Female athletes are making headlines in the world of sports more and more every day. And after the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, there has been no shortage of coverage for a number of incredible female athletes. However, despite these advances, many women are still not as respected as their male counterparts.
The Chicago Tribune is receiving a lot of heat regarding one of their headlines from early on in the Olympics regarding one of the female shooters representing Team USA. Corey Cogdell-Unrein won a bronze medal for the United States in the women’s trap shooting event. This third place finish earned Cogdell-Unrein her second Olympic medal. However, the article title the Chicago Tribune chose to use did not even come close to appropriately documenting Cogdell-Unrein’s momentous achievement.
The article’s original title, “Wife of a Bears’ lineman wins a bronze medal today in Rio Olympics,” did nothing to recognize Cogdell-Unrien and her achievement, but rather celebrated the fact that she is married to an NFL player. Cogdell-Urien earned her bronze medal through hard work and determination just like every other Olympic medalist and it should have been common sense for the article to celebrate her achievements rather than her famous husband.
They didn’t chose to title it “Cogdell-Unrein wins second Olympic medal,” or “Cogdell-Unrein wins bronze for US.” The Chicago Tribune purposely chose to leave her name out of the title and instead refer to her only as the wife of a Chicago Bears lineman.
The writer quickly changed the article title to “Corey Cogdell, wife of Bears lineman Mitch Unrein, wins bronze in Rio,” after an enormous upset on Twitter, but as nice of a sentiment as the title change was, it should not have taken major backlash for Cogdell-Unrein to be properly recognized. The article author, Tim Bannon, should have given her proper credit from the start. This type of sexism would not have occurred if the athlete in question was male, so why does the media do this to women?
These talented women deserve proper recognition for their athletic achievements. They are so much more than just wives and girlfriends. Female athletes do the same exact work as male athletes and deserve the same treatment. Media and sports journalists especially need to realize that women are a permanent fixture in the world of sports, and writing about and properly crediting these female athletes is essential to proper and fair journalism.
Cogdell-Unrien is one of many women who have not been taken seriously by the media in the world of sports. Poor choices like this in journalism make women’s sports seem like a joke, which is far from the truth. Female athletes are just as talented and work just as hard as anyone else, and it’s time for them to be taken seriously.
