What perfect timing.
That thought crossed my mind as I sat courtside at Arthur Ashe Stadium last week, watching Coco Gauff poleax the backhand passing shot that sealed the US Open and her first Grand Slam title.
My thoughts are as much about the in-sync way Gauff hit the last ball as how the time line for this column.
Gauff – a sensation now at 19, like Venus and Serena Williams at the same age – is approaching her destiny. With a major championship in hand, she is ready to be a leader of the women’s tennis tour and one of the guardians of the new era of female empowerment in sports.
His beginning provided a perfect ending for me. The Open will be the last event I will cover as a columnist for Sports of The Times. I’ll be moving to our National desk, where I’ll be writing about stories about America’s wonder, complexity, trouble and promise.
How perfectly the US Open helped bring down the curtain, with a women’s sport providing the tournament’s biggest chance: Gauff’s three-set victory over Aryna Sabalenka capped an anticlimactic men’s final in which Novak Djokovic captured his 24th consecutive major title with a straight-set victory over Daniel Medvedev. For me, women have been the story, and not just at the US Open.
I wrote this column in the late summer of 2020. The worst days of the pandemic may seem like a bad memory now, hidden in the back of our collective consciousness, as they always are. painful moments. Much of the sports world has been shut down and is scrambling to find ways to return to competition amid the loss of so many lives. Who knows when the raging virus will be ours?
At the same time, the constant legacy of racism haunts the country after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor – both at the hands of the police – and the brutal murder of a jogger, Ahmaud Arbery, by white racists.
Remember athletes – famous professionals and little-known amateurs in the United States and around the world – and how they speak and lead.
And remember that Donald Trump was the president before, mocking them, especially the Black athletes who raised their voices or protested by having the anger of kneeling, exercising their right to peaceful protest during the game in the national anthem.
I’ve written all this and more, and I’ve tried to do it in a way that shows I’m not interested in the kind of shouting matches that pervade most sports journalism. I seek to write thoughtfully about how sports and athletes intersect with social issues that stir and trouble our culture. I’m looking to be a strong voice in this space, and add to the mix a good pinch of storytelling and the occasional piece flavored with a little cheeky fun. Above all, I seek to live out the most tried-and-true of journalistic creeds: comfort the suffering and torment the comfortable – or, as I say, fight for the outsiders and the outliers, the invisible and the overlooked.
Which brings me back to a topic I’ve often considered here, one that includes Gauff hitting a backhand passing shot and walking away with a Grand Slam title and a $3 million winner’s check: the rise of women in sports .
Think of all we have witnessed in this arena in the last three years.
Consider the WNBA, the league’s leading role in the 2020 protests, and its continued strength as a coalition of women unafraid to challenge the status quo.
Consider the US women’s national soccer team’s winning fight for equal pay, or how female soccer players around the world and in the NWSL have stood up against harassing, abusive coaches.
Did you see the University of Nebraska volleyball game, with 92,000 fans in the stands? Or all the record-breaking, packed-to-the-gills stadiums at the Women’s World Cup, with 75,000 on hand for the recent final in Australia?
Yes, it’s a new era.
Think March Madness 2023. It’s a year in which the men’s event sits in the shadow of the women’s side — with its troubles, tensions and quality. With the charismatic Angel Reese leading Iowa’s LSU to the national title. Along with Reese, brave and Black, sparking a conversation on race by making fun of her white opponent, Caitlin Clark, the sharpshooting player of the year.
Yes, on the court, track, field or wherever they compete, women can be just as challenging, onery, competitive and controversial as men. That should be celebrated.
Where does it end? With a few exceptions, tennis being one, it’s hard to imagine women’s sports getting the kind of attention they deserve anytime soon.
Who gets the most money, notice and hosannas in youth sports? In general, men.
Who runs the most teams and controls most of the media that broadcasts and writes about sports? In general, men.
Who runs the companies that provide sponsorship money? Yes, mainly men.
Change is coming. But change will take time. Maybe a few more generations.
The decks remain stacked in favor of the men, but the women continue their fight. When it comes to the games we play and love to watch, that’s the biggest story in sports right now.
How perfect that this year’s US Open will frame the story once again. Flushing Meadows is a two-week gala celebration of the 50th anniversary of Billie Jean King’s successful push for fair prize money in the event – a hallmark of sports that remains remarkable for its audacity.
And how fitting that on this golden anniversary – with Serena Williams now retired, with Billie Jean front and center during tributes at all tournaments – Gauff will win her first Grand Slam event and do so by flashing the kind of strength that marked him as an heir. to the throne.
Thank you, Coco and Serena. Thank you, Billie Jean, and all the other female and male athletes who defied the status quo, came out victorious, and are still in the fight.
And thanks for following along as I try to stand up for outsiders and make sense of it all.