Eimear Ryan: Female pioneers crafted their own 2020 sporting narratives
In a year when Naomi Osaka became the highest paid sportswoman in the world, she will be better remembered for the awareness she generated for Black Lives Matter by wearing seven different masks bearing the names of seven black victims of police brutality throughout her victorious US Open campaign. Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Then we came to the end. While the damp squib that was 2020 created challenges and setbacks for sport across the spectrum, it felt especially unfortunate in the case of women’s team sports, which have been making significant ground in recent years.
The excellent 20x20 campaign, which began two years ago with the aim of increasing participation in and visibility of women’s sports by 20% by the end of 2020, had its data skewed more than a little by the tumbleweeds drifting across stadiums for the better part of the season.
