THERE ARE MANY reasons I am incredibly lucky to work for TheScore/The42.ie, but undoubtedly the main one is the level of coverage we provide women’s sport.
Let’s not forget, Irish women have provided us with some of our finest sporting moments over the past year including the Irish women’s U19 side falling just short of a European Championship final, the women’s rugby team’s victory over four time World Cup winners New Zealand and, of course, Katie Taylor’s fifth world boxing title in a row.
But what I love about this website is that we’re not just there for those marquee, front-page-making events, we also cover ladies football, camogie, rugby and soccer from club level right up to inter-county and international in a way I believe all media organisations should.
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The well worn argument for lack of coverage elsewhere is that women’s sport isn’t good enough and there isn’t an audience for it. That’s bullshit of course.
The simple fact is that, the more coverage a sport gets, the more people are likely to attend. The more people who attend, the more money goes into the sport. The more money floating around for coaches, high-performance training, etc, the higher the standard.
TG4 have been at the forefront of women’s sports coverage in this country showing GAA, the Rugby World Cup and Katie Taylor’s successful world title defence as well as their regular coverage of ladies football and camogie. They’ve shown there is an audience for it and perhaps it’s time that RTÉ followed suit.
As well as increased coverage, it would also make a nice change if articles on the achievements of Irish sportswomen didn’t inevitably descend into a critique on the attractiveness or otherwise of the subject.
It rarely, if ever, happens with male athletes and it shouldn’t happen with women’s sport either.
So my sporting wish for 2015 is the same sporting wish I have every year, that we treat all sportspeople equally.
Afterall, if we celebrate a Katie Taylor world title the same way we would a male boxing one, why shouldn’t we expect the same level of reporting on the camogie championship as we get on the hurling one?
My sporting wish for 2015: Better coverage of women's sport
THERE ARE MANY reasons I am incredibly lucky to work for TheScore/The42.ie, but undoubtedly the main one is the level of coverage we provide women’s sport.
Let’s not forget, Irish women have provided us with some of our finest sporting moments over the past year including the Irish women’s U19 side falling just short of a European Championship final, the women’s rugby team’s victory over four time World Cup winners New Zealand and, of course, Katie Taylor’s fifth world boxing title in a row.
But what I love about this website is that we’re not just there for those marquee, front-page-making events, we also cover ladies football, camogie, rugby and soccer from club level right up to inter-county and international in a way I believe all media organisations should.
The well worn argument for lack of coverage elsewhere is that women’s sport isn’t good enough and there isn’t an audience for it. That’s bullshit of course.
The simple fact is that, the more coverage a sport gets, the more people are likely to attend. The more people who attend, the more money goes into the sport. The more money floating around for coaches, high-performance training, etc, the higher the standard.
TG4 have been at the forefront of women’s sports coverage in this country showing GAA, the Rugby World Cup and Katie Taylor’s successful world title defence as well as their regular coverage of ladies football and camogie. They’ve shown there is an audience for it and perhaps it’s time that RTÉ followed suit.
As well as increased coverage, it would also make a nice change if articles on the achievements of Irish sportswomen didn’t inevitably descend into a critique on the attractiveness or otherwise of the subject.
It rarely, if ever, happens with male athletes and it shouldn’t happen with women’s sport either.
So my sporting wish for 2015 is the same sporting wish I have every year, that we treat all sportspeople equally.
Afterall, if we celebrate a Katie Taylor world title the same way we would a male boxing one, why shouldn’t we expect the same level of reporting on the camogie championship as we get on the hurling one?
Glory for Katie – the pics from South Korea as Taylor is crowned world champion
Katie Taylor wins a remarkable fifth world boxing title
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