The Women’s National Basketball Association was founded 27 years ago. Since its inception, the WNBA has played the same game as the NBA with only slightly different rules: a slightly smaller basketball, shorter quarters, and a slightly closer three-point line. However, it has not seen the growth and support the NBA received 25 years into its founding. Studies have proven that the WNBA, and women's basketball in general, is undersold and undervalued. Not only this, but a growing body of research has shown that women in sport receive far more harassment than male athletes do. The studies all trace these discrepancies back to deep-rooted patriarchal and misogynistic ideas baked into society, and often seen most explicitly in sport. However, the patriarchy and misogyny that women basketball players receive is varied due to the complex intersection of gender, race, and sexuality. Therefore, previous studies on women’s basketball have examined only one or a few ways that players are hurt or hindered by patriarchy and misogyny. Patriarchy is a system of social structures and practices, in which men govern, oppress, and exploit women. Misogyny is defined as hatred towards women. This paper instead synthesizes previous studies, research, and experiences by women’s basketball players to give an overview of the complex web of prejudice and sexism women basketball players face. For instance, this paper pulls from a study on football fandom in the United Kingdom as well the Kaplan Hecker and Fink Gender Equity Review in order to highlight how abundant misogynistic tropes are across all sports. However, this paper will not give a detailed and comprehensive view into every aspect of this web. Instead, it will provide a general overview of how societal norms, rooted in patriarchy and misogyny, influence people’s views and treatment of women in sport. Specifically, the paper will pull from previous studies and articles to detail how women basketball player’s media coverage, salaries, physical health, mental well-being, race, sexuality, and participation in sports are all interconnected and harmed by oppressive gender norms that are reinforced by society. The sweeping effect has been to stifle and stymy the potential growth and embrace of women's sports.

Soccer is bar none, the most popular sport in the entire world. It is played, followed, and loved by virtually every single country on Earth. Despite this massive support for the sport which houses some of the world’s biggest names in the world, its shortcomings when dealing with issues of racial injustice and incidents of racist behavior have become more pronounced in recent years. Although this open discussion regarding racism within the sport has recently begun to sprout, its roots can be tied back to decades ago while continuing to the present day, with players, referees, coaches, fans, commentators, and more all involved on both sides of the issue. <br/> We found this topic to be most prevalent in today’s society after witnessing multiple shameful racist incidents that have occurred to some of the world’s biggest players throughout European football in 2019, as well as the recent ongoing fight for racial reform and increased awareness regarding racial injustice in the United States. By doing comprehensive research and<br/>analysis on such incidents that have occurred throughout the years we hope to raise more<br/>awareness regarding this subject that has plagued the beautiful game. In addition, we hope to<br/>offer ways to remedy the problem one step at a time, all while answering the tough, but necessary questions regarding what specifically should be done in the sport, that others have been afraid to talk about for far too long. Specifically, we wanted to mainly highlight the experience of black players, with a further discussion on other minority groups, in English and Italian football as these two leagues have been a part of the largest debate between how club traditions, player-fan interactions, league policies, and staff management have all affected the way we view the game as the endemic of racism within the sport is exacerbated.

Soccer is bar none, the most popular sport in the entire world. It is played, followed, and loved by virtually every single country on Earth. Despite this massive support for the sport which houses some of the world’s biggest names in the world, its shortcomings when dealing with issues of racial injustice and incidents of racist behavior have become more pronounced in recent years. Although this open discussion regarding racism within the sport has recently begun to sprout, its roots can be tied back to decades ago while continuing to the present day, with players, referees, coaches, fans, commentators, and more all involved on both sides of the issue. <br/> We found this topic to be most prevalent in today’s society after witnessing multiple shameful racist incidents that have occurred to some of the world’s biggest players throughout European football in 2019, as well as the recent ongoing fight for racial reform and increased awareness regarding racial injustice in the United States. By doing comprehensive research and analysis on such incidents that have occurred throughout the years we hope to raise more awareness regarding this subject that has plagued the beautiful game. In addition, we hope to offer ways to remedy the problem one step at a time, all while answering the tough, but necessary questions regarding what specifically should be done in the sport, that others have been afraid to talk about for far too long. Specifically, we wanted to mainly highlight the experience of black players, with a further discussion on other minority groups, in English and Italian football as these two leagues have been a part of the largest debate between how club traditions, player-fan interactions, league policies, and staff management have all affected the way we view the game as the endemic of racism within the sport is exacerbated.

The 1980 Winter Olympic semi-final hockey game between the United States and Soviet Union changed the history of sporting events. The outcome took everyone by surprise, and it reinvigorated patriotism in the United States. It was and forever will be known as a miracle. The hockey game has only grown in popularity due to movies, books, and articles reminiscing on one of the greatest sports upsets in history. The United States-Russia rivalry has been a strong one since the very beginning of sports. The United States has always tried to keep up with the Russian talent, but in 1980 they took the Soviets by surprise, at height of the cold war. Not only were they rivals in sports, but enemies at a profound political level. Over the years, the tensions between the two countries have diminished, but recently they have increased again. Although these tensions continue to rise, these countries are able to battle for the top seed through sports. This has been shown throughout the years with one of the main competitions being the 1980 Winter Olympics semi-final hockey game.