It shouldn’t be any surprise to realize that during the U.S. media build-up towards the Sydney Games the most photographed female athlete was not Marion Jones but Amy Acuff. This includes column inches, running time, personal quotes, placement of articles (presence, size, length), placement of …

Having studied the media and worked as a journalist, I would argue also that women athletes tend to be poorly portrayed, both textually and pictorially, by the media. Studies examining how female athletes are represented online suggest that patterns associated with the depiction of female athletes in traditional media are replicated in digital spheres, with men's sport receiving greater coverage and women athletes being represented in sexually suggestive and non-sport contexts (Clavio & Eagleman, 2011; Lisec & McDonald, 2012). It has long been suspected that female athletes are subjected to more vitriol on social media than their male counterparts — now a new study has confirmed it. She didn’t say anything about wanting to win a gold metal during the pre Olympic media coverage.

A studydone by the University of Southern California in 2015 found that the coverage of women’s sports … This presents their goal of creating this mentality that “looks” are all these women have to offer. Given that men are the largest consumers, and players, of sport, it might seem logical that the media focus on male sport and male athletes. Female athletes and athletic events are dramatically underrepresented in the media. The documentary includes conversations with research experts on female sports coverage as well as sports reporters, well-known women's coaches and athletes like Minnesota Lynx's Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen, both of whom are repping Team USA at the summer Olympics in Rio. The media creates this demeaning image of female athletes, especially through sports magazine covers, only adding to the fact that female athletes are already underrepresented in the media. Acuff is 6ft 2in, blonde, part-time model, and a high jumper. The neglect of women’s sports—on TV, in print and on social media—is an important reason for the vast pay gap between male and female athletes. Despite the growing level of participation by female athletes in all levels of sports, two in five girls play sports and 45 percent of participants in the 2016 Olympics were women, media coverage of women’s sports continues to remain inferior to male sports in almost every aspect.