As the 2016 Rio Olympic Summer games hit the halfway point, the commentary and reporting on women in these sports have hit a conspicuous low.
The incidents began on August 6th, with Katinka Hosszu, a Hungarian swimmer beating the world record in the 400m Individual Medley and winning gold. The camera panned over to her excited husband as the commentator, Dan Hicks, gives her husband the credit: "And there's the man responsible..." Katinka has a disappointing London Games, and let her husband, Shane Tusup, coach her afterward where she made a turnaround in her swimming. He has been witnessed using harsh language during meets with her, even implying she "stay in the water and drown" by two witnesses after a bad swim. Dan Hicks responded to defend his statement while noting that he does regret his word choice. Hosszu beat the world record by almost two seconds.
A day later, the Chicago Tribune had this headline: "Wife of a Bears' Lineman Wins a Bronze Today in Rio Olympics." The newspaper was trying to "highlight the local connection" of three-time Olympian Corey Codgell being married to a Chicago Bears player, however they changed the title of the headline to include her name and issued an apology. A responding article was satirically titled "Important Man's Wife Wins Olympic Medal" to underscore the sexism of making Corey a nameless wife.
August 11th, when Simone Manuel won her first gold medal in the 100m freestyle, she made history as the first African-American woman to earn a medal in an individual swimming event in the Olympics. In reporting this event, the San Jose Mercury News posted an article about Phelp's and Manuel's historic medals with the title "Phelps shares historic night with African-American." The news site issued an apology for the title, but the racist and sexist tones of the title by giving the Olympian her race as her name was noted over and over again on twitter. One person on Twitter pointed out that the title sounded as if Phelps had to "share the spotlight" with this nameless "African-American."
Twitter spread these stories and original articles around the internet, each story eliciting angry and disbelieving responses from internet users everywhere. The Twittersphere has also pointed out sexist comments on television about women athletes need for makeup and being attractive during medal ceremonies. Fox News has been called out repeatedly by Twitter users and news outlets for their on-air conversations on women wearing makeup during the games: "why should I have to look at some chick's zits...?" Conversations about female athletes regularly center on their looks or their spouses, rather than their talent and accomplishments. It seems like Twitter is tired of it, or is at least noticing it.
