Getting beyond implicit bias in sports coverage

Sports Odds and Ends

Studies over the years have shown that female athletes are much less frequently represented in sports media than are men, and if they are non-White they are portrayed in ways mainly based on misconceptions by those who are reporting on them.

Resa Lovelace, assistant athletic director for student-athlete development at the University of Maryland, has been on the front line fighting these misconceptions for years. She first joined the school in 2018, and recently was given a new title—associate AD for student-athlete development and inclusive excellence. 

Before coming to Maryland, Lovelace also worked at Oregon and at George Mason in similar student-athlete affairs development roles.

Black female athletes’ authenticity is a challenge for sports media, stated Lovelace. “I’ll use the WNBA for an example. When you look at the women that they promote, it is typically the White female athletes… [Yet] a good majority of the great basketball players in the league right now are Black.”

For example, New York guard Sabrina Ionescu, who seemingly gets more media play than Las Vegas’ A’Ja Wilson, even though the latter has experienced more success as a pro than the former (see chart).

“I worked at Oregon when Sabrina was there. And yes, she is a phenomenal athlete,” continued Lovelace. “I recognize that we are in a very politicized world right now as it comes to LGBTQ. They [the WNBA] have some of our most overtly LGBTQ Black athletes.”

“We all show up with implicit bias, and I recognize that,” noted the Maryland athletic administrator. “I do think that there is this natural inclination in our media to only discuss and talk about female athletes if they are presenting in a feminine way. I would say a lot of our female athletes are trying to present [themselves] as feminine.”

Lovelace, a College Park, Maryland native, earned her B.A. in sports management from Hampton University, where she also competed in college bowling. She also has a master’s in education and sports management from Old Dominion.  

“I remember what it was like being a student-athlete just trying to balance athletics and academics,” recalled Lovelace. “Now I’m being asked as an administrator to help these students also think about career and leadership, and the holistic well-being of who they are. I really appreciate taking that role, because that’s where I found my passion of intersecting the career, the academic and athletic pieces.

“I am an openly gay person in this industry,” said Lovelace. “I think that unlocked a lot of doors for me to think about how people of color—Black and White, Asian, Hispanic— are perceived in these spaces. How are LGBTQ individuals being perceived? And what are the steps that we need to be taking to just have the conversation, not just from how people show up in the workplace, but how we’re recruiting people to come work in these workplaces?”

Asked how it is now with transgender individuals, Lovelace responded, “I don’t know that anybody has the right answer. We do need to recognize that transgender athletes exist… Our political system is having this freakout moment.

“I’ve had conversations with some of my colleagues about banning transgender athletes. Who’s next? Because there’s always a next group,” stated Lovelace.

“ At the end of the day, I want people to recognize that people just want to live their best life,” she said. “I think that when we can appreciate the individual, the human for who they are, and also see them for all they are and all that they bring to the table, that can allow us to put away some of our biases. I just feel like we don’t operate in a common sense world anymore.”