Abstract

This chapter reflects on the coverage of women’s sport in the British media. It offers some personal experiences of reporting from sporting events, and the challenges—both practical and editorial—faced by the journalist. It draws on recent British media coverage of women’s sport, especially in mega-events including the 2012 Olympics, the Women’s Ashes and the Women’s Football World Cup, and the way that female athletes feel about that coverage, which remains minimal. This chapter also argues that the type of media coverage of women’s team sports—particularly those more usually associated with men—is important. It argues that British female athletes are presented as a very specific kind of celebrity or role model, with their accessibility and “girls next door” demeanours emphasized, indicating an appropriate, unthreatening level of femininity and heteronormativity in the “masculine” domain of elite sport.