Session III English, Religious Studies, & Marketing Presentation 1: My Snails Got More Press Than Me’: Examining Gendered Press Conference Questions

Significant research over the past few decades has demonstrated the physical and emotional benefits to women and girls when they are involved in organized sports. Today nearly 50% of youth, high school, and collegiate athletes in the United States are women, but sports receive less than 4% of national news coverage, and when women’s sports are covered, their depictions are often minimized by sexist discourse. Media discourses often depict male athletes as superhuman competitors, doing battle with their opponents, and relegate female athletes to secondary status, emphasizing their lives outside of sport. This creates a chasm that negatively affects public perceptions of female athletes’ place in sport. My research analyzes six pre-meet press conferences from US Swimming National Championships in July 2018; this presentation focuses specifically on gendered discourse in questions posed to Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Simone Manuel