She Sure Gets a Lot of Hype

This weekend is the Amber Alert 300 at the Kentucky Speedway and Danica Patrick won the pole. This is the second time in her rookie season that she has won the pole for a race. Additionally, she holds the record for the highest-placing female ever at the Indianapolis 500. These performances may even earn her the rookie of the year honors.

During this evening's sports segment of a local news broadcast, the anchor was doing a story about Patrick. As the story was bumping out, the anchor, who is female, said the following: She gets a lot of hype for someone who's never won a race.

What?

First, how can you editorialize a local sports cast? Second, why wouldn't a female recognize the successes of a fellow female in a male-dominated sport? Third, given Patrick's resume, her popularity is well-deserved.

Before progressing further into my rant, let's put Patrick's contribution to sport in perspective.

Patrick is not even the first female Indy racer. That honor belongs to Janet Guthrie who raced in the Indy 500 in 1977. Guthrie has written a book about her contributions to Indy racing and recently received an award on Capitol Hill from SEMA. However, Guthrie never won a pole at an Indy race and her highest finish at the Indianapolis 500 was 9th (compared to Patrick's 4th place finish in her first attempt).

Michelle Wie and Anika Sorenstam both get incredible media coverage when they traverse into the fields of the male-only PGA tour. Both are incredibly accomplished on the LPGA tour, but neither have won a PGA tour event. As a matter of fact, neither have ever made a cut on the PGA tour.

In the past, Manon Rheaume was the first female to play professional hockey. The goaltender never won the Stanley Cup, but garnered incredible media attention when she broke the NHL gender barrier in 1992.

I'll stop. But, the point is this: These talented women have won pole positions, shot under par, broke records, and stopped slapshots. They do not need to win races, championships or tournaments for their contributions to sport to be recognized. Moreover, the anchor was completely out-of-line by making that remark.

I am going to call the producers of this local newscast and express my disgust. The anchor's comment was simply inappropriate.

Note: Here is a great article about woman participating in traditionally male-only sports.