A video documenting the gender inequality in US college basketball has ignited a wave of criticism from people online.
Sedona Prince, a women’s varsity player at the University of Oregon, uploaded a video on TikTok and Twitter where she exposed how her team and the men’s team experienced vastly unequal treatment in the provision of weight training facilities by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
She revealed that female athletes were only given a minuscule rack of free weights, while their male counterparts had a large workout facility with a wide variety of exercise machines.
“I got something to show y’all. So, for the NCAA March Madness, the biggest tournament in college basketball for women… This is our weight room. If you aren’t upset about this problem, then you are a part of it,” Prince quipped.
Let me put it on Twitter too cause this needs the attention pic.twitter.com/t0DWKL2YHR
— Sedona Prince (@sedonaprince_) March 19, 2021
Video Sparks Online Outrage
After the video was uploaded on social media, it received numerous likes, retweets, and negative feedback from ordinary people as well as prominent personalities.
NBA star basketball player Stephen Curry shared the video on his Twitter account and expressed his disappointment with the grossly unequal treatment the NCAA women’s players were experiencing.
“Wow – come on now! @marchmadness @NCAA. Y’all trippin trippin,” he wrote.
Even Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer saw the viral video, describing the incident as “outrageous” and telling the NCAA that the issue “needs to be fixed” immediately.
NCAA Reacts
As people in the online community continued to denounce the incident, the NCAA was quick to provide the excuse that the issue had to do with space rather than money.
However, the association’s statement was disputed by many social media users since the video uploaded by Prince showed that there was more than enough room in their practice arena.
Lynn Holzman, the vice president of NCAA women’s basketball, later acknowledged the mistake and promised to upgrade the facility soon.
“We fell short,” she said during a conference call with coaches and team administrators.
