How you tell a story matters
Just because we have a blueprint for doing things one way doesn't mean that we always have to do things the same way
A couple of weeks ago, Naomi Osaka shared a series of photos on Instagram. The first shows Osaka in profile standing in front of a mirror. She’s wearing a sports bra and taking a photo of her stomach while pregnant. It’s followed by five other photos, all in the same pose, all taken in the past year. A collage documenting how her body has changed after giving birth.
It wasn’t the “body transformation” that struck me about her post. It was the words she wrote in her caption. That she felt ashamed of her body. That she struggled with the urge to “snapback” to form and expected it would be “easy” because she’s an athlete. And that ultimately, she’s able to show compassion—to herself, her body.
It’s powerful storytelling. And yet, one of my first thoughts was: She wouldn’t be able to tell this story in the same way in a traditional media outlet.
While I wholeheartedly believe in the importance of sports journalism and traditional media, I do have a hard time believing that a mainstream publication would run a story about Osaka like this because it doesn’t fit into the conventional format of box scores and game recaps or athlete profiles that we’re used to seeing. Also because so many publications that would commission stories that were a little different and a little quirky have been shuttered. This story might be relegated to a health and wellness section but at its heart, it’s a sport story and has so much to say about what it means to be a woman and an athlete today.
Which is why last month’s announcement that Allyson Felix is launching the women’s sports management firm Always Alpha is a big deal. Felix, the most decorated track and field athlete in history, and her brother Wes built her career piece by piece within a sports world and talent management model that was transactional, a one-size-fits-all blueprint centered on men and men’s sports.
Now, she’s taking all those lessons to provide advice and guidance to the next generation of women athletes so they don’t have to figure it all out by themselves. And not just guidance for their career as competitive athletes but for their long-term career, after they’ve hung up their jersey or singlet. It’s what she wished existed when she was an athlete.
Felix’s business partner Cosette Chaput told Variety that, “These traditional frameworks, tied to contracts and templated endorsements, fail to recognize the unique strengths and potential of female athletes, coaches and broadcasters.” It’s not built to accommodate the multifaceted identity and talent of women athletes.
Felix told CBS that she wants women athletes to know: “We see you in your unique passion and we want to help you do things differently.”
And in doing so, not only can Always Alpha help bring more brands and opportunities to the table, but they can tell help athletes, coaches and broadcasters tell better stories too.
It echoes what I heard from athletes at the Athlos track meet in September. Alaysha Johnson told me, “It was really being able to speak for myself, speak up for myself, build that connection with [Athlos] and show them who I am as a person. That’s been the most fun part because I haven’t been able to do that in other realms because of how sport it.” A little later, after she talked about the unique collaborations she was able to take part in because of the unique format of the event, she said, “I think that this was the way it was always meant to be for me. I have bigger goals outside of track and field. This is just a stepping stone for me.”
And it’s a smart move too. Wasserman recently released a report on female sports fans and found that female sports fans are a powerful and growing market — 684 million fans out of their approximate 1 billion sample across 30 countries, an increase of 10% over the past three years. And, unsurprisingly, these fans care about more than just what happens on the field. They care about the whole athlete and how sport connects to culture and society.
It feels like elevating women and gender-marginalized voices is even more important now. While I know that sports isn’t going to solve the larger issues that we face as a culture and society, it’s a microcosm of our society.
Kate Manne recently wrote in her newsletter last week:
“Misogyny isn’t about hating or discriminating against women because they are women and thus attract suspicion and consternation. Misogyny is about exposing women to harm because our gender makes us beneath full consideration.”
When you think about whom women are beneath the full consideration, it’s directly related to the stories and narratives that dominate the media and the cultural conversation and who controls those narratives.
When it comes to sports, stories by and about men dominate. And when it comes to women’s sports, “It’s just been negative storytelling and it’s been told by men, generally,” Megan Rapinoe said recently. “The groundwater has been basically poisoned, essentially, and we’re told they’re not good or it’s not fun, or it’s not entertaining, or they’re all gay and that’s a bad thing.”
That framing matters. Not only does it give rise to trite arguments that the women’s game is boring or challenges like Sabrina vs. Steph, which Frankie de la Cretaz points out is a losing proposition because it perpetuates the idea that the only way that women athletes can prove themselves is if they compete against and beat the men. It’s also the breeding ground that allows misinformation about trans athletes in sports to take root.
It also gives rise to double-standards in coverage like we saw with the Chicago Marathon when Ruth Chepngetich won and set a new world record of 2:09:56, besting the previous record of 2:11:53 set by Tigst Assefa to become the first woman to dip under 2:10, a tremendous accomplishment.
Look, I know that there are many reasons to be skeptical of Chepngetich’s performance, especially given that her agent is Federico Rosa and several of his athletes have been found guilty of using performance enhancing drugs, but the post-race coverage and social media posts called into question the legitimacy of Chepngetich’s performance. It’s gotta be too good to be true.
Olympian Kara Goucher pointed out that when men break athletic barriers, it’s lauded and yet when women do something equivalent, it’s met with negativity.
“There have been plenty of male performance that were otherworldly and I feel like the narrative is that that’s groundbreaking and I don’t feel like women are given the same grace,” Goucher said.
And, if we’re being honest, maybe it’s also a little uncomfortable because sub-2:10 is closing the performance gap between men and women.
The accomplishments of women athletes can be appreciated without comparing them to men or their career trajectory and without conforming to the traditional media narrative. Just because that blueprint exists for men’s sports and has worked out for them doesn’t mean that women are obliged to stick to the same script in order to be successful.
And we’re starting to get good, rich storytelling in women’s sports with Togethxr, re-inc, with the incredible writers here on Substack covering women’s sports like Alison, Frankie, Lindsay, and others. I hope that adding Always Alpha to the mix and helping women athletes have more control over their careers and the ability to own their stories will only move us further forward.
Because those stories? The ones that show us in all of our humanness — our complicated and messy and different humanness — are the ones that we need to keep telling and sharing.
As we move into a period of transition that honestly feels scary, I’m going to keep these words from Lyz Lenz close to heart:
“Find the stories and the storytellers you want to support. Find the places making the art that you love and that crystallize a vision for a better place. Be rabid about the world you want and help to make it...we should all subscribe to and share the fuck out of the things we love and want to see more of in the world.”
In that spirit, I’d love to hear about writers, articles, newsletters, poems, really art of any kind that you’re finding comfort in right now. Leave me a note in the comments?
Thanks for being here. More soon.
Christine
Any of the episodes of Women's Running Stories podcast and really sappy 1980's pop music is about all I can stomach right now. Thank you for this insightful piece, Christine!
Anne Helen Peterson is my go-to.