Readers share lessons learned from playing women’s sports, weigh in on TV coverage

The top professional women’s tennis players take to the court at the Credit One Charleston Open and fans around the world have been watching on TV. 

 

In 2024, NCAA superstars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese sparked basketball fans’ national enthusiasm and helped garner 18.7 million viewers for the championship game – 4 million more than the men’s title game. 

 

We asked our readers to share what they’ve learned from sports and also to weigh in their views about sports coverage.

 

Below are comments we received from our readers:

 

Tell us about what playing sports taught you (or the woman/girl in your life) growing up.

 

• Discipline and perseverance

• Teamwork, you can be competitive and respectful, in the end it’s still a game – not life/death.

• I played girls basketball growing up and it teaches you a lot about teamwork, leadership, etc. I do not watch women’s sports honestly because they are not as exciting …. Women’s basketball is not profitable but honestly the NBA is not much fun to watch either. I do watch the Olympics and World Cups.

• Team work, resilience and grit. How to work with others.

 

Do you watch women’s sports on TV? Would you watch more if it was available?

 

• ESPN and the ABC affiliates show women’s games. Women’s sports are not as profitable as male sports or as fun to watch in my opinion.

• Sadly I am a female and women’s sports just are not as fun to watch.

• Women are inferior athletes to men. Period. That a very good high school boy can beat a professional woman in any sport. Tired of women’s sports being shoved down my throat.