you to attend the first one in October last year because I am appreciative of the coverage you have given to adventurers interviewed on your show. It's a pity you weren't interested in it because I had two really remarkable women speaking. Marianne Schwankhart is an accomplished big wall climber and she is the only woman in the world to have climbed all three of the Torres del Paine in Chile; Mandy Ramsden is a mountaineer and the first South African woman to nail all Seven Summits.  

And now, at the event in Cape Town in February next month, I'll have four interesting women on stage. Allyson Towle is a newcomer to adventures and expeditions; she recently completed a self-organised sea-to-summit expedition in Chile. Benita de Witt is a sports physio who founded a method for identifying and eliminating injuries. Hanli Prinsloo holds all South African freediving records and her work with the world's best big wave surfers has won her international recognition and acclaim. Tatum Prins is an exceptional adventure athlete with awesome achievements in adventure racing and mountain running.

So, in summary, that's why you don't hear much about Marsha Marescia.

Media, dude. Media."

On this topic of media coverage, I did a quick search online and found these:

• From the blog 'Left Foot Forward', posted 24 January 2011 - 'Why is there such little coverage of women's sport?'
• A research study (LA84 Foundation) from 1990 on 'Coverage of women's sports in four daily newspapers' (not much has changed in 20 years).
• A comment on the website of the Australian Womensport & Recreation Association website says, "Lack of media coverage also affects the exposure of girls and women to role models and the encouragement girls and women get to participate by seeing active healthy competitors. While the quantity of media coverage is one aspect, another is the way the media portrays women's sport, often reinforcing gender stereotypes or undermining women's achievements."
• A Nieman Report, sponsored by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, on 'A shrinking sports beat: Women's teams, athletes' by Marie Hardin.
• A article on the blog 'The Nation': 'The dramatic drop in women's sport coverage: An interview with Mike Messner' by Dace Zirin.