Her Sports Rounds: The Best of Women’s Sports

Below is my weekly rounds of what’s being discussed in the blogosphere of women’s sports:

16-year-old girl (with a mean knuckleball) is playing professional Japanese baseball. Check it out at Girls Dig Sports (b5 media). Also cross-posted at Girls Can’t What! and Pretty Tough. (I will likely be blogging about this later, too).

Sue Favor surveys foreign players on US college teams – covered at the Women’s Hoops blog.

Mara Yamauchi, a British long distance runner who holds the record for the second fastest time in a marathon amongst British women, is discussed at Right Fielders.

Jennifer discusses her frustration with playing on mixed-gender rec teams on From a Left Wing. (I have to say – I have to agree with her points).

Women Who Serve posted a link to a 2009 guide for the Women’s Tennis Association.

Keri Mikulski discussed her recent trip to Texas to meet professional softball players, including USA Softball gold and silver medalist and the best shortstop in the world, Natasha Watley.

Pat Griffin discussed Jeff Sheng’s Fearless Campus Tour, a traveling photo exhibit of GLBT high school and collegiate athletes, on her LGBT Sports blog.

Over at Sports, Media and Society, Marie Hardin discussed a new book about women’s basketball by by Marie Hardin, titled, “Why She Plays” . The book features interviews with top figures in women’s basketball — including Val Ackerman, Tamika Catchings, Donna Lopiano, and Diana Taurasi.

At the Stanford Women’s Basketball blog, Judy Richter discussed how Stanford’s forward Jillian Harmon is looking to lead the team this year.

At The Final Sprint, editor Adam Jacobs featured post-run interview videos with elite runners Paula Radcliffe and Kara Goucher.

Apryl Delancey from Women Like Sports, featured a video from the Seattle Majestics, an IWFL team in her area.

Hope you enjoyed! Please be sure to send your links over to me at bciplayedsports@gmail.com to be considered for inclusion the next rounds.

Billie Jean King named “Global Mentor For Gender Equality.” Global partnership announced to promote women’s leadership

This past week, Billie Jean King was named “Global Mentor For Gender Equality” by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, the world’s leading global sport for women.

According to the Women’s Sports Foundation,

“The appointment of Billie Jean King to the new role brings together the sporting world’s leading advocate for equality with the landmark global partnership between UNESCO and the Tour to further gender quality and promote women’s leadership in all spheres of society. It also brings together two of the world’s leading organizations devoted to furthering equality, in the Women’s Sports Foundation, founded by Billie Jean King in 1974 with a mission to increase opportunity and participation for women and girls in sports, and UNESCO.”

Since its founding in 1973, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and its players have been leaders in fighting for equality.

As mentioned above, the global partnership will seek to further gender equality and promote women’s leadership in all spheres of society. (We all know this is needed!)

The partnership elements include:

(i) a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour/UNESCO Fund for women and leadership, which will be endowed initially with approximately €200,000 as seed funding with the goal of reaching a much higher figure through planned additional fundraising activities,

(ii) a “Promoter of Gender Equality” player program, which will involve players at both a global and national level in awareness raising activities as well as direct involvement in specific gender equality and women’s leadership programs throughout the world,

(iii) mentoring, scholarship and fellowship programs designed to create opportunities and the environment for women and girls to succeed in all walks of life and

(iv) usage of existing UNESCO and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tournaments, galas and conferences as awareness and fundraising platforms. Additionally, the Sony Ericsson Championships promoters and the city of Madrid will support the program through marketing, awareness and fundraising activities. Advertising utilizing players to raise awareness of gender equality issues is also planned.

I’d like to personally thank both the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and UNESCO for their commitment to a strong future generation of women.

Serena Tops Venus in Quarterfinal of Open

Tennis is one of the women’s sports (along with women’s golf) which has been able to attract a large amount of journalistic attention. Part of that, in my opinion, is due to the Williams’ sisters ability to perform, and perform well against each other. Wednesday night’s match between Serena and Venus did just that.

According to The New York Times, last night’s quarterfinal match at the U.S. Open went to Serena, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (7), giving her a 9-8 lead in this series. However, Venus’s 125-mile-an-hour serve is definately something to watch. Can you imagine trying to hit that?

Do the sisters like playing against each other? The NY Times says,

Serena, a few weeks shy of 27, was on record as saying that it stinks to have to play Venus, just turned 28, so early, but the competition itself seems to have become business as usual, as the sisters play for themselves.

Because the Williams sisters played on the court named for Billie Jean-King, they discussed her opinion of the sisters, as well as her new book, Pressure Is a Privilege: Lessons I’ve Learned From Life and the Battle of Sexes (LifeTime Media, Inc).

In the book, says the NY Times, King describes the thrill of watching Venus accept the champion’s check of $1.4 million at Wimbledon in 2007, and how Venus said live on the BBC, “No one loves tennis more than Billie Jean King.” And then Venus addressed King: “I love you. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”

Whether the sports ability to draw attention is due to icons of the past like Billie Jean King or phenoms of the present like Serena and Venus, or the Open’s decision to hold a subsequent match between Nadal and Fish immediately after the Williams’ show, we’ll never know.

It should also be noted that another possible reason W.T.A. (Women’s Tennis Association) is able to draw so much attention is due to their innovative marketing skills and strategy. For instance, WTA just announced a new revenue sharing plan for players and a revamped ranking system to emphasize the important tournaments. Plus, the W.T.A. officially approved on-court coaching for next year – they’ll be wearing microphones to bring fans “closer to the game”.

But having bloggers from The New York Times following every serve, volley and replay of the U.S. Open, discussing women’s competition regularly and fairly, is truly an accomplishment for us in general. I hope other sports can soon follow in their footsteps.

To follow the action of the tournament, check out the U.S. Open site.