I have seen about five different articles about the Gap's recent acquirement. The company is buying Athleta, a women's sports apparel company that I have never heard of. Has anyone else heard of them?
Gap and Old Navy do have some sports-type clothes but Athleta is sport-specific. Haven't been able to figure out whether there will be Athleta stores like there are Banana Republics and Old Navys. But they allegedly carry cycling gear so that makes me happy.
Women's Sports Foundation just released a report authored by a University of Arizona professor that tracks the spending of athletic programs over ten years. Titled Who's Playing College Sports, John Cheslock, the study's author, reports many things, including that the increase in spending on women's sports has been less than that on men's sports. Not surprising but still disturbing when you consider that women's participation in the same time has increased by 20 percent whereas men's has only increased by 6 percent. Cheslock said that schools are trying to achieve Title IX compliance by increasing women's participation numbers and not decreasing men's opportunities. The College Sports Council who claims they did the same study last year--but with accuracy--has already spoken out against the findings basically calling them hogwash.
In some sad news from earlier in the week, sports journalist Mary Garber died. Garber covered sports during WWII when teh mens went off to war, was kicked out of her position (as so many women were) and forced to cover issues for the society page. But she soon got back to covering sports though she had a lot of issues to contend with among all her male peers (who did not always like having a female peer). She was known for her coverage of black athletes and teams at a time when they received very little attention from the white press.
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