Duy Huynh ENGL 109 Professor Bruner 10/28/2013 IF #8 Inequality in Sports Inequality in sports has always been a problem

for athletes around the world. In the United States, African Americans and females have had trouble fighting for their right to compete along with white males. In 1973, professional tennis player Billie Jean King won a match in the Battle of the Sexes. Her victory was a symbol to women around the world. Also, in 1967, Katherine Switzer ran the Boston Marathon and completed it despite the controversies and denial of race official Jock Semple. The movie Remember the Titans showed a great example of what African Americans had to go through to fight for their equality. The setting was during the time when friction between the black and white communities was high and new laws caused protests at the local high school. These conflicts were brought into the football team and forced the new head coach to bring the team together and cooperate. These examples of successful battles for equality in sports seem convincing, but what we see today is more hidden and unquestioned. In the tennis world, Roger Federer has made a total of $71 million while on the womens side, Maria Sharapova has made only $29 million. This shows that at the professional level, men make over two times as much as women do. At my high school, we have a large baseball field that is in the most perfect condition 24/7 year round. The grass is always cut and green, the walls are made of stone and the field

includes an indoor batting cage. It is maintained by our baseball coach almost daily and looks better than some of the larger stadiums you see on T.V. Meanwhile, the girls softball team has a small field up in the woods with a fence all around and two dugouts. This shows that there is still a lot of inequality in sports today whether it is at the professional level or at the local, high school level.