Top 10 Moments in Women’s Sports 2022 | Sarah Boslaugh

Feb. 13: Erin Jackson wins gold in the women’s 500 meter speed skating race at the Beijing Olympics, becoming the first African American woman to medal in an individual event at the Winter Olympics.

March 30: 91,553 fans attend a Champions League quarterfinal match between Barcelona and Real Madrid, breaking the previous attendance record for a women’s football game of 90,185 at the 1999 Women’s World Cup Final in Pasadena.

April 1: The first American sports bar to focus on women’s sports, The Sports Bra, opens in Portland, Oregon.

May 18: The U.S. Soccer Federation and the men’s and women’s national teams sign an agreement guaranteeing equal pay and conditions to both teams, including equitable distribution of World Cup prize money.

June 9: The online publication Just Women’s Sports raises $6 million in new funding. The name says it all—at a time when mainstream outlets like espn.com devote in the neighborhood of 95% of their coverage to men’s sports, the need for women-specific publications is obvious.

June 23: Celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX, which barred sex discrimination in American schools, and led to the creation of women’s sports programs in high schools and universities across the nation.

July 7: Simone Biles and Megan Rapinoe receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for their social and political advocacy as well as their athletic achievements.

July 9: Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan defeats Ons Jabeur of Tunisia in the Wimbledon finals, making Rybakina the first Kazakhstani to win a major tennis title, and Jabeur the first Arab to reach a major final.

Oct. 1: The US women’s national basketball team claims the FIBA World Cup in Sydney, Australia, with a decisive 83-61 victory over China. This success is all the more remarkable since 5 of 12 team members also played in the WNBA finals, which concluded just 3 days before the FIBA tournament began.

Nov. 1: The U.S. team of Skye Blakely, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Shilese Jones and Leanne Wong wins the team title at the Gymnastics World championships; they would go on to pick up 6 more medals in the All-Around and Event Finals (out of 15 on offer). | Sarah Boslaugh

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