Female Athletes Make Their Own Olympic Success: Not Their Husbands, Fathers, or Coaches

Unlike in today's Olympic games, wherein women are allowed to compete, back in the olden times only men were allowed to participate. You would think that after years and years of women being allowed to join in, people would let go of their misogynistic views and actually give these female athletes the credit they deserve. However, it appears as though some people still attribute the success of female Olympians to the men in their respective lives.

This was the issue duly pointed out in an article by the Huffington Post. The piece written by Emma Gray was quick to point out that there are still those who describe female achievements and their extraordinary feats in the Games as a direct result of their fathers, husbands, or even their male cultures. Luckily, in spite of this biased view, there are still people pointing out the that these women, with a little bit of help from the men and women around them, made their own success in their respective events.

What's sad is that even major news and media outlets still relate the success of females to the men in their lives. A prime example of these in the Rio 2016 Games is what happened with Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu. Hosszu won the gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley and subsequently broke the record. However, during NBC's broadcast of the Olympics, the camera pans over to her husband/coach and dubbed him the man responsible for her success.

Another example of this is when Crey Cogdell, a three-time Olympian in trapshooting, won her second bronze medal. The Chicago Tribune did not even use her name in a tweet celebrating her achievement to their 660,000 followers. Rather they focused on the fact that she is the wife of Chicago Bears' linesman Mitch Unrein. How sad indeed.