Since the day I decided to launch this site I’ve always had in mind that I wanted it to be around the beginning of a new year, a time for fresh starts, new challenges and new interests’. My hope is that it will help women access some understanding and (hopefully) a little love for sport.
However, I had no idea it would coincide with the biggest ‘sexism in sport saga’ of recent times… Perfect timing some might say!!
So, after growing up in a sporting active family with a genuine love for sport, it was inevitable I’d continue this love into my adult life in some form or another. So here we are!
Now, we are all guilty of judging a book by its cover at times, I’ll hold my hand up to that one. However it’s not a myth that girly feminine females do in fact know a thing or two about sports, we do! Our own Karen Brady will be sure to set anyone straight on that score, rewind a week or so to the Andy Gray and Richard Keys saga. Trust me, there are many of us out there, sitting on the edge of our seats whilst we watch the Olympic 100m final or covering our eyes in the hope that it’ll make a difference to the penalty shoot out we’ve just witnessed our team crash out of. We do exist, and the idea behind this website is to boost that existence.
Take a glorious Sunday afternoon, my two gorgeous girlfriends and I are relaxing in the park having just spent over an hour having our nails done, chatting, laughing and enjoying the sunshine when to my horror I realised that if I didn’t rush home now I’d miss the start of the first NFL game of the 2010 season! Yep Dallas Cowboys vs Washington Redskins. You can imagine the look on their confused faces, nails, sunshine & girltime one minute and NFL the next.
Every Sunday from then on became NFL Sunday, for me anyway. It became a highlight of my week, even though I knew I’d be up until 1am to keep track with the U.S coverage. Coffee breaks after every quarter soon became the norm!
I’m often asked by my girlfriends why I enjoy watching sports, why I give it so much thought and time, why don’t I find it ‘boring’. My answer would often be to ask why they didn’t enjoy watching sport and why did they find it boring!
Their answers were conclusive. Sport wasn’t enjoyed by them because they didn’t fully understand it. This lack of understanding stems not only from the terminology used by commentators and pundits but also the fact that much of the sports information portals around were deemed as too ‘male orientated’… Not as easy on the eye (or ears) as they’d hoped.
It was after hearing and discussing all this with my girlfriends that the idea of creating a ‘female friendly’ sports information site came about. I wanted my girlfriends to enjoy sport the way I did, maybe not to become regular avid sports fans but to open up to the notion that sport wasn’t just for boys or female athletes! I wanted to create a space where, at a click of a finger females that weren’t necessarily ‘sports-wise’ could learn the basics of a sport alongside the meanings of phrases or terms used in association with it, in a fashion that was true to them and written for them!
So, here goes.. It’s time to get those L plates out, stock up on your coffee and diet coke, which of course are a must have for all the half time breaks you’ll need! Girls Sport Talk is here to help you understand sport and ask those questions you’ve never felt able to ask before…
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