Win for American Girls
According to Fox News, The United States’ 5-2 victory over Japan in the Women’s World Cup final almost two weeks back was seen by 25.4 million viewers. Fox should know, they aired it. They say it’s a record for any soccer game, men’s or women’s, shown on English-language television in this country. The U.S. team took the cup when they beat Japan July 5th in a 5-2 win.
Fox reports another 1.3 million viewers watched the historic win on Telemundo, the Spanish-language station. So the total of 26.7 million also exceeds the record 26.5 million viewers who watched last year’s Men’s World Cup.
Still riding the high of the win and an incredible ticker tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes in downtown Manhattan, they can also celebrate their popularity on the boob tube.
Americans may be the last country to get on the bus but as a nation we are rapidly joining other countries as far as our interest in the game of “football” or soccer as it’s called here.
Was this a fluke, not the win but the amount of people who watched it? Ed Desser is a sports television consultant and former N.B.A. executive. He says it was somewhat of a perfect storm. It was of course a time of year with light sports competition. The American team was a strong team and easy to root for as they were 2011 Women’s World Cup finalists. In addition there was enormous amount of buildup for the American team on both Fox and Fox Sports 1. It might have been a trifecta.
But the interest in women’s sports is a great thing. Woman’s Sports have come a very long way in the last decades, in even just the last five years. The Women’s Sports Foundation is a Long Island based non-profit founded in 1974 by tennis legend, Billie Jean King. Their goal is to advance the lives of girls and women through sports and physical activity. Needless to say they were undoubtedly thrilled with the big U.S. win for the women’s team.
Deborah Slaner Larkin is the CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation. “Today we provide scholarships and grants to aspiring athletes,” she explained. In addition they fund groundbreaking research and public awareness campaigns. “We educate. We advocate, she added. The programs they organize are in cities across the nation. “We still have a long way to go, but it’s gratifying to see our hard work make a difference,” said Larkin.
The Long Island non-profit has accomplished a great deal in four decades. “Through 40 years of research experience, the WSF has created and supported programs to provide the health, education, social skills and leadership benefits that girls need to succeed in life. Our research is the foundation for everything we do and helps identify needs that WSF programs can fulfill,” said Larkin.
The Foundation has a $4 million operating budget and offices in Nassau County, N.Y., and New York City.
Women and Sports The Statistics
Maureen Rossi
If you have a daughter, little sister, niece or grand-daughter, get outside and toss a ball, kick a ball, go for a run or ride a bike. You won’t regret it and according to the Women’s Sports Foundation – it will have a positive affect!
BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATION
Female high school athletes are 41% more likely to graduate from college within six years compared to female high school students who did not participate in sports. (Youth and Society Journal as cited in “Study Cites Athletics’ Academic Impact.” The NCAA News, January 28, 2008.)
A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered that girls who received the highest levels of physical education, or 70 to 300 minutes a week, scored consistently higher on the tests than those who spent less than 35 minutes a week. The findings come at a time where only 12.6% of students meet the Healthy People 2010 objective of daily participation in phys-ed and receive physical education only one or two times a week. (Carlson, Susan. (2008). “Physical Education and Academic Achievement in Elementary School: Data From the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study.” American Journal of Public Health as cited in USA Today, March, 2008.)
In an examination of 2008 NCAA Division I Sweet 16 basketball programs, four women’s programs had a graduation success rate (GSR) of 100%, compared to only one men’s program. Additionally, no women’s teams had lower than 55% GSR, while eight men’s teams had a GSR of less than 55%. Overall, female student-athletes did better academically than male student-athletes. However, there is a large gap between Caucasian and African-American student-athletes for both men’s and women’s teams, with Caucasian students graduating at higher rates than African American students. (Lapchick & Little, E., (2008.)
Female Division I student-athletes entering college during the 2001-2002 academic year had higher graduation success rates than their non-athlete peers and male student-athletes. Female student-athlete graduation rates were seven percentage points higher than that of non-athlete female students (72%, compared to 65%). Additionally, male students graduated at 59%, while male student-athletes graduated at a rate of 57%. (“Big Gains for Blacks and Women.” NCAA News, Fall 2008.)
More than 80% of women’s collegiate basketball teams graduated 70% of their student-athletes. (Lapchick, Richard. (2008). “Graduation Rates Show Promise, Room for Improvement.” Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal.)
According to an Oxygen/Markle Pulse poll, 56% of women agree with the statement that seeing successful female athletes makes them feel proud to be a woman. (Marketing to Women, March 2001.)
According to a study of 2,993 women, older women who exercise tend to be motivated toward physical activity by expectations of benefit to their health and longevity. Inactive women tend not to have the self-confidence, skill and experience with physical activity that active women do. (“Motivation for exercise studied.” Melpomene Journal, Fall 1997.)
Researchers from Penn State say exercise may be more important than calcium consumption for young women to ensure proper bone health as they get older. They studied 81 young women, aged 12 to 16, beginning in 1990. When the girls reached 18, the researchers found no relationship between calcium consumption and bone mineral density. However, there was a strong link between physical activity and bone mineral density (BMD). The researchers found that consistent activity, rather than fitness or exercise intensity, was the best predictor of healthy levels of BMD. (Pediatrics Fitness Bulletin, Aug. 2000.)
Women who exercise vigorously while trying to quit smoking are twice as likely to kick the habit than wannabe ex-smokers who don’t work out regularly. Researchers also found that women who worked out as they tried to quit gained only about half the weight of those who did not exercise. (Archives of Internal Medicine as cited in “Exercise helps women quit smoking.” New York Times, June 14, 1999.)
Families with children who participate in sports report higher levels of family satisfaction. (Sabo, D. & Veliz, P., (2008.) Go Out and Play: Youth Sports in America Women’s Sports Foundation.)
Girls who participate in athletics report being more content with their lives than girls who do not participate in athletics. Much of the social, educational, and health benefits of sports participation become visible in elementary school years for girls and boys. (Sabo, D. & Veliz, P., (2008.) Go Out and Play: Youth Sports in America. Women’s Sports Foundation.)