Ellie Duley, our brilliant intern for April, is a former NCAA swimming star having competed for the University of Buffalo. Here, Ellie takes a look at the current state of NCAA women’s sport…
2024 has been a trailblazing year for women’s sport in the NCAA, as we have witnessed athletes make genuine history. With the momentum gathering for female sport, where can we expect it to go from here?
Graduating in 2023 after four years competing in NCAA Division 1 swimming, it would appear I just missed out on what could be a golden era of female sport in the United States college system. The attention had been building, before the momentum was stalled by the removal of spectators following COVID year of 2020-2021. That specific season also just happened to be the year my team won the Conference Championship for the first time in its programme history, and the only sport at my college to win a championship in 2021. For me, that season truly emphasised the pedestal that male sports sit on and demonstrated the hurdles women must overcome to be taken seriously, as we had to fight for the recognition of our success.
It takes a lot of time, energy and dedication to compete in your sport (not to quantify 14 years of my life, seemingly infinite 5am wake-ups and 20 hours + training weeks). Yet despite this, female athletes often feel they must devote MORE time and energy to be taken seriously.
Despite positive signs in recent years, there remains a pervasive argument across many sports that “people do not watch women’s sport because they are not as good as the men”. No matter the sport, whether it be relatively unpopular like swimming, or widely acclaimed, such as basketball or football, there remains an archaic view amongst many men that women simply will never be as good, nor as entertaining to watch.
Luckily, along came Caitlin Clark to blatantly invalidate that argument. Clark has just been drafted as the number 1 pick for the WNBA, having completed 4 years at the University of Iowa, playing basketball. She became the all-time leader (across both men’s and women’s codes) in points scored during her NCAA career, and her team repeatedly broke records for viewership of women’s college basketball. With ESPN finally showing the women’s NCAA championship on prime-time TV, the Final between South Carolina and Iowa broke the record for viewership of a women’s basketball game at 18.9 million, eclipsing the men’s Final by 4.1 million. Finally, proof of what we athletes have always known. When given the stage, women’s sports can be just as popular - if not more - as male sports.
In August 2023, Nebraska Volleyball hosted a match against Omaha in their football stadium, which shattered records for attendance for a women’s sporting event. Their “Volleyball Day in Nebraska”, held at Memorial Stadium, sold out just 3 days after tickets went on sale. The official attendance of 92,003 was the largest crowd ever hosted at the stadium and unofficially became the most attended women’s sporting event in the US (2nd in the world). The University of Nebraska has a long history of outstanding women’s volleyball, and this is something that allowed them to acquire fans and give the team the spotlight.
Other female sports that arguably should be collecting larger audiences include gymnastics and swimming. These are sports that see several athletes on national and Olympic teams competing within the NCAA. Suni Lee, a Tokyo gold medallist represented Auburn University for 2 years. Comparatively, the University of Virginia has had a 4-year run as NCAA champions in women’s swimming and diving, as Olympic silver and bronze medallists Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh have shattered records repeatedly and helped lead the team to unrivalled success.
In 2024, Gretchen Walsh set four American Records at ACC championships, before then swimming the fastest ever times swam by a woman in her 3 events at the NCAA championships. With such notable and impressive athletes on their rosters, why is it that these colleges are not attracting crowds that reflect the talent on show?
It is clear to me that in this new era of women’s sports, we need either a standout name that viewers tune in to watch or a history that allows the fans to accumulate. As investment increases, even to half of the extent of male sports, we allow people who were not previously exposed to women’s sport to become fans. Sure enough, the wider popularity follows. Let’s continue to give these female athletes a voice, allow them to inspire a generation, and allow girls around the world to watch their heroes on TV.
