A Brief HIstory of Sexism in TV Coverage of the Olympics, by theAtlantic.com, intro by Larry Eder

This year, track fans followed LoLo Jones and Lauryn Williams at the Winter Olympics. Lauryn Williams took the silver and LoLo Jones took 11th. The Onion, the national humor publication, had a story recently on LoLo Jones being the first Olympic athlete to be objectified in the Winter and Summer Olympics? Funny, but, to many, that is seen as a fact.

Lauryn Williams, photo by PhotoRun.net

Lauryn Williams became ONLY the fifth athlete EVER to win Olympic medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Did she get the cover that she deserved? The last American to do the double was over seventy years ago!

Do you get tired of hearing terms like girls and Men when watching sports on TV? In the effort to sell and get more viewers for Olympic TV, does the network have any responsibility in how they produce the coverage? One key observer told me that “nothing will change in sports TV coverage as the producers are happy, and that is all that matters.”

The following piece is from the Atlantic Monthly: A Brief History of Sexism in the Olympics. It is a thought-provoking read, with some very good sidebars.

The questions of how Major Media covers sports in general, and our sport in particular are good things to consider. http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/02/a-brief-history-of-sexism-in-tv-coverage-of-the-olympics/284003/

Curious to see what you, our readers think about this piece. Please send me your thoughts at [email protected]

Author

Larry Eder

Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.

Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."

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